Grand Foreigner
by Russian Reversal
Summary: Ainz in the FGO! Will it be a challenge for him? (Spoiler: No). No roflstomp, no hate, no bashing. Just the pure Ainz magnificence in play. It's actually a FGO-fic, but since there are plenty of FGO-fics in the Fate-general category - it was made like this.
1. Chapter 1

"Ankoro Mocchi Mochi"a lich lifted a finger "Shijuuten Suzaku... Tabula Smaragdina... Peroroncino…"

Glancing at the hanging flags Momonga only sighed and closed his eyes.

Of course, given that displaying such emotions was impossible in the game — the legacy of the law limiting the realism of virtual reality — all that a person could do was to cover his eyes under his virtual helmet, feeling the wire from the plug uncomfortably crashing into his spine.

The existence of Satoru Suzuki was one worthy of pity.

Day by day, as a wordless slave of the future that became, as a small cog in the debugged mechanism of a huge mega-corporation which crushed all Japanese arcologies under itself. Living in a hopeless darkness of the future after the third world war. A man who has never seen the beauty of the night sky.

In his life, he had only one consolation - his radiant beauty, the DMMO-RPG "YGGDRASIL" and - his family that existed only inside this game. For twelve years he escaped from his gray, boring, mad world in order to plunge into the game, become a powerful black magician -a great lord of the undead, meet with forty of his friends, immerse himself in merry reckless adventures...

And now it's the end. Yggdrasil came to an end, as each beautiful story must.

What will happen next? How would he live without his Yggdrasil? Where else will he meet his family?

Satoru closed his eyes in pain. Not a physical one, but from something that is even more powerful and terrible.

The clocks were counting down the last seconds.

Fifty seven. Fifty eight. Fifty nine.

Well, that's all.

* * *

00:00

"S... Sen... Senp...ai" came a voice, as distorted and incomprehensible as if it was sounding from a distance "Senpai, wake up!"

"Ah..." he slowly opened his eyes to look at the source of the voice "A?"

"Senpai, what are you doing here?" the voice reaching him distorted, twisting and turning into an unperceivable white noise "Senpai, get up!"

Slowly looking at the girl who was trying to shout to him, Momonga blinked several times, then again and again, before...

His brain exploded with an understanding, unfamiliar terms burst into his brain with a hurricane of blades cutting in his subcortex. Servants, the Clock Tower, the call, the absorption of the soul, the body...

Apparently, his body, his mind, his abilities - he, the Momonga, the highest of all the undead, an Overlord, was embodied as one of these Servants and re-created in this world. However, for some unknown reason, he was recreated in this world. But not as a separate being - instead he took the body of an unknown mage and, unfortunately, the mage could not withstand such a clash of souls.

For a second, Momonga wanted to shout, but the understanding that such behavior would definitely not be seen as something positive made him instinctively reach for his existence as a Servant instead. After which this reflex action made him suddenly feel as if something had filled him with coldness, allowing his mind to take control of his body.

Having realized, however, a moment later, that he was still lying on the ground, Momonga leaned on one arm, after which he slowly stood up, trying to look around as discreetly as possible to determine exactly where he was at the moment.

Unfortunately, the memories of the previous owner of the body was not absorbed. Instead, the mind and soul of the man, that previously inhabited this body, was simply destroyed by the creature called Momonga. So, unfortunately, no part of his memory could answer the most important questions at the moment.

For example, the question of where he was now, why he was here, and whom he had the honor to meet.

Trying to glance at the girl in front of him, all that Momonga could notice was that the girl in front of him was... Beautiful. Yes, she appeared slightly sloppy, without frills, wearing a slightly baggy T-shirt and a blouse hiding her figure, however, there was something really attractive in her purple eyes, square glasses and timid insecurity. In general, only one thing prevented him from calling her the most beautiful girl in his life.

He was twice her age.

And if you add on the age of the new body to the age of his past body - then at least thrice.

He wasn't going to start such things with a minor.

"Senpai, are you ok?" the girl examined him from all sides, worryingly looking at Momonga, after which, having received a return nod, she sighed "Well."

"Senpai, first of all..." she finally took a step back from him, the girl allowed him to inhale with a full chest, after which, pointing to herself, she slightly bowed "Mashu Kyrielight".

"Momo ... n" Satoru had never had to communicate with anyone out of the game for more than ten seconds in his whole life, so his first and only reflex reaction was to answer with his nickname from the game - however, an instant understanding that few would agree to believe that his name really was "Flying Squirrel" forced him to cut himself short "Just Momon."

"Well, senpai," smiling at him, the girl looked at him uneasily again "But still... Why did you sleep in the middle of the corridor?"

Instantly looking around to determine the truthfulness of the words of his new acquaintance, Momonga was forced to admit that at the moment he was indeed in the middle of a corridor - a long corridor, as in one of the numerous transitions between the arcologies of the past world of his, but much lighter and cleaner.

"I..." the correct answer was 'because I was just transferred in this body and devoured the soul of my predecessor', but, according to a very obvious conclusion, a true answer is not always the right one. "I'm just suffering from exhaustion."

"Senpai?" - it was not the best option, but Momonga didn't come with anything better in that second - "Senpai, you shouldn't drive yourself so hard."

"Yes, I understand" having regained his senses, Momonga for a second felt an unpleasant sensation in his mouth, which came along with the memory of HeroHero, who was really suffering from exhaustion due to overwork. Indeed, in the real world, his friend was working somewhere far away now, dying from rough treatment in his black company, while he was just hiding behind these words.

On the other hand, what choice did he have? Either he uses lies or he will be caught as an invader who has killed and devoured someone else's soul.

'Stop!' Something in his head made him pay attention to the contradiction. Of course, the fact that he was falsely covering up the truth using the things from which his friend HeroHero really suffered from was disgusting in itself. But at the same time the understanding that he had just killed a living person and destroyed his soul, the very essence of his existence, meant nothing to him.

Instinctive knowledge again told him that the fault for this was in his personal skills as a Servant, and that he had only to wish for his emotions to come back to plunge into the hysterical laughing and regretting. But right now there were quite a few problems that came first. Therefore, all that was available for him at the moment was to accept the strangeness of his current state as a given and turn to the girl that he met with the question of 'where exactly I'm now'. However, he did not have time to do it.

A rapid movement in the distance of the corridor attracted the attention of the one now named 'Momon'. A small creature, looking like a small hybrid between a mouse and a fox, appeared as if from nowhere and made a big leap to Mashu, landing on the girl's shoulder, making her smile and a little bit embarrassed. But nonetheless the girl reached out to rub the neck of the creature.

"Sorry, senpai" turning to Momon, the girl pointed to the creature with her chin, slightly embarrassed, "This is Fou, a local resident. Actually it's pretty rare for someone to see him. So I think Fou thinks of you as a good person."

As if to confirm this, Fou pulled his little head forward and sniffed several times. However, in contradiction to these words, immediately after this - the creature that had so comfortably rested on the girl's shoulders jumped instantly - and in one continuous movement rushed to a corner, with such speed that Mashu had to recoil from the force. In one motion, the creature disappeared around the corner, leaving the girl to look surprised at the escaped Fou.

"Oh... He often does this" the girl tried to console Momon, but he was perfectly aware that she was doing a bad job "He doesn't show himself much to anyone, so you've already done more than most other people!"

"Uh-huh" Momon muttered, not impressed by this conclusion, then glanced at the direction the creature ran. No, he never kept any pets at home, but reacting to him so much... It was quite a sad thing for Momon.

"What are you doing here?" a voice from the other end of the corridor made Momon and Mashu turn to look at the approaching one.

It was a man and a pretty tall one, middle-aged - however, the thing that made Momon frown was his pompous clothes.

'How do they even trust you to do anything here, if you are wearing a fur coat at the job?!' - The indignation of his corporate employee soul knew no bounds. Who does this guy even think he is - how can he even expect a serious attitude towards him, while he is wearing such an atrocious thing?!

"Ah, Mashu" the man approaching Momon only now noticed the girl and waved a hand , after which he turned his attention to the new face "And...".

"Momon" muttered Satoru, trying not to look at the new guy with a distaste in his eyes for his taste in clothes.

"Ah, Momon" having heard the name, the man broke into a smile. "My name is Lev Lainur. I suppose you are the last of the forty-eight candidates. In that case, congratulations on getting to Chaldea!"

Unfortunately neither the mention of Chaldea or the forty-eight candidates made Momon recall anything from his memories. Except that the forty-eight were the largest number of participants for a raid on NPC-bosses, such as World-Level Enemies, although even in such a case the result was not guaranteed.

"I see that you were the last one to be recruited" while smiling a good-natured smile, Lev put his hand behind his head "Did you train a long time for this? One Year? Two? Half a year?"

"Not so much…" Not knowing how to answer, Momon tried to answer vaguely. "I did not train that long for this…"

"Oh, yes, exactly" as if remembering something, Lev realized himself "I remember, it seems there was one free place where anyone could get..."

'Hey, when you phrase it like that it's like I'm incapable of anything and only got here because of a miracle!' although, technically speaking, this all concerned only the previous owner of the body, for Momonga it still sounded excessively close to the truth and therefore doubly insulting - so this line of thought was born.

"In any case, I'm Lev Lainur a local technician and scientist. If you need anything please contact me anytime" The man smiled once again affably to Mashu and Momon.

"Of course, professor" Mashu also smiled at him in response, but Momon himself waited a second before doing it. Something in the smile of the 'local technician' gave him no peace. It's as if the man before him was like one of those business partners who were always smiling at the negotiations and who would also rewrite the contract every time you turn away and then scream in rage when you point out that they changed the conditions without anyone noticing.

"By the way, it's unusual to see you with someone" The man looked interestedly at Mashu "Acquaintances from the past?"

"No, I just met senpai sleeping on the floor in the middle of the corridor." Mashu suddenly realized that perhaps she should not have said this, but it was already too late.

"That's why?" Lev glanced worriedly at Momon "Perhaps, then it is worth sending you to the medical room for a check-up?"

"No thanks, nothing terrible happened." Feeling that the faster people would forget about his strange recent behavior, the better it would be for him, Momon tried to dismiss this thought.

"If you say so" Lev shrugged, and then as if he realized something, sayed in a concerned way. "By the way, aren't you late for a briefing from the chief?"

"Briefing from the chief?" Momon was interested in what was said, but realizing that, most likely, he should have known about this event, he nevertheless tried to follow the topic "Indeed, we should hurry up."

"Professor" after that, Mashu glanced at the technician with interest "Do you think... I will be allowed to come to the briefing?"

"I think if you get up quietly in the corner, then no one will even notice your presence" the professor's answer was quite complacent.

"Thank you, Professor" Mashu bowed back to the man, after which she glanced at Momon "Then, I think both of us should hurry."

"I hope you will not mind us then" Momon tried to smile "You know, I am so poorly oriented in this place, so please, Mashu..."

"Well, then do not lag behind" smiling at Satoru, Mashu moved forward from Lev and Satoru "Senpai."

* * *

The briefing was short but very informative.

Going out of the office door at the same time with the slowly creeping crowds of other people elected to the honorable mission together with the previous owner of this body, so-called mages, Momonga could not do anything but put his head next to the cold wall and silently try to comprehend what had happened.

To be called to another world, in the body of your game avatar, to destroy the soul and occupy the body of the poor mage, after which to get all the knowledge about the local world order was insane indeed.

But to find out that now you have to go back in time to prevent the destruction of humanity? This was something even more insane.

Of course, it would be foolish to say that a man like Momonga never wanted to become a hero of his own story. To save beautiful ladies and humanity itself - it has a nice ring indeed. But when your childhood dreams begin to come true in such a strange way you begin to understand that these dreams were not as great as they seemed.

However, there was no panic and no horror - and the blame was put on his working skill, which suppressed emotions. If it were not for that, then most likely Momon would now be rolling on the floor and shouting helplessly, not having any idea what he should do.

But, having suppressed the strong emotions that were distracting him, Momonga could look at the situation with a clear view and think about what was happening.

In the body of his game avatar, he was strong, in Yggdrasil, he was at the maximum level and had good characteristics and equipment, but he knew nothing about his level in this world. Yes, even if he knew - so what? Dedicate all his life to eliminating problems in the space-time continuum...

Perhaps, if in his shoes were someone like Touch Me - he would not have thought a split second before rushing to help the world without hesitation, but Momonga was not like that.

Or so he thought?

Of course, he owed Touch Me for his salvation, but he only saved his game avatar in an unpleasant situation once... But at the same time, if not for his salvation then, he would not have found his family, nor would he be in this current situation...

Raising his head, Momonga again leaned it against the wall.

"Senpai!" - however, Mashu, who appeared behind him made him distracted from his thoughts. "Senpai... Are you upset?"

Strictly speaking, no, he was not upset, he was just thinking about his life choices, but in order not to explain anything to the girl, he gestured vaguely in the air.

"I understand" Taking his answer as a positive, the girl bowed her head. "It's probably hard, not knowing where you are going and what you need to do - also it sounds like it has already happened and you can't do anything, but just follow the inevitable future..."

"Sure?" having nothing on his mind, Momon uttered thoughtfully and looked at the girl.

"Oh, sorry, my bad!" - immediately she tried to change the topic uncertainly - "In any case, you are in group D, so, for now, I should show you your room…"

"Probably," said Momonga uncertainly as an answer, moving away from the wall, and then he looked at the girl "Lead then."

The journey to the room was short but very uncomfortable. As if Mashu did not know how to begin the conversation, while Momon continued to reflect on his life choices. He could easily leave Chaldea, he was not frightened by the miles of hostile environment and lack of food. He did not even need them actually. But the thought of what he would do in life then and what other people would do did not give him even the opportunity to rest his mind.

"Mashu" however, nevertheless, without reaching a definite conclusion, Momonga realized that it would be impossible to choose any answer so easily so he turned to his attendant. "Tell me if you would ... No, forget, this is stupid."

'What was I just thinking about! To embroil a child in such matters!' Momonga wanted to hit himself in the head.

"Senpai?" the girl turned to him, but Momon just shook his head, as if saying "Nothing, everything is in order."

They both reached Momon's room in silence, feeling how an uncomfortable situation settled between them. Only when reaching the door, Mashu gave her voice.

"We got here, senpai" stopping next to the room, the girl turned to the man and smiled at him.

"Thank you, Mashu" sighed Momon and took a step past her.

The girl only spared him a worried look, after which she left the moment when the iron automatic door closed behind Momon completely.

However, the thought of being alone with his thoughts did not become a reality for Momonga.

"Good morning!" once inside, Momon almost immediately ran nose-to-nose with a man sitting on Momon's bed.

Surprised and intrigued, Momonga looked at him, but he did appear particularly normal. At least for this world. In the original world of Momon, a blue-eyed blond man with long hair tied in a ponytail would have been considered at least handsome, while here he was no more than an ordinary guy dressed in a white medical coat.

"You..." The Momon began the sentence but didn't finish it.

"Romani Akkiman!" However, the man hurried to finish the thought himself. "A modest doctor at your service."

The room in which Momonga found himself in did not look like a medical office and it was unlikely that for some reason Mashu unexpectedly escorted Momonga to the doctor. Rather the room looked like a normal bedroom with a small bed, which at the moment was occupied by the guy, a wardrobe, a desk and a small monitor hanging quietly on the wall.

"And what is a doctor doing in my room?" - sighing, Momonga took a step then pulled out a chair from the desk and sat so that he could look into the eyes of the doctor.

"I am always where I should be." the man instantly broke into a smile but Momon was familiar with this smile, a smile that said 'don't give me away to the boss'.

"And also where there is no work." sighing, Momonga put his head in his hands.

"Hah," the guy smiled awkwardly. "Well, that too."

There was silence for a couple of seconds before Momonga understood and accepted that Romani was clearly not planning to leave at the moment.

"So you are the doctor?" Sighing Momon looked the man in the eyes.

"That's right, chief!" Jokingly saluting, the doctor grinned. "The real doctor Roman at your service!"

"That's good I suppose" Sighing, Momonga looked away from the man again.

"Hey..." noticing, however, the melancholic mood of Momon, Romani looked thoughtfully at him "Are you alright?"

"Physically yes." Momon's answer was instant. "But... No, nothing. I beg your pardon."

The man in front of him, of course, looked much older than Mashu. But how old was he really? Twenty five? So he was younger than Momonga himself by ten years. Surely he didn't need Momon's own problems.

"You look like you are definitely not alright" looking at Momonga from the side, however, Romani answered that with all honesty "But don't be afraid, Dr. Roman can help you with anything you need!"

"Perhaps" Momonga answered evasively after which with a sigh he looked from Roman to the wall "But sometimes you need to handle things yourself."

"That's right too" the guy didn't argue "However, even if you cannot reveal all the details to me, Dr. Roman can always see what can be done about any issues you may have."

Looking at him again Momonga just looked away.

"It's just about an old debt," Momon said reluctantly "One I owe to a friend of mine - from a long time ago... And now I found out that I can repay this debt. But in such a multiple amounts, and using such a way that the person I owe the debt will never know about it. But should I return it in that case?"

"Sounds like a problem" with his arms folded over his head, Roman lay down on the bed "Tell me then, this debt... is it big?"

Lost in thought, Momonga nodded. Touch Me didn't just save him then, he led him to Nines Own Goal, the first version of their guild, where he met his first friends...

"This man, the debt to which you want to return..." At this moment, Roman thoughtfully turned his eyes over to the walls before looking at Momonga "Do you really want to return this debt?"

Touch Me was his friend, family even. Like an older brother, if you could say that.

Momon nodded slowly.

"Well, in that case…" Roman thoughtfully looked at the silent man in front of him. "I am not sure what to do."

For a couple of seconds, Momon interpreted what was said before looking frowningly at Romani, as if expecting him to say something like 'sorry, stupid joke'.

"What?" however, the doctor only fidgeted on the bed. "I have no idea what you should do. I'm just a doctor, I didn't study as a psychiatrist. And even if I studied, it seems to me that it is your choice whether you should return such debt or not. The only thing I could offer to you was to voice out loud the important points on your mind and think about them. And then only you can decide what you need to do."

After these words, Romani smiled and shrugged.

Momon just sat back in his chair, even more conflicted inside than before.

However, he was led out of his thoughts by the door to his room, which opened, revealing a man in extravagant attire.

"Romani? So here you are!" Looking into the room, Lev frowned at the doctor inside. "What are you doing here? Reyshifting is about to begin soon, shouldn't you be present? Team A seems to be doing well, but Team B is all on the nerves. Can you give them some sedatives?"

"Mmmmm, maybe." Sighing, Romani rose from his seat and then stretched.

"Hurry up, Romani" sighing, Lev left the room.

"I don't like him" waiting for the door to close behind the man, Momon said out loud. "He seems to be smiling, but it's restless inside me every time I see him."

"What are you talking about?" Looking at him interestedly, Romani bowed his head.

"About the professor" Sighing, Momonga laid his head on his hands "I don't know why, but when I look at him I remember the type of employer who delays wages while also saying that we are all part of a team that does not abandon each other when in trouble."

"Lev is not like that" but, dismissing his thoughts, Romani objected "He is a famous scientist and professor, one of the creators of S.H.E.B.A., a telescope that allows you to look into the future!"

"And yet, there is something about him..." Momon shook his head. At this time, the reason for these feelings were not his personality as a Servant, but the inner personal sensations and knowledge gathered from his experience, as a person, and as a simple office worker.

"Maybe you just need to talk to him to get to know him more." Romani shrugged. "Sometimes you just need to get to know a person a little better to become friends with him."

"Perhaps" with a sigh, Momonga, however, did not agree unequivocally with the doctor's statement.

"Anyway, I think..." the doctor's thought was suddenly interrupted by a darkened room. Momonga, due to his state as a Servant and being an undead, had absolute vision in darkness, therefore, he did not even feel the change in the situation for the few seconds, while for Roman himself, the world suddenly changed so radically that he could not continue to speak "What the heck?"

Almost immediately the dark room was lit up with the red light of the emergency lamps, and at the same instant a voice rang out over the loudspeakers placed in all the rooms.

"Emergency. Emergency. Fire in the central power station. Fire in the central control room. All personnel must be evacuated from the second gate. Gate closure will occur within ninety seconds. I repeat, an emergency..."

"Jesus Christ!" Roman almost swore at once "Bring the central office to the monitor!"

The monitor that hung so calmly on the wall of the room instantly blinked at the command after which it quickly charged up with a manifesting picture.

The picture that appeared on the screen did not inspire optimism at all. Upturned tables, scorched walls, cracks on the walls all the way to the ceiling, crushed equipment. It seemed as if a bomb had exploded in the room.

"Mother of God!" Roman once again cursed then turned his eyes to Momon "You! Find shelter and hide! The gates are about to close, you need to leave!"

Such words, however, did not convince Momonga. Despite the fact that he was never able to decide whether he should really get involved in this whole adventure with the salvation of mankind, Touch Me had managed to inspire him with something.

Helping the weak in danger is right. Especially when it costs him nothing.

If the closing of the doors does not mean the imposition of a high-level anti-teleportation barrier, then he will always be able to retreat again. And even if it means he can't, he always has a pair of aces up his sleeve. Or at least in the treasury of Nazarick.

Therefore, when Roman almost flew off and rushed into the control room, Momon followed him at the same second.

"Where are you going?! Gates on that side!" Noticing his companion not slowing down Romani threw the words to the Momonga over his shoulder "Run!"

However Momonga only ignored the words of the scientist so Roman was forced to mentally spit.

"Do not lag behind!" He shouted yet again, having reconciled with the decision of the man then moved forward.

Literally a few corners after the two men stumbled to the front doors of the entrance to the control room, which now looked pathetic. Twisted pieces of metal were stuck in the wall preventing the doors from opening completely so that they can squeeze through them.

"By the Lord!" Roman once again cursed politely, but to his surprise, Momon stretched out metal from the wall by his hand without any problems, pulled out one piece, then the second. "Huh, you are unexpectedly strong…"

To these words Momonga just shrugged.

Stepping inside, Roman almost immediately rushed to inspect it - but it was impossible to make out anything between the twisted pieces of metal so after just a few seconds Roman was forced to give up the useless exercise. However, the very core of Chaldea stood in place just as before, completely untouched by the explosion.

"Mother of..., the bomb exploded here!" Having angrily kicked the rolling piece of metal, Roman glanced at the untouched core "But how did…"

"Reduced energy levels. Energy generation is insignificant... "- the warning system immediately responded. "Automatic power supply change is impossible. Staff please manually change the power source. The doors will close in forty seconds. Please, all staff personnel..."

"Power supply!" - grabbed Romani his head. "It's in the basement for replacement! You! You run away from here! You still have time!"

With these words, Roman left the room, but before Momon himself could think about the doctor's suggestion another warning distracted him.

"Transition to the final stage of reyshifting. Coordinates: 2004; January 30; Fuyuki; Japan. Materialization of the Laplace system. Adjust the time factor of the singularity. The summoning program is carrying out. Please prepare the masters..." Momon clutched his head. If he wanted to escape, then now was his last chance. Only one teleportation spell and he can be anywhere in the world, and no one will ever know about it...

A quiet sound from the destroyed console caught his attention.

Instantly, Momonga jumped towards it and, raising the wreckage above his head, was able to detect the source of the noise.

Mashu looked pitiable. It seems that the console crashed into her with the force of the shock wave, and then pressed her into the wall, literally breaking the girl in half.

Blood flooded through the tears in her clothes, that hid the mutilated body of the girl, bent by an explosion.

The idea that his, perhaps a recent but familiar friend, suffered in an explosion, slightly clouded the mind of the man even if there were no true emotions inside him.

Her wounds were not terrible, in fact, Momon himself had enough scrolls, wands, and potions to easily heal the girl. But the idea that such wealth was an irreplaceable resource prevented him from using them instantly.

"S... Senpai" Opening her eyes, Mashu focused them on Momonga instantly. "Everything is all right... Run... Leave me... You need to leave…"

However, before Momon could respond to such words, another alert broke into his mind.

"Warning to all supervising personnel. The status of Chaldea is changing. S.H.E.B.A. observes a change in the foreseeable future. The absence of signs of intelligent life on earth over the next hundred years. The survival of humanity is not guaranteed."

Mashu's eyes widened to these words while Momon's gaze was fixed on a rapidly changing color for the Chaldea's oncle blue - and now red core.

Literally a second later, the loud crash of a metal partition that struck the floor distracted them both.

"The interior is closed. Starting to clean the interior... "

"Too... Too late..." Mashu said plaintively, at the moment when she realized her doom "The doors... Are closed..."

The idea of banal teleportation did not give Momonga peace. Why did Mashu not even suggest the possibility of teleportation? Of course, his knowledge of the current reality was incomplete, but according to knowledge from Yggdrasil, teleportation was one of the most useful spells and was studied very early so that every self-respecting magician and two-thirds of non-magicians knew it. It would be stupid if, on Earth, where magic existed quite legally, even if hidden from the general population, there would be no such banal teleportation spell.

"There is no possibility of reading the vital signs of the Masters' capsules" The cold metallic voice of notifications was heard again "There are not enough masters to complete the reyshifting procedure. Search for potential masters... A potential master was found."

"Installation of master number forty-eight as a priority master" At this moment Momonga felt how the gaze of a mechanical, insensible mass shifted to him. "The process of conversion of the Heroic Spirit begins...".

"Mmm" Mashu sighed "Senpai... Can I take your hand?"

"Of course" replying to her unequivocally, Momon extended his hand to the girl. Apparently, all he needed was to teleport from here.

Mentally, the man had already cast the Greater Teleportation, but before the magic was formed in his mind, the cold voice of the announcer answered again. "The reyshifting procedure was launched. The Grand Order Demonstration is running. Transfer - Fuyuki..."

* * *

Class: Foreigner

The Foreigner class refers to creatures that have come from beyond the edge of existence, understanding, and human history. In order to be summoned as a Foreigner class, it is not enough just to be a man from another world, it is not enough just to be a stranger in the way; it is not even enough to be just "the one who does not exist." It is necessary to be truly alien - alien to the world itself where the Foreigner is called up - embodying in itself other laws and impossible principles, the Foreigner bears the imprint of another existence.

It is not enough just to be a creature that embodies something that is impossible from the point of view of a simple average person or even a mage, a Foreigner personifies a paradoxical concept that contradicts itself, like "Gates and Key in itself", like "Sleeping Wonderer", like "The living Eclipse of all life".


	2. Chapter 2

And again he is lying on the ground, God knows where. With only one difference. This time he remembers who he is.

"Senpai, get up!" A shout made him open his eyes, only to see Mashu next to him. Except this time Mashu looked completely different. Her old outfit disappeared, being replaced by an incomprehensible mixture of a fetish outfit and armor. One of those types that someone like Peroroncino would appreciate, her glasses disappeared, and she was holding in her hands...

Something big.

"Mashu?" slowly rising from the ground, Momonga shook his head then looked back at the girl. "What happened?"

"Rayshifting, I suppose" she gave her best guess, then looked over Momon carefully. "Is something

wrong?"

"Not that..." Momon sighed, thinking. It seems that even if he did not want to choose, the choice was made for him - "Rather, just ... Well, what can we say about what just happened."

A howl rang not far from Momonga that made him concentrate on a newly appeared enemy. After which his newly acquired Servant abilities let him understand the situation.

"Enemies!" Mashu responded instantly and practically jumped in front of the man, trying to shield him with a strange incomprehensible object in her hands.

"Not exactly..." Momon looked thoughtfully at the approaching creatures "Just skeletons."

Skeletons have traditionally been considered in all games to be the bottom of the undead hierarchy and one of the weakest monsters in general. So, in general, just as it was in Yggdrasil skeletons were usually no higher than fortieth level. However, there was one exception to this rule, the highest levels of the undead. Though they were not skeletons they often had an appearance very similar to that of skeletons. Considering how strongly the developers of the game pressed on searching and extracting information, it was not just one or two players that would meet, say, the Emperor of Death, taking on the guise of a skeleton in tattered rags, it became an unpleasant surprise.

However, specifically in this case, the skeletons that jumped on them were of insignificant strength. Satoru could hardly feel them with his Servant skills, so their level was even lower than the thirties. In other words, it was an adversary who could be ignored with no conequence.

"Senpai, they are attacking!" however, Mashu did not share the same view and therefore as rattling bones approached,the girl prepared herself. "What should I do?"

'Leave them.' Momonga wanted to answer, but the understanding that the undead would only ignore him, an undead like themselves, while Mashu would have to fight, made him reconsider the order. "Mashu... Can you deal with them?"

"Yes!" In spite of the fact that Mashu did not inspire confidence with the display of her own power to Momonga only a few minutes ago, now she looked completely different. In addition, her opponent was a low-level skeleton. If necessary Momonga himself could intervene in the battle.

However, this was not required.

The strange thing in the hands of Mashu was something akin to a shield, or a door, torn off from its hinges. But she had no problems trashing the skeletons. From every blow the bone soldiers flew in all directions.

"I suppose they really were very low level" Momonga said to himself, watching the girl cracking down on her opponents with avaliant look. "Although, using her in battle... I feel like an unfair boss who uses child labor against their enemies... No, hey, it's even worse, it's a kid fighting!"

However, Mashu seemed not burdened with such reflections. Easily dealing with the crowd of skeletons that had appeared and then with the final blow dealt turned towards Momon.

"Admittedly, you didn't look that strong before." Momon tried to think of a topic for conversation.

"I was not." sticking her strange weapon in the ground, the girl leaned on it. The idea that she had to spend so much energy on something that Momon himself could carry out in a blink of an eye with one spell confused the man a bit but he stoically made an attempt to ignore it.

"I am a researcher, not a soldier."

"This battle says otherwise" Although it was impossible to call it a battle. Just waving the thing to side to side, occasionally knocking bone skittles that approaches them l.

"The fact is that..." The girl tried to explain something, but before she succeeded a voice distracted them.

"Hurray, it connected!" The voice that came out that was familiar to Momon. "Chaldea is in touch!"

"Doctor Roman!" Mashu shouted into the air. "Here is Group A: Mashu Kyrielight, There is one person with me, Momon from Group D. Our current state is normal, Rayshifting is one hundred percent complete."

"Okay" Romani breathed out after these words. "Are you alright... Mashu, why do you look like that?!"

"I'm sorry, this is a transformation" after these words Momonga found himself listening carefully. "Otherwise I could not fight."

"Transformation?" The doctor' voiced thoughtfully. "...What are you talking about?"

"Look at my vital signs!" After that Romani became silent as he started to search for something on the computer.

"Oh... Magic circuits, mana, physical condition... beyond the human max potential!" Romani's voice was shocked ,that was not surprising. Momonga himself realized the same thing. "You ... Are you a Servant?!"

"As a child, Chaldea saved me by fusing my body and the soul of a Servant that had lost his Master." Masha sighed. "The sixth experiment, Demiservant. Completed successfully."

"So is the Servant's consciousness in you now?" Romani asked.

"No." But Mashu only shook her head. "The Servant disappeared, leaving me with its weapon and abilities but no knowledge."

"Sounds familiar..." Momon said to himself then shook his head. "Although I had the opposite, it was not the Servant that disappeared..."

"Well, then I should check Momon's condition..." Hearing this, Momonga felt a rush of panic, instantly crushed by reason. He can not give himself away!

But what to do?

False data? He knew a few basic spells for hiding information about himself like False Data: Life or False Data: Mana. But there was no guarantee that Romani would not try to check something other than his HP and MP. Therefore, Momonga acted as logically as he could in this situation.

"Silent Magic: The Blockade of Observation" with silent metamagic, the spell instantly broke the already weak connection between Chaldea and the Singularity, without giving out his action to anyone.

"Doctor Roman? Dr. Roman!" Having found that the person at that end was silent, Mashu tried to shout several times into the void, but did not receive a reply. "Seems like the connection broke".

Sighing, the girl turned to Momonga again, forcing him to look at her.

"Do you know about Servants?" Asked Mashu first. To that,t the Servant in the body of a human nodded in the affirmative.

"Good." she sighed again. "Then you understand everything. I cannot sustain my body and abilities as a Servants for a long time, so I need a Master capable of supplying me with mana."

The meaning behind the phrase was obvious but Momon did not answer.

Yet another choice.

Even assuming that he can deal with the Singularity and escape, if he would form a contract with Mashu as a Servant, he will remain associated with her until... Who knows how long? Servants in the Grail War were always called for the Grail War and died before they reached their goal. In other words there are no concrete examples of just how long a Servant can exist. Presumably for as long as a Master can feed him with mana. In other words, until the Master dies.

Given that for Momonga death was not a determining factor at all, the offer to become a Master for Mashu was something like signing a contract for eternal servitude. And, to put it more bluntly, as a contract for eternal servitude of a girl more than half his age.

"Mashu..." he tried to hint to the girl about his special circumstances. "You see, a contract with me will be somewhat ... An unusual contract."

"In what sense?" The girl was guarded with these words.

"The thing is that..." Momon thought for a second. "It will not be possible to terminate it."

"I know." but Mashu, who did not understand the background of the question, just shook her head. "Otherwise, I will die without nourishment, I understand it…"

"Not quite so ..." Thought Momonga after which he sighed. "In fact, this contract is concluded until I stop feeding you with mana. In other words, as long as I can produce mana... But the fact is, I can produce mana for a very, very long time…"

"So, this is good." Mashu raised one eyebrow. "Is not it?"

"Yes, maybe..." Momon looked thoughtfully up at the sky "But, in general... A contract with me is a very bad idea in the long run."

"But... Do we have a choice?" She raised an important point forcing Momon to wince. She, too, was right, in a way. Even if Momonga can fight on his own without her help, Mashu will simply die without his supply of mana. "I cannot live long without a Master."

Momon raised his hand behind his head and scratched the back of his head, thinking about these reckonings of fate. Eternal service or death? A sadistic choice that made him look worse than he should be in this kind of situation.

"Well, apparently, we really have no choice." Sighing Satoru still held out his hand. "In that case... Mashu Kyrielight, do you accept this contract?"

"Yes, I accept this contract" Without a shadow of a doubt on her face, Mashu extended her hand...

To immediately fall to the ground in a second, when Momonga only felt the light touch of the contract.

"C..." The girl tried to breathe, instantly clutching her throat - "Can't... Bre... Ah ...Ath…!"

Instantly and instinctively, Momonga reduced the strength of the connection after which Mashu stopped gasping for air with her mouth and dropped her body powerlessly to the ground.

"Wh... What..." Slowly moving her eyes around toward the sky, gradually she managed to concentrate on the slightly worried face of her senpai "What... was that?"

"Please forgive me." Suzuki tilted his head guiltily. "Apparently you can't stand all my mana yet..."

"All your... Mana?" Barely catching her breath, the girl looked at Momonga in disbelief. "How... How did you get so much?!"

"As I have already said, the contract with me will be for you... An unusual contract" Sighing, Momonga put his hand behind his head. "By the way, new skeletons are approaching us".

"Uh...Yeah" Slowly rising from her position, Mashu clutched at her strange weapon that

was apparently a shield then looked at the approaching crowd of skeletons.

"So, I wonder where we should go now?" At the moment when Mashu rushed into battle herself, Momon thought 'Hmm, if only…'

In Yggdrasil, when it was still a game, there was a whole school of all kinds of spells aimed at obtaining information. About goals, objects, events, quests. And so it happened that, thanks to his strange preferences in building his character, Momon knew several spells used as trails to the goals of the quest or boss in the dungeon. Two exactly, Blessing of Titania and Lead of Yatagarasu, that could point the way to his goals. However, it was in the game, in this reality, it was not known what spells with the lore of 'pointing the way to the most cherished goal' would do.

"'But what's the worst that could happen if I used them now?" The magician said thoughtfully, watching the girl cracking down on another bundle of low-level undead. "In that case... _Blessing of Titania_!"

A moment later a firefly appeared in front of him that slowly moved forward.

"So, I still have some kind of purpose in this place..." Said Momonga thoughtfully, watching the firefly flying ahead. Blessing of Titania was a high-level spell that showed the safest path to a goal, so Momonga might had relaxed. At least, as relaxed as it was possible in such conditions.

However almost instantly Momon felt something strange touched his left hand. The hand which he had just sent his spell with. Moving his eyes Momonga was very surprised.

Because he suddenly found that he no longer have a hand.

Though not exactly, more precisely he had a hand even more familiar to his gaze. It was the bone hand of his in-game avatar, which continued to function and obey all his thoughts. But there was no human hand there.

"Apparently, this body cannot withstand high-level magic." Said Momon thoughtfully, then bent his bone arm and held it to his chin. Apparently, he will have to hide this.

Pulling off his jacket and tearing it in a hurry, Momonga built himself something like a bandage with which he hid his bone hand completely.

"Senpai!" Returning after a couple of minutes, Mashu was walking a little awkwardly, slightly hobbling on one leg. It seems that despite all the weakness of the opponents, one still managed to injure her. "Senpai, you... Senpai, what's wrong with your hand?"

"Nothing special" Momonga replied as calmly as possible. "It just got hurt a bit."

"Senpai, let me see!" Mashu tried to rush to help him, but Momon only took a step back.

"It's all right." After these words the man tried to change the topic. "I determined where we need to go."

"Senpai?" Mashu frowned a little but continued. "So where?"

"This way" Not being able to answer the question, the man decided to fake assertiveness and just moved forward to the way in which the creeping firefly left.

"Senpai, wait!" Mashu shouted when she realized that she did not get any answers about her earlier questions. "Senpai, stop, senpaaaaai!"

* * *

"Senpai, please tell me where we are going!" Mashu, who was plunged into an increasingly strange world over the past few hours, was desperately trying to get at least some answers from Momonga "Where are we going, what happened with your hand, where did you get so much mana, what happened here…"

A resounding girlish scream interrupted Mashu's tirade.

"Someone in trouble!" The girl instantly realized. "We must hurry!"

Judging by the fact that the firefly of the spell continued to hang in the same place, exactly where the cry of a certain girl was coming from, it was obvious that that is where they should rush.

A second later, Mashu practically flew out to the site only to see her friend, desperately fighting off the attacking monsters. Momonga, who had followed out after her, also recalled the girl's appearance. white hair, dropping below the shoulder, sharp features, a snub nose, a black jacket draped over her shoulders, turning into a white skirt — there was no doubt.

"Lev!" Taking a step back and chanting spells, trying at least a little to reduce the number of attackers there was the chief of Chaldea on her own. "Lev, save me! Lev, please!"

"Olga Marie!" Memories of the strange name of a friend made Momonga sigh. And then people with a name like Olga Marie Animusphere consider the nickname Touch Me strange!

"Mashu?!" Turning to the voice, the girl immediately noticed first the Servant and then Momon. "What is happening?!"

"No idea!" With these words, Mashu crashed into a group of skeletons, frantically waving her shield, demolishing several skeletons at a time.

It was over quickly, the pure power of Mashu and her huge shield did their job in a couple of minutes. Turning the advancing skeletons into heaps of bones.

"Interesting." Thoughtfully Momon saw the last skull flying off with a complicated gaze. "Should I sympathize with the undead being destroyed? We are of the same species, after all."

"It seems that it is over." After that Mashu stopped for a second, catching her breath. "Chief, are you injured?"

Glancing at Mashu, the chief blinked several times.

"Chief." the Demi-servant immediately tried to explain. "The thing is I..."

"You merged with a Servant, I know." Marie immediately cut her off and looked at Momonga. "You! Why the hell did you become her Master?!

"What?" Looking at Animusphere, the man looked surprised.

"Why did you agree to his demands?!" Having looked at Mashu, the chief immediately tried to lecture her as well. "Do you at least understand what you now doomed yourself to?!"

"No, chief, you got it wrong!" The carrier of the shield tried to defend him. "I forced Momon to become my Master — he tried to dissuade me!"

"Chief, we are in a critical situation!" Realizing that the brief respite in the accusations was short, Mashu tried to instantly describe the whole situation. "We were dragged into reyshifting and so we all came here. The remaining masters either died or are in a critical situation. However, chief, if you're here…"

"There is no one beside us." The Animusphere instantly responded to the unspoken assumption. "If we are here, then it only means that no one could be here except us. Reyshifting without a capsule is possible, but its probability is very low, so the device would not have launched it without a capsule if it were possible to send a capsule here. In other words we ended up here only because no one except us could be here."

"So we are alone." Momonga concluded.

"That's correct." Looking at the man, the Animusphere frowned. "Hey, you! You are the forty-eighth master who came here by accident! How could you even be here?!"

"Are you in a position to insult your rescuers?" Momonga wanted to protest, but he only breathed and exhaled. "Just like you. Through reyshifting."

"Well seems like in any case, I have no choice." With a sigh, the girl shook her head. "I recognize your contract with Mashu as valid and from now on you will be under my command! And my first order is the arrangement of the base. We need to establish contact with the headquarters and a powerful source of mana, such as the leyline…"

"By the way about a powerful source of mana…" After these words Mashu glanced at Momonga, but he only slightly waved his head at it.

"What?" Nonetheless Mashu drew attention of Animusphere.

"You're standing on the leyline." The girl immediately changed her thoughts.

"Huh?" Uncomprehendingly she responded. "And... And I knew it!"

Olga Marie took a step aside, then commanded, trying to recover from her mistake. "Put the catalyst on the floor! I will use it to create a connection!"

In fact, Momonga could just send the girl home, using a spell like Gate, but the memories of hi skeletal hand forced him to wait a little with this option.

"Senpai?" Mashu turned to Momonga, to which he only affirmatively shook his head. "Okay…"

The spell circle is instantly drawn on the floor, after which Olga took a step towards it, stretching out her arms.

"Au, headquarters, headquarters in touch!" -Rang out a voice in from the drawn circle in a couple of seconds. "Oh, chief, you are alive!"

"Romani!" The shout of the chief spread throughout the area. "Why the hell are you in charge, Romani?! Where is Lev?!"

"Chief, how did you survive?! You were in the very center of the explosion!" Roman was unable to keep his surprise, but he nevertheless shook his head and was able to start talking. "Including me, only twenty people from all of Chaldea survived. Professor Lev was in the very center of control room when the explosion happened, I think…"

"N-no..." After the last phrase she heard, the girl's eyes filled with tears "Lev, he..."

"I'm sorry, chief" Roman said with regret.

"No, wait." But only after a couple of sobs, Olga still managed to take control of herself. "Twenty people... Why are there so few?! But what about the masters?!"

"All the capsules are either destroyed or permanently damaged." Said the man in a dark voice "Unfortunately, we had no opportunity..."

"Call in the cryo-storage facility immediately!" Animusphere Instantly reacted.

"But, chief, this is a matter of jurisdiction..." Mashu tried to get into the conversation, but she turned out to be cut sharply.

"Better I end up in prison later than let them die now!" Olga Marie's answer was instant and certain. "Lev... If only Lev was here!"

"Chaldea has lost four fifths of its functionality." However, Romani continued the report. "The remaining people are divided into three jobs; controlling reyshifting, repairing Chaldea and supporting S.H.E.B.A. We are trying to establish contact with the outside world. If we succeed, we will be able to get supplies and a rescue team."

After a moment of silence, Roman tried to say it as gently as possible ."Chief, we will build everything back and pull you out. Everything will be fine, chief…"

"Do not reassure me as if I am hysterical!" In the contrary of what is implied, the girl shouted into the air. "Of course, we will rebuild everything! So, although I don't like it - Dr. Romani Akiman, before my return, you are appointed as my deputy and interim director of Chaldea!"

"It's my honor, chief!" Trying to convey his joyful smile through speaking, Roman disconnected after these words.

"So, in the meantime, we are going to solve this problem!" Raising her finger in the air, the Animusphere solemnly uttered. "Our goal is to find the cause of the existence of the Singularity and the cause of the disappearance of humanity!"

"Upon returning, another battle for Chaldea awaits us!" But after bravado, the girl's voice suddenly died out. "Now, with the financiers and magicians..."

"But the right to serve and fight during the greatest difficulties is the honor of the Animuspheree family!" Proudly raising her chin the girl then sighed. "And so now we are going to solve the mystery of the disappearance of humanity!"

* * *

**Status: **Grand Servant

Grand Servant status is given only to those Servants who left an indelible mark on Earth that remained in all cultures, like the wisdom of Solomon, or those whose strength cannot be contained within the frame of understanding of ordinary human reason. It is impossible to say exactly what happens earlier - the Servant receives Grand status and become powerful, or it achieves incredible strength first, but the correlation of these two things is undeniable.

All Grand Servants have the power and ability beyond even the most powerful of ordinary Servants - and usually are such important historical and mythological figures who themselves are the center of whole epics, like the Magus of Flowers, that the very faith of humanity in their importance allows them not only to become the strongest, but also to maintain their existence independently without the help of not only a Master, but also without the help of third-party systems, such as the Throne of Heroes or the Moon Cell, appearing simply because in the mind of the observer they exist on their own.

Usually, using these same forces, Grand Servants easily avoid an unenviable fate - it is impossible to limit its power or to erase from the World the history of someone who left such a powerful mark, it is as impossible as to kill a creature that in the mind of the observer it exists not as a separate myth, but as the central basis of the mythology itself.

The main function of the Grand Servants is to preserve the history of humanity and fight with Beasts or Evils of Mankind. Usually, Grand Servants are called by the World itself to protect itself, as a counterweight against creatures of such destructive power that threatens the World itself, but still, in some cases, the Grand Servants can be called in other situations, however only when it involved a power comparable to the will of the world itself.

There are only seven Grand Servants at a time, one for each class — however, the servants who are suitable for becoming Grand Servants are much more than that, and therefore, if one existing Grand Servant ceases to be such — for example, in the case of its own death —the Grand Servant status simply goes to the next possible candidate.

Despite the fact that there are only seven Grand Servants at a time, embodying the highest manifestations of the seven standard classes, Grand status only means that this Servant is most suited to incarnate in its class, possessing strength, history and mythology sufficient alone to incarnate each Servant of this class, therefore, theoretically, the status of a Grand Servant is possible for any existing class, and their maximum number is not limited.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, I hope you remember our mission?" Asked Animusphere while continuing to move forward. She did not lag behind Momonga.

"Chaldea, the peak of human genius, a combination of magic and technology, created a perfect simulation of the Earth as a single model observed its past and future, predicting changes in the timeline and reality due to the analysis by the telescope S.H.E.B.A. observing the future and the system of Laplace and reviewing the past." Momonga began to answer the memorized text.

"It suddenly noticed a temporal anomaly forming in the past of 2004 Fuyuki, Japan. The anomaly was named 'Singularity F' and was observed for study. At the same time an anomaly was observed in July of 2016. The simulation no longer detects humanity's presence which predicts its disappearance before the said date. The chance of a connection between these two events is quite high so a group of forty-eight magicians,all potential masters, each of whom had to use their power and the Fate system to make contracts with Servants to further investigate the disappearance of mankind."

"For someone with that stupid looking face you are surprisingly good at memorizing information." The girl managed to insult Momonga with praise.

"Thank you." He decided to accept this as a compliment. "A new group of skeletons is approaching."

"How are you..." Animusphere wanted to ask something but the appearance of a new group of enemies did not allow her to finish. "Kya!"

With a squeak-like sound the girl hid behind Momonga.

"Chief, are you... Are you scared?" Momonga Unexpectedly discovered a strange quirk about the girl.

"N-no, no! Of course not, how could such a thing have occurred to you!?" The girl instantly objected to him, however, not hurrying to leave the shelter behind the mans back.

"If you say so, chief" The man didn't push the topic this time.

"Listen..." However, she immediately tried to change the subject. "You... You know about Servants?"

"Yes." The man didn't continue this topic. He tried to remember what exactly was put into his head during the transfer. "There are Heroic Spirits, the highest level of familiars and spirits, creations that emerged from the combined idea humanity had about the most powerful and famous heroes and villains.

Creatures so powerful that to summon them in the form of true living beings is usually impossible. Therefore, instead of summoning the full-fledged being, the summoning is instead carried out only to certain 'aspects' of the hero, the so-called 'Servants'. Using a certain ritual, magicians summon only a certain facet of the personality and abilities of the 'heroic spirits', usually into seven standard classes - Saber, Lancer, Archer, Rider, Assassin, Caster and Berserker. Every 'Servant' who comes into reality bears the imprint of not only an actually existing person under its name but also what people or humanity remember about them. Mythological imprints and 'noble phantasm' - crystallized miracle that embodies the very essence of their personality and their legends."

"That's right" the chief murmured in shock, after which she shook her head in disbelief. "Indeed, that's right!"

"Is it a reason to be so surprised?!", Momonga himself was feeling indignant inside.

"Surprisingly, you are really knows!" Having rejoiced, Animusphere clapped her hands joyfully."At last, people who are knowledgeable start to appear!"

Stoically, Momon ignored the words of the chief and looked at Mashu, who continued to shred the skeletons nearby.

"By the way." After waiting a few seconds and finding that Momon had not planned to continue the conversation with her, the chief drew attention to an important detail of the man's appearance. "What is wrong with your hand?"

"Why do you care so much about my hand?" Momon breathed out calmly. "It's nothing, I just hurt my hand."

"Let me have a look." She unceremoniously reached for the bandage on the Servant's arm, to which he immediately reacted. Momon moved his arm to the other side. "Stop, I can heal."

'You can hardly heal such wounds' -With a sigh, the man took another step back . 'In spite of the fact that this body is human, the manifestation of my identity as a Servant is the hand of an undead. Wouldn't her healing be tantamount to taking damage?'

"Are you a fool?!" Having found that the man was desperately not giving into the hands of Animusphere, she instantly felt anger rising inside her. "Give me your hand you idiot! Give it!"

"It's all right." Momon took another step back, then thought. It is interesting, if he applied 'Charm' or 'Control Amnesia' on the girl in order to make her to ignore his hand would this be considered a villainous act? Indeed, in a sense, he would be doing it to save the world... In a certain, very approximate sense.

"Moron!" The girl instantly reacted with a wave of her hands again and kept missing the arm. "You idiot!"

For the last time, waving her hands desperately, the girl took a step back and Momonga could see in her eyes something glistening in the sparkling lights of burning flames.

"Chief, please, don't call senpai an idiot!" Mashu unexpectedly appeared behind the back of the Animusphere.

"How should I call someone who does not want to have his wounded arm looked at?!" Indignant, Olga or is it still worth calling her chief? Stamp the ground with her heel.

"By the way, senpaaaaai..." But at the moment, after clarification from the position of the girl, Mashu was still forced to respond to the words of the chief with agreement.

"Ha... Ha... Ha..." But once again a voice from somewhere interrupted the attack of two girls.

"Haaaaa..."

The resounding voice only uttered monosyllabic sounds, but it was easy to hear something human behind it.

Turning toward the sound, the three were able to easily see a figure quite similar to the recently destroyed skeletons. A man wearing a black cloak, with each of his movements seeming to sway in the wind. The cloak fluttering in the wind emphasized its incredible thinness and it is also wearing a white mask on its face, completely hiding any possible facial features that only made it look even more like a skeleton.

"A new monster?" - Thought Momonga who could not identify the new arrival as an undead. "It looks strange...".

"That is a Servant!" However, Animusphere reacted instantly and even before Momon could decide on what to do Animusphere grabbed him and pulled him back putting Mashu in front of them.

"Servant?!" After what was said, Mashu's legs gave way a little. Of course, she had previously been thoroughly taught just how much Servants were superior to ordinary humans, like her, in all aspects and now she was standing in front of one who was ready to kill her and her Master.

Even Momonga was worried for a second. If it really was a Servant, then there was a chance that Mashu could not fight it alone and Momon would have to reveal his identity by directly going into battle...

"On the other hand" Momon also looked at his skeletal hand. "How much longer can I keep this secret?"

Apparently, the hand was not particularly in a hurry to recover from the use of magic...

"Ma...na..." Stopping for a second, the skeletal servant muttered. "Lot... of... ma... na..."

"A lot of mana?" Momon frowned "So, he was attracted by mana, but where- Oh of course, me..."

The greatest source of mana in this city was most likely Momonga himself, blessed with an inexhaustible source of mana.

"Silent Magic: False Data: Mana" The man silently cas his magic, after which the skeletal servant stopped in place.

"Ma...na..." He muttered again. Then in the same abrupt but with somewhat surprised voice, muttered, "Dis... app...eared?

"He came to the source of mana!" Animusphere instantly responded. "But where... Doesn't matter

Mashu! Destroy him!"

"Senpai?!" Instantly turning to him, completely forgetting that she shouldn't turn away from her opponent, the girl screamed panicked. "Senpai, what should I do?"

Her opponent did not look strong, but Momonga knew that this meant nothing in the end. Momonga died more times to the 'Meteor Turtle' than from all the 'Kings of Demons' combined.

"Mashu, calm down!" Nevertheless, he decided not to intervene in the fight at first. "You are now a Servant as well. You also possess the strength and abilities of a Servant! Mashu, I believe in you!"

"Otherwise, I will have to intervene myself..." The man twisted his lips.

"You moron!" However, the voice of the chief next answered a little differently than Momon had hoped for ."You're a magician - you should know at least some magecraft! We should help Mashu!"

'Of course I can help Mashu!' Momon instantly agreed internally 'Even more than that, I can fight it alone without her!'

However, his arm wrapped in cloth stopped him from doing it.

His current body was not able to withstand any high-level magic that Momonga himself could use, so if he had to use a spell, as it looked increasingly likely, the manifestation of his body as a Servant and the destruction of his human body would continue. It would not be scary if just his injured arm continued to deteriorate further -then he would just need to disguise it even further. However, if part of his head suddenly disappear in the middle of the battlefield exposing his skull it would be very difficult to explain.

In addition, he could not explain the use of high-level magic. Although the average level of the magicians of this world was not known to him, judging by the fact that even a reasonably good magician likeAnimusphere had problems against only a few dozen ordinary skeletons it was fair to assume it was below his own level.

In the case if he decided to use the weaker magic that his body could withstand, it most likely would simply have no effect.

"Gandr!" chanted the spell by Olga, ignoring his inner turmoil, aiming at the frozen servant, who continued to ignore the squabbles between three people.

"Huh?" A blow fell on it's right shoulder forcing the Servant to sway a little. "At...tack?"

"Mashu!" Under these conditions, the course of action was clear.

"Yes chief!" With one word Mashu rushed into battle, waving her titanic shield.

"Huh?" Even before the Servant managed to react to it the blow overtook him, literally knocking him off its perch.

"He does not attack, but our attacks reach him..." However, Momonga only frowned at this. "But this is wrong!".

No, he didn't have any problems if the enemy Servant refused to attack them, but he had problems with Olga's attack. And the problem was that her attack hit!

Of course, she did not, in fact, cause any damage, but she did hit her target and even achieved the most minimal of success.

'This is wrong!' The thought arose inside Momonga. 'That is the simplest magic Magical Arrow!'

Magical Arrow, a spell of the first rank, the simplest and the most basic of all simple and basic spells, in fact,it is a common noun for all low-level attacks! And how could she hit a Servant with it?!

In Yggdrasil, there was a simple system of statistics - HP, MP, physical and magic attack and defense, resistance, dexterity and special abilities, for a total of nine parameters. There were six forServants - amount of Mana, Endurance, Agility, Strength, Luck and a Noble Phantasm. But this did not mean that they did not have the innate ability responsible for magical resistance?! For Momonga, he, of course, had a high rank in it consistent with his high level in the game, but it was also included in the list of his "skills". Did that really mean that other Servants does not have protection from magic?

Momonga's brain made an emergency reboot.

"Huh... Huh..." - however, the Servant rose from the place where the blow of Mashu threw him back, the Servant just continued his slow muttering - "Should... Fight... Ba..."

Mashu's next blow didn't let Servant to finish his thought.

"But it is absurd?! Are not the Servants the strongest familiars in the world?!" Momonga wanted to grab his head. In Yggdrasil, the parameters did not grow on their own but due to the investment of points. But no one would have ever neglected Magical Defense. It would have made any, even the most powerful player, a toy in the hands of any sufficiently proficient magician! Of course high HP or, in this case, Endurance could allow a person to hold on a bit longer in battle but... Wait a minute!

Another blow from Mashu sent the Servant, whom Momonga was already beginning to feel sorry for, to flight, after which Momon felt his pupils expand.

'He doesn't have any physical resistance either?!' He wanted to shout out loud. 'How is this even possible?!'

Of course, a high HP could theoretically smooth out a little bit of low protection. But everybody would consider you an idiot if you invested a hundred, no, even two hundred points in HP, breaking the maximum and getting yourself a health bar the size of a World-Class Enemy, but to give up both physical and magical protection. Things just do not work like this!

There was a huge difference between levels in Yggdrasil. An enemy five levels higher than yourself was an invincible one, which was supposed to be beaten at least by three or four players to get a good chance of winning and it was not worth it to think of fighting bosses with higher levels! After a certain number of levels, the difference became so enormous that quantity ceased to translate into quality.

In other words, since Momonga had the ability to automatically block any damage below the sixtieth level, no matter how many hundreds of thousands of thirty-level mobs attacked him, all their attacks would be useless and the only thing they could do to stop him was to make him bored of killing them in hordes again and again. So is with magic! The magic below the seventh rank could not affect Momonga at all, simply because it does not matter how much power will be invested in the attack. He was simply at a qualitatively different level than everything that could exist on the first six ranks.

And now he was watching how spells of the first rank were working on, presumably, one of the strongest creatures in the also Mashu's attacks,yes, it's an attack by another Servant, but a newly appointed Servant,an inexperienced Servant's attacks did not seem equal to a normalServant. They sent the enemy into flight time after time.

"This is some kind of absurdity." Momonga still couldn't hold back his thoughts, after which he unwound his sleeve and aimed at the figure in front of him. "Magical Arrow..."

The Magical Arrow that was shot from his hand instantly drew a bright line then crashed into the just barely aware Servant, then it exploded with a bright flash, forcing a few drops of blood to fly from the Servant's body.

Of course, given that such a spell was only of the first rank and it was supposed to be weak, the damage wasn't that surprising. But the fact that after it hit the body of the servant there was a wound, a real wound! made Momonga round his eyes. Of course, if an ordinary person were at the spot where the arrow would hit, it would simply torn him apart, evaporating half of their body in the process, so in a sense it could be said that the opponent was many dozen's times stronger and sturdier than an ordinary person - but compared with his experience in Yggdrassil, this just didn't make any sense!

"Clear hit!" -Shouting, the chief only drove Satoru into even greater frustration.

As if it was only at that moment that the servant was supposed to fight, the figure in the robe leaped forward, but his movements were slowed down. Perhaps because of his loss of mind and perhaps because of his already existing wounds, but the Servant only managed to rush forward an instant before another blow of the shield byMashu stopped him.

"No, maybe this is just such a Servant?" Momonga peered thoughtfully at the opponent. "Or maybe... I know, his defense was gone after he lost his mind! Or, no, maybe, he is just a super-specialized Servant who sacrificed his defense in order to gain incredible power and now having lost his mind, he is not able to use his full power..."

Another blow from Mashu on the already seemingly unwilling to rise Servant dropped him again.

"It's just ridiculous." Momonga rubbed his face. Well, there must be a reason for all this!

However, before Momon could find it, a final blow from Mashu put an end to this confrontation, cutting the head off of the unknown Servant.

"Hurray, senpai!" The girl could not resist the joyful cry. "We won!"

'Was this really a battle at all?' Momonga almost asked, but stopped, he nevertheless tried to think as logically as possible. "It seems he didn't understand what was going on around at all..."

"This is for the best!" The chief immediately interjected- "If he had managed to react who knows how the battle would have turned out!"

"Yes..." Momonga said tentatively. "Probably..."

The silence stayed for some seconds as everyone took some time to catch their breathed heavily after dozens of released Gandrs, Mashu after waving her shield, and Momonga after realizing the absurdity of the situation.

"Chief." After a minute or two, Mashu drew attention to herself. "Why are there Servants here? This place does not look like Fuyuki."

"In the Singularity, a War for the Holy Grail was fought here in Fuyuki." With a sigh, Animusphere began to speak. "The ritual of invoking the Grail, to fulfill the desire of the winner, included the call of seven Servants. In other words, we have just killed one of these seven."

"But if we killed only one..." It became clear to Mashu almost instantly.

"Grail... So close..." A new source of sound that felt much more alive than the previous Servant resounded.

" The monstrous source of Mana... Disappeared..."

"Lancer!" This time the voice sounded like a female. "Those three ... For the Grail we should fight them!"

The next Servants that appeared looked much more threatening than the skeleton before. The man looked like a golem from afar. His face looked like a stone mask, unless it really was a stone mask, and there was something in his hands that could be called a spear with a stretch.

The girl who appeared looked like an actress who escaped from a bdsm session - her eyes were hidden behind a leather strap, and her body was dressed in a tight corset, so as to emphasize her attractive assets.

"Perroronchino would have liked it..." Momonga had an inappropriate thought.

"And who do I see here..." The third unknown voice, however, this time from another direction, interrupted any thoughts in Momonga's head. "Rider and Lancer themselves!"

The man who appeared on the other side was wrapped in a fur coat, which considering the more than warm weather around here, especially with the flames burning here and there, looked more than a little strange. Unfortunately, it was impossible to distinguish anything under the cloak.

"Who are you?!" Leaping back a step, Rider glanced cautiously at the man. At least, this was the impression, given that her mask completely hid her eyes.

"You do not recognize me?" The tone of the answering man sounded like mockery. "Clean your eyes and look again... Oh right!"

After these words, in an instant, the place where the two Servants are several bright lumps of fire struck at once.

"Well, at least a little they're a bit better..." Momonga was able to console himself. Judging by the bright flashes and the earth exploding from the impact, these were no longer magical arrows, but something similar to Flame Projectile, a third rank spell that resembles a fireball in power, but was a little more powerful due to the loss of the AoE of the attack. Moreover, given that he used several projectiles at once he either used metamagic, or used a fourth-level spell, 'Volley of Flame Projectiles' which was at least something in Momonga's eyes. Still far below the level of nullification, but at least not Magical Arrow.

"Caster!" Shouted Rider who drew Momon's attention. "Why do you fight us?!"

"Because you are defending yourself, obviously!" Caster's answer was instant and was accompanied by the next Volley of Flame Projectiles.

Unfortunately, there was a numerical advantage on the other side, so the situation for Caster rather quickly began to go unfavorably.

"Senpai?!" Noticing this, Mashu turned to the most reliable person that she knew. "What should we do?"

"Stop!"Animusphere instantly attracted the attention of the two. "I am your chief and I command you! ..."

However, there was no continuation. In spite of her bravado just a second ago, after these words the girl cautiously glanced at the man opposite of her. As if asking him for permission for something.

"Caster will not manage without us." Momonga's obvious conclusion instantly formed, looking at how, continuing to evade his attacks, Rider absorbed all of Caster's attention, allowing Lancer to get closer and closer toward Caster. "But I don't want to risk any of you, so…"

"Mashu!" Turning to the girl, Momonga caused her to flinch. "Your shield is a weapon of a Servant that left you his powers... But then he should have also left you and his legend! His Phantasm!"

"Senpai..." But the answer was not positive. "I don't know!"

"Mashu,a Noble Phantasm is an integral part of a Servant, the crystallization of his legend, the manifestation of his essence." It was easy for Momonga to talk about it, because he himself felt his Phantasms at an instinctive level. "Even if you don't know what it is, you know that it is inside you. It is a part of your very being!"

It would have been easy to awaken her Phantasm by using something like 'Control Amnesia' to bring her subconscious sensations to the surface, but such magic was far beyond what he could theoretically know or what his body could withstand.

However, in this case there was another way.

"Mashu!" Putting his hand on the girl's shoulder, Momonga made her look at him . "Close your eyes."

Obediently, the girl did what she was told.

"Olga!" Turning unexpectedly to the Animusphere standing next to him, Momonga caused her jump on the spot in surprise. "Can you arrange a quiet place for us?"

"I am your commander!" She tried to argue, but the man's gaze immediately shut her up. "Give me a minute."

Just a couple of seconds later, it became unexpectedly quiet.

"Listen to yourself" After these words towards Mashu, Momonga sighed. Looks like he had no choice. Slowly, he reached for his connection with Mashu, clamped a little earlier. "Your Phantasm is inside you, you just need to let it embody in this reality."

With reluctance, Momonga slowly eased the restriction from his connection, allowing an uncontrolled flow of mana to rush into Mashu. forcing her to grab her neck as if someone was choking her.

"Listen, it is inside of you..." Sighing, Momonga additionally concentrated on the link's strength, concentrated on the current of mana and further strengthened its flow, forcing Mashu to take a reflexive breath. "Just feel the Phantasm inside you!"

The idea was simple, Phantasms are an integral part of any Servant. the embodiment of their legend. It always slumbers inside of them but is also always ready for release. In other words, with the exception of special cases, the servant is almost always instinctively able to apply their Phantasm.

And at the same time, Phantasms are the most powerful trump card in the hands of any Servant.

Phantasms are the most powerful technique of the hero and therefore the most exhausting. In other words,a Noble Phantasm is the main consumer of mana in the body of the spirit.

And now Momonga is continuing to pump up Mashu with mana in excess what she could control, counting on this fact.

The body of Mashu was not able to keep all of Momonga's mana, but she had a way to get rid of the excess mana. A method instinctively accessible to Mashu herself. Activate the Phantasm.

In other words, Momonga continued to pump the girl's body with mana, knowing that she was not able to withstand it, hoping that she would activate her Phantasm... Or her body would begin to collapse under the influence of Momon's power.

"What are you doing?!" Although Animusphere could not understand all the subtleties of Momonga's plan, she still could determine that with each passing second Mashu, on whose shoulder the man's arm was resting, was suffering.

However, Momonga only continued to ignore Olga's attempts to reach him. "Feel it, inside yourself..."

Unable to withstand the pressure from the excessive mana, Mashu fell to her knees. Sweat was flowing over her flushed face, but she still did not open her eyes, continuing to blindly trust her senpai.

"Let her go, you idiot!" Animusphere wanted to get into contact with Momonga but fortunately for herself, at the second when she had already touched the gman, which at best would have burned half of her circuits with excessive concentration of mana, the shield that had arisen under her arm stopped her movement.

"What?..." Was the only reaction of the girl, before a translucent silhouette, in an instant filled with force, a splash of energy forced the chief to fly off a couple of meters.

"S-senpai" It was hard to talk for Mashu but opening her eyes. She nevertheless tried to smile at Momonga, who removed his hand. "I did it!"

"This is good." Momon himself could not refrain from smiling back at her.

"Hey!" Just rising from her seat, Animusphere glanced angrily at the people in front of her. "There is a battle still going on!"

"Senpai!" Replacing the exclamation with an appeal to Momonga, Mashu looked at the man with a question and panic.

"Is your Phantasm suitable for battle?" However Momon asked an important question first after which having achieved an affirmative answer he nodded. "Then go."

Nodding confidently to him, Mashu instantly charged from her position.

Sensing a wrongness at that moment, Momonga ran his hand over his chest, only to find a huge hole at the bottom of which the most ordinary of ribs rested.

"This body can't withstand not only magic but also the transfer of mana..." Momonga sighed as he ran a hand through the manifested ribs. "It seems that I will not be able to hide this for long..."

Caster was surprisingly strong. Despite the fact that he had to fight against two Servants at once he managed without much loss to avoid their attacks. Continuing to fire at them with fire projectiles, preventing them from committing into a full-fledged attack. But at the same time he just continued to dodge away from the blows time after time, without the possibility to do anything more. Mashu's intervention played a key role.

Although in fact, Mashu, most likely, did not even need to use her Phantasm. One clear blow, caught by the Lancer, provided a small respite for the Caster, who instantly focused on the Rider and almost immediately a sparkling beam sent the girl flying.

"Fire Beam" Momonga also said to himself,"A fifth rank magic".

Mashu, though, was not able to secure success so easily. Despite the fact that her first blow was struck cleanly on a distracted Lancer he had already managed to react to the second blow and dodged the hulking shield, preparing his spear to pierce the girl through. However Mashu had her trump card up her sleeve.

"Unknown Phantasm!" Without knowing the name of her Noble Phantasm Mashu could not use even by one-tenth of its power and yet she could still use it at least. Unlike those left without Masters. Therefore, when the spear of the unknown Lancer slammed into the shield that appeared in front of him the Servant's attack stopped. After which the power of Phantasm threw him away, forcing him to crash into a wall.

"Unfortunately,the Noble Phantasm itself is not good for anything yet." Momonga stated with regret as he watched the slightly cracked manifestation of the shield disappear. No, he, of course, did not count on the protection to be on the same level as the Walls of Jericho, but the shield received a crack from a simple strike of Lancer. It will be a miracle if it can withstand the magic of at least sixth or seventh tier.

"You're not half bad, girl!" Despite, however, the thoughts of Momon himself, the voice of the victorious Caster praised Mashu for her Phantasm. "But this servant must be beaten with something stronger!"

The words attracted the attention of Momon as he stopped on the spot. The Caster waved his staff, which looked like a hockey stick, and looked at the Lancer rising from the pierced wall.

"I was taught the runes by Scathach herself!" Shouting it like a battle cry and threateningly shaking his stick, Caster hit the staff on the ground, after which the location of Lancer exploded with a bright flash of red color.

"Oh, Explosion, rank number six." Momonga shook his head respectfully.

Unfortunately, this proved to be too much for Lancer. Without the Master's magical link, the already half-dispersed Servant could not resist the Caster's magic and was dispelled instantly.

"Hm" sighing, Caster shook his head. "There are no more opponents for me."

Mashu, slightly shuddering, fell to the ground almost instantly, as soon as the adrenaline of the first significant battle in her life began to recede.

However Momonga was there to catch the girl who had released her monstrous shield from her hands.

"S-senpai." Turning to the man, Kyrielight sighed intermittently, then closed her eyes. "I won, senpai!".

"Well done, Mashu" He could not help but praise her, then he gently lifted her up and put her on her feet. "However, it's not safe to rest here. Come on, we need to at least return to the camp."

"O-of course, senpai!" Reacting to this and only now realizing that she continued to drown in the hands of the guy, Mashu instantly jumped, and then began to look around, desperately trying to hide her brightly glowing blush behind a diligent search for any enemy around them. "There is no danger, so we have to hurry!"

"Hey, kid!" However, before leaving, a voice called out to all three of them. "Who are you and what the hell are you doing here?"

"Caster." Momonga said loudly, after which, glancing at the tired Mashu and Animusphere, he doubted the possibilities to conduct a dialogue, he sighed. He was silent for quite a long time.

"Caster, we did not know we would find a potential ally in this city."

"Do not take it personally, kid" If it were not for the automatic suppression of the emotions of the true personality of Momonga, such a response would surely hurt or offend him. Considering that the man opposite him looked not older than twenty years, but at the moment Momonga was not worried by such trifles. "I just wouldn't like to see the death of two beautiful girls."

"Hey, you!" Nodding towards Mashu, the Caster frowned - "You're a Servant, right? What class are you?"

Not sure if she should answer, Kyrielight looked at Momonga.

"Don't answer." The man cut off Casters thought and then looked at him carefully. "Why did you not answer? Where did you come from?"

Sensing something in Momon's voice, Mashu grabbed her shield.

"Guh, calm down, I didn't come for your heads." However, Caster replied, seemingly not at all concerned with the situation. "I came here because I felt a monstrous source of mana... Which, by the way, disappeared..."

After that, Caster looked at Momonga with interest, but, having come to a conclusion in his head he rejected it and shook his head.

'It will be necessary to wear a ring with protection against scanning.' In Yggdrasil Momonga constantly wore a similar ring but at the moment it remains in the body of his real personality 'Otherwise everyone will continue to come at me like flies to honey...'.

"What are you doing here?" Caster glanced at the trio, after which, having come to some conclusion again, glanced at Momonga, apparently, considering him the leader.

With a sigh, Momon prepared to speak...

* * *

Strength: D++

Strength is the simplest and most understandable of all the characteristics of a Servant, Strength represents his physical strength - the strength of his muscles, the strength of his blows, the strength of his weapon. At the same time,a low rank in strength does not mean that a servant will be weak - even the weakest of Servants can easily compensate for it with skills, armaments or speed, while even the owner of the most phenomenal rank of strength will easily lose in a battle if he cannot land a single blow. In addition, even the strength of rank E is comparable to the strength of the most famous of Olympic champions, which puts even the physically weakest Servants, who during their lifetime were probably not capable of simple exercises, on a level with the best fighters of humanity physically.

The rank ++ is the designation of the fact that this characteristic, despite the fact that under normal conditions it only have a certain rank, in most cases it exceeds the strength of other servants of comparable strength and is comparable to the power of a higher rank.

Rank D - Indicates that during his life the Servant was not known for his physical strength, but also not for weakness. Most likely, he simply concentrated on something else, so that the people's memory did not note his merits in this field. At this same time, a Servant can easily throw up cars, crush his way through stone walls and fence with a lamppost.


	4. Chapter 4

"...and now here we are." Momon finished his story and paused, giving everyone an opportunity to digest the information -the first time for Caster and the second time for Mashu and Animusphere.

"Yes." The man said vaguely, leaning on his staff. "Your situation doesn't look the most pleasant. I'mare in no better condition, though."

Momonga looked at Caster with interest after which Caster, realizing that he needed to clarify what was said, nevertheless began to speak. "Here in the Holy Grail War I am the only survivor."

Nodding at the place that still kept the imprints of the recent battle, the man sighed and put his hand behind his head, patting his neck.

"It was an ordinary War, as much as you can say it about any Holy Grail War, but one day everything changed. All the Masters disappeared one night, then the city was engulfed in flames, and Saber..." Caster shivered slightly. "Every day that psycho becomes more and more insane. All the Servants with half a brain tried to flee from her. She beat everyone who tried to attack her. And after that they all disappeared."

Looking at the site of the recent battle, where the bodies of the Servants had already turned into black smoke, Caster frowned. "They all disappear into black smoke. These are not even Servants, just the monsters that took their form. Like worms taking the body of the deceased..."

At that moment, Caster obviously thought about spitting at his feet, but looking at the girls standing next to him, he held out and continued to talk. "And now only I remain, wandering through this fiery hellhole."

"In other words, the only one that remained in this War are you and Saber?" Animusphere, while allowing Momonga to speak freely, still asked questions as the boss here and there. "And if you defeat her..."

"Yes, I believe the War will end." Caster sighed and ruffled his hair. "At least I think so".

"In other words". Olga sighed. "You want to beat Saber, but you can't do it alone and so now you want to use us to win?"

"It sounds rude when you say it like that, but yes." Caster nodded anyway. Momonga chose to keep silent about the small fact that when Caster talked and said 'us', he meant not Marie, whose contribution to the victory was not particularly large, but Mashu as he saw her as the only viable fighter.

"A new horde of skeletons is approaching." Sensing the appearance of the undead on the periphery, Momonga spoke calmly.

"Pesky pests." Caster just dismissed these words, and then without looking, threw a spell approximately in the direction of the creatures. "By the way, about why I was here... Just ten minutes ago, there was a titanic accumulation of mana, something you can't even express with words... And then it was suddenly gone. Any idea what that could have been?"

Mashu, who had been silent before took a look at Momonga, as if asking him if it was worth telling certain informations to Caster.

"I don't have a clue." Momonga's answer was quite straightforward. "Maybe the rayshifting process looked like that?"

"It is improbable." The chief brushed off the assumption, but without providing any other answers. she nevertheless with a sigh was forced to admit that she had no more theories.

"Sorry, but I suppose whatever it is it's already gone." Sighing, Caster cracked his neck, then looked at Momonga once more and after waiting a couple of seconds came to an internal conclusion. "If we are determined to defeat Saber then I suppose I should also get in shape."

"Hey you!" Sticking his stick at Momonga unceremoniously, Caster shook his head. "Become my Master."

It would have been difficult not to react to such rudeness if Momonga were an ordinary person. However the emotion suppressor reduced the emotional response to the level of mild irritation. Was it worth it for Momonga to become the master of Caster?

Of course, there was no real need for it as he considers himself quite viable for fighting Saber. But at the same time he might be able to force Caster to fight instead of himself. Which would preserve Momonga's body and let him keep his secret a little longer.

And yet, he can't hide it forever.

At the same time, it is not that Momonga wished to become a Master. He had to confess he was generally not very good at leadership positions. More precisely perhaps he was actually quite suited for it. However he had no desire for this kind of position of power. In other words from a logical point of view he doesn't need to accept Caster's proposal. From an emotional point of view he didn't like it either.

"Hey!" Caster tried to attract attention of Momonga, deeply engulfed into his thoughts, when he realized that his proposal or perhaps even statement was ignored. "Give me your hand for a contract!"

With these words, Caster stretched out his palm, and then peered expectantly at the man on the opposite of him with a raised arm.

"Caster." However, noticing some reluctance by her Master in taking a decision, Mashu decided to help Momonga out. "Why don't you create a contract with the Director?"

Mashu it seemed, herself was ready to smile at her own ingenuity. But Animusphere instead of praising her for the notion only closed her eyes and lowered her face to the floor.

"This one?" Caster almost uncomprehendingly looked at the second girl standing next to the servant girl. "I can't, she's cursed. Excellent magic circuits, top-notch reserves of mana but no potential to become a Master".

After these words, Animusphere did not budge, only squeezed her hand into a ball so hard that her knuckles turned white.

"A, mmmm, aaaa..." After these words, Mashu lost her nerve instantly. Realizing that she had, by chance, probably touched the most sensitive spot for Animusphere. "T-then, hmmmm..."

"Okay." Nevertheless having come to a decision Momonga gave his hand in response and grasped the palm of the Caster on the opposite of him. "I agree to make a contract."

Momonga picked the instantly formed link at the earliest moment of the formation so as not to allow Caster to gain access to all his mana at once. However even a barely formed link was enough.

"Oh, yes you have a ton of mana!" Caster exclaimed in surprise at the moment when the resulting link barely had time to form."Are you, by chance, not some local prominent magi?"

"No." Momonga tried instantly to dispel Caster's thought in order to avoid giving Caster, Animusphere or Mashu additional reasons for suspicion. "I'm just your temporary Master."

"Yes, it's a pity that I just got you right now." Caster sighed. "If you had come to me at the time of the start of this War, I would have won it long ago. Seriously, my previous Master was not a slacker, but believe me you are probably three times better than he is."

"I would take that as a compliment." Sighing Momonga glanced at Mashu then at Caster. "I suppose now we have to go defeat Saber, but it seems to me just now that we all are quite tired. It is necessary to rest after all that has happened."

"More or less agreed." With these words Caster intervened in the conversation, after which he shrugged his shoulders. "Only... You are humans, are you not? If so, then I should say that there is nothing to eat in the city. All that was edible has long since been burned or lost."

"It's a pity." Momonga felt nothing of this notion, though, given that he didn't need food at all, Mashu and Caster were Servants for whom the food was just for pleasure. The only one who would suffer from lack of food would be the Animusphere herself.

However she only sluggishly dismissed the news.

"In any case, nothing can be done." The girl rubbed bridge of her nose then looked around. "So much dust and dirt ... There is nowhere to sit."

"By the way, since you have become my temporary Master I have to ask-" Caster glanced at Momonga. "What's with your hand?"

"Just leave my hand alone!" Momonga shouted.

* * *

Naturally they rested for quite some time. So gradually from the idleness it turned into a conversation. Nobody wanted to sleep in such a place, and the skeletons, after several more attempts to attack those present, finally resigned to their position in this food chain and stopped trying to interrupt their relaxation.

"And yet, if I had been called up as Lancer, someone like Saber would be a small fry for me." The man sighed regretfully. "But, there's nothing to be done, a Caster is a Caster."

"But shouldn't you be happy that you were called this way?" With these words, Momonga looked at the man opposite him. The Caster was sitting on the ground, putting his fur cloak under himself and leaning on the wall. Under the cloak an incredibly handsome man with naturally neatly trimmed hair with a small ponytail gathered from blue hair was shown. A man with refined features and sharp cheekbones sat and seemed to be completely relaxed. "That is, you were so powerful in your life and left such a strong mark on the history of people that even in a different role, without your main weapon, you were considered strong enough to fight on equal terms with the greatest heroes of modern history."

"Perhaps" After a couple of seconds after thinking over what was said he seemed to acknowledge that Momonga was right. "But this still does not mean that I want to part with my trusty spear."

"I understand." Momonga nodded favorably. He also did not know how he would react if he were in this world without his Nazarick, but his radiant miracle was with him. Sealed in his Reality Marble his Nazarick was with Momonga. And yet even if it's presence was one that supported the man, he did not want to call it. Of course, there were many reasons for this, like the use of such a Phantasm will cause too powerful of changes in the world, will not go unnoticed and will cost a lot of mana, especially in the case of a full call, even for someone with an almost infinite mana supply like Momonga. But the main reason was different.

He understood within his mind the state of Nazarick. About all its existing inhabitants. About each element, about their life... But to understand with the mind and to feel are different things.

Aware that Nazarick exists, Momonga could continue to move forward, supporting himself with the thoughts of the existence of the most precious thing in his life alongside him. However, if he calls Nazarick, if he sees it himself, if he meets with each NPC who came to life, if he looked at the creation of his hands...

Can he continue to move on?

Would he want to keep moving on?

Despite now realizing the existence of Nazariсk he could still concentrate on other things beside his Nazariсk. But he also understood that he had no need for anything more than Nazariсk. In other words…

He was afraid.

He was afraid to go to his own paradise... because he may decide to stay in it forever.

After all, he did not need anything more than Nazarick. And therefore, as a person who always strives for one goal in life, he should not achieve it. Because he needs a goal to which he will move on.

Stupid, but hewas a stupid man, once called at birth Satoru Suzuki and the one that chose the name Momonga.

"... Although you managed to get on the hunt for the Great Grail." Apparently while Momonga was deep in his thoughts the conversation continued. So at the moment when he emerged from his thoughts, the topic of the conversation was completely different.

"We had no desire for anything." Olga Maria's tautology was justified in this case. The Greater Grail, the mystical object for which all the Holy Grail Wars were organized. According to legend the winner gets access to the Grail that can fulfill any wish, any desire. "But we were nevertheless involved in the war. Fate has a bad sense of humor."

"But a great sense of irony..." Caster sighed and leaned back on the dusty wall. "Hey, girl with the shield..."

"Huh?" Mashu even reacted to such disrespectful treatment.

"During the battle with the Lancer, I saw how you used your Phantasm." Caster nodded his head towards the place of the last battle. "And heard how you called it. Do not take it for me being rude but I don't remember a single hero whose legend that Unknown Phantasm was mentioned in."

"Ah, this." After what was said, Masha was seriously embarrassed "The fact is that I... This is not my Phantasm, you see... In fact, I don't even know it's name."

As if apologizing for this fact, the girl immediately bowed to the floor.

"So think up one of your own." Caster dismissed frivolously and then waiting for the reaction from the girl nodded again. "Yes, just think up your own thing. Names have a special power. I even know one hero that became two after he changed his name in the retellings of another nation."

"But what?" Asked the embarrassed girl.

"Just think about what is important to you, what makes sense to you." Caster pointed his hand in the air. "And put this meaning into your Phantasm. And who knows what this name will bring to you."

After these words, Mashu fell silent while Momonga himself thought.

All his Phantasms already had a name and Momon of course, could use them instinctively at the highest level. Selecting the right options, the right forces... However, did this mean that by using a different name would he be able to use a different version of his Phantasm? Or would it require more than just a name?

"Well..." After a few seconds Mashu with a sigh looked up. - "Since my Phantasm is for protection... I want to call it by the name of something important for me, something that protects me, and that requires my protection..."

"Great way of thinking girl." Grinning at the girl Caster praised her.

"And what did you call it Mashu?" The voice of Animusphere made the Servant suddenly start, then look away, instantly buried in the face of Momon, who was sitting next to her. After that, Mashu suddenly blushed. "Something important for you, protecting you and demanding protection..."

With every word, Mashu blushed more and more, until it was the same color as a ripe tomato, however, without taking away her face from Momonga's.

"Ah, I understand." With the snap of the Animusphere's fingers, the red face of the girl in front of Satoru instantly changed to white. "This is Chaldea!"

"Chaldea is something important for you, you grew up there." The chief began to bend her fingers "It protects you, because it protects all of humanity, and it requires our protection, like now."

"Ah, ahah, ahahaha, yeah" Masha laughed. "That's all right, chief, you guessed everything correctly! I just thought you might have some weird thoughts... No, nothing!"

"Naturally." Only the blind would not see Mashu's embarrassment put into her words. But Animusphere delighted with her successful conjecture and didn't even bother to look at the girl. "I'm your boss, you know."

"By the way, girl." Said the Caster familiarly, after which he nodded toward Momonga. "I have a question. If you're the chief, how did it happen to end up with him making all the decisions?"

After these words Olga blinked several times before for a second her gaze did not turn into an angry one. "I make all the decisions here! I am the commander and only me!"

"Okay, okay, no more questions." Caster didn't argue, just grinning mockingly. "Tell yourself whatever you want. Only, you know, that in essence I am attached to the only Master. The girl next to you is similar. So in fact, technically you are only alive because of him..."

"Enough." Momonga's voice interrupted the mage tirade, so that he paid attention to the man. "Enough, Caster."

Yes he had to admit the Animusphere did not make such a favorable impression during their conversations. But she did not deserve to have her pride trampled so much and to be belittled in such a way. In the end even if she was rude and acted on her own way, she still meant well. So she did not deserve such humiliation.

"Pf, as you know." Caster did not argue, just moving a little on the spot to get comfortable. "By the way. I know that the advice may seem bad, but I still advise you to at least try to sleep a bit before the fight. Take out at least a little of emotional and mental stress."

It was as if Animusphere was waiting for that proposal, so she rose from the cleaned piece of wall where she had sat before and moved behind the wall so that there was some kind of barrier between her and Caster. After which she made herself more comfortable in the dusty corner.

Considering that she had spent fifteen minutes before clearing her place of dust and debris it showed how much she wanted to just sit in the corner away from everyone at the moment.

Caster only grinned at this behavior and closed his eyes, resting his head more comfortably on the hollowed stone.

Mashu, who was sitting in the middle of both, turned to Momonga, as if asking him how she should react to such an event.

Momon just sighed.

'It looks like the times we had conflicts over the expansion of Ainz Ooal Gown'. The man sighed again. 'Then many new players began to join us, people had trouble adapting to each other and the conflicts were endless...'

Despite the fact that, in essence, this memory was not positive, thinking about the similarity of the situation as with his guild, left a small smile on Momonga's face.

* * *

"And where is the Greater Grail?" Animusphere was not impressed at the entrance. "This looks just like a huge cave."

"Below it is the Grail." Caster shrugged. "There is a lot of space there - a whole cave system, but due to the fact that she is a real Servant, and not just a monster, she can use her Noble Phantasm. And given that she is in constant contact with the Grail she does not have to worry about hermana."

"She has a working Noble Phantasm?!" Animusphere recoiled. "And you were silent about this? Are you a moron?!"

"I just didn't bring it up earlier because it wasn't relevant at the time." Caster answered her indignantly. "Maybe you are the moron here?!"

"You didn't tell us earlier because you want to kill us all!" In response, Animusphere pointed an accusatory finger at him.

"I apologize" A new voice appeared that attracted the attention of both disputants. "But if you came here just to argue I can offer to just let you leave now."

The man who appeared after the voice was tall enough for a Japanese and dressed in a red coat that emphasized his white, in fact, gray hair.

"Archer." Grinning and instantly forgetting about the ongoing dispute Caster immediately grabbed his staff and point it forward menacingly. "Long time no see, still as douchey, as I remember."

"Archer?!" Marie recoiled - "You said that she was alone, and Archer was killed a long time!"

"Unfortunately, this is true." Archer himself replied to these words, after which he took a step forward "It is a shame, but Arthuria really did kill me a little earlier. But death is not a reason to stop serving."

Noting the irony of facing someone recruiting an army of undead Momonga nevertheless decided to take the situation into his own hands. "Mashu, go ahead! Caster, step back! Olga to me!"

"Why are you the one commanding yet again?!" Was this because Olga was provoked earlier or another reason? She looked at Momonga angrily. Archer, however, despite the fact that by his appearance a little earlier he himself had destroyed the surprise factor he did not waste the opportunity and instantly sent a projectile towards the indignant chief. It was just an ordinary throwing dagger, however, it was thrown with force and speed surpassing that of a human. Therefore, at best it would tear the girl through if it hit her. It was good, however, that Momonga was fast enough to respond.

'I would feel guilty if one of my colleagues died during my supervision.' the office worker in a body of young man admitted before himself 'Death at work is a stain on the company's reputation.'

Without much trouble Momonga could catch the blade and then launch it back. Considering that Archer was distracted by a spell cast by Caster, perhaps Momonga would even be able to hit him, leaving a wound on the body of the fake Servant. However, this would raise a number of questions to his person that he would have to clarify before the last battle with Saber, which he would not like to do. Therefore he should only block the attack. But how?

More precisely, he had a lot of ways to accomplish that but they usually included magic or abilities that this body did not provide or could withstand. However, a simpler method of blocking did exist.

"Ouch!" Instantly, when the blade dug into the man's hand, he screamed, but the suppression of pain saved him from the suffering that would have ensued. Archer's blade entered his palm at full speed, literally cutting his hand in half, stuck, catching the bone with the guard.

'So, my human body is not protected by damage nullification.' He thought, surprised, but instantly calmed down after the rush of pain is nullified thanks to his abilities, so Momonga looked with interest at the blade stuck in his hand. 'Hmm...'

"M...Momon..." Staring at his hand, Animusphere covered her mouth in horror, however, from the widened pupils, it was easy to guess her reaction. And indeed from the impact of the knife, the hand of Momonga was literally torn in half. After such an injury no ordinary person would ever have been able to use it and it would be a miracle if amputation was not required. Of course, the possibilities of the magi in this regard were much wider. But even they would have met a challenge in trying to correct such a serious wound.

The blade should have been pulled out of the hand — however, considering that the torn arm stopped working immediately after the injury and the other hand was his Servant's hand Momonga was not given the opportunity yet and therefore turning to the girl standing next to him, Momonga nodded at his hand. "Can you get the blade, please?"

"YOU BASTARD!" In a vicious roar that sounded a second later was more akin to a Berserkers - it was impossible even to assume it was Mashu's voice and if it were not for the fact that immediately after that the well-fought Archer was set off on a quick, but short flight to the nearest wall. He was literally pressed into the wall by the blow of a huge shield.

Caster however simply took the opportunity. After the body of Archer was beaten into the stone several red rays crashed into the wall, piercing the body of the man through, causing him to evaporate immediately with black smoke.

"Senpai!" Even before Mashu made sure of the death of her opponent she rushed back. "Senpai?!"

"Just a wound." Momonga reacted calmly, as if a cat had merely scratched him. After which he indifferently brought his arm where the bloody dagger still stuck forward. "Please, can you pull it out?"

"I can heal!" As if only having regained consciousness from the shock, having looked at the dagger sticking in Momonga's hand, the Animusphere reacted. "Now, I will simply heal the wound..."

"Don't go near him!" Mashu, who turned out to be in front of her chief, ominously thrust her huge shield into the ground, as if to block Momon from the girl's gaze,

"Mashu." However, Momonga's voice was very calm and understanding "The Chief didn't cause such a development of events. You shouldn't attack her. Better to help me get the blade out of my hand."

Responding to these words, Mashu turned to Momonga, and only then realized what he said.

"Yes, yes, now, of course!"

"Don't do it." but before the girl could get the blade out of the Master's hand, Caster intervened. "If the artery was pierced, it's better not to pull it out so that the man doesn't risk bleeding to death. This should be done under the supervision of a pair of experienced doctors or at least knowledgeable magi."

"But how..." Mashu looked blankly at Momon, to which he shook her head.

"It's not a problem." Satoru just waved with his somewhat brutalized hand."Although, I confess, it now would be quite a bother, if I would need to scratch something."

Only Caster, who grunted to himself, reacted positively to this joke, while the two girls only looked at Momonga even more worriedly. However, if in the eyes of Mashu there was only concern, then in the eyes of Marie something more could be read - regret and repentance.

"With such a wound, you shouldn't go after Saber." looking at the man again Caster sighed. "Yes, it would be better to just wait here."

Mashu glanced uneasily at Momonga but, having received a confident nod in reply she nevertheless managed to look away. After which she also wordlessly followed Caster.

Momonga only continued to accompany them with a glance until their backs disappeared far down the grotto, and then exhaled. It seems that his participation in this all is finally over.

"Sorry." Suddenly said the voice of the girl next to Momon himself. "I'm sorry ... It's all my fault."

Strictly speaking, yes, Animusphere herself was to blame for the wound on Momonga since he was injured when he decided to protect her. On the other hand Satoru himself did not realize that it was not the best idea to use his human hand and he could easily have repelled such an attack if he had just used his Servant's hand.

"It's not worth it." Judging in this way, Momonga objected. "It was my fault..."

"Do not try to comfort me!" However, instead of calming down Animusphere instantly became furious at the moment when she heard Momonga. "DO YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW? I UNDERSTAND IT PERFECTLY, ABOUT CHALDEA, ABOUT MASTERS, ABOUT FAILURES, THAT NO ONE CAN STAND ME, ABOUT MY USELESSNESS, ABOUT MY ATTITUDE, ABOUT MY STUPIDITY, I KNOW EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING!"

Momonga was stunned by the girl's emotional outburst.

"Yes, I know everything! Did you think this is my first failure?!" Accusingly, Animusphere threw a pointed finger at him. However, instead of an accusatory tone her tone was full of anger, anger directed at herself. "Since the day I became a director, my leadership has been a complete disaster! You think I myself do not understand that I can't do anything? You think I don't know why people quit after working with me for a week?!"

Momonga would have intervened in the girl's speech but it was simply not possible. As if a dam broke Animusphere only continued to speak and shout, trying to pour out everything she had on her mind.

"I know, I know, I know!" She repeated like a mantra, after which, on the next repetition, her voice broke and the vile notes of choking crying were leaked to her tone. "I know everything! I messed up everything me, me and only me! This whole situation is because of me!"

"This explosion occurred under my leadership, because of my problems! All the people that died died because of me! All the Masters could not go here because of me! And because of this all of humanity will die! Because of me!" After these words, the girl wanted to shout out something else, however, instead of words, only a wheeze burst out of her throat. Then, unable to support herself anymore, the Animusphere covered her face and sobbed, continuing to speak through sobs. "Something... Even with a curse... Even without a father... Anyway, to achieve..."

At this moment, Momonga seemed to be hit with a hammer. He finally remembered and understood why he had protected the girl from imminent death.

* * *

"Understand me." Yggdrasil did not support facial expressions, but Ulbert's voice sounded so sad that Momonga understood everything without issue. "I have nothing."

Ulbert laughed, loudly, with anguish, like an opera villain.

"Understand that! I have nothing! I have nothing and will never have anything!" Ulbert's avatar clutched at his stomach, in the intervals between shouts he continued to laugh. "I am a freak! I have no looks! I have no money! I have no family! I don't have a girlfriend! I have no children! I have no one close to me! I have no one to love me! I do not have the opportunity to get out! I only have four classes of education! I work as a janitor! I work eight hours a day - and then I come to this game! This damn Yggdrasil! Here! The only place where I mean anything! Where I am not "that ugly janitor", but a fucking Archimage! Here, where I at least mean something! This is where I can find something!"

"It doesn't matter, even if it's just a video game!" Ulberts clenched his fists. "Even if it's just a kid's entertainment, it's what I've achieved. I am one of the hundred best players in the whole game! I am a World Disaster! I mean something here! No matter how small this achievement, this is my achievement! My only achievement! The only thing I achieved, that was achieved by myself! Achieved without someone else's help and without someone else's intervention!"

"That's why I hate Touch Me so much!" Clenching his fists with all his strength, so that his own claws thrust into the hands of his avatar of the game, starting to cause damage. "Because for him this is a game! Of course this is a game, but why is he good in it as well then?! He has everything in the world, a beautiful wife, two children, a prestigious job, a handsome body, a bank account, combat skills, a higher education - everything I don't have! Everything I would never have!"

"But even here, even in this game, where I gnawed at my place with my teeth he achieved everything! Playfully become one of the World Champions, one of the nine best players." Raising his fist into the air, Ulbert shouted into the void. "It's not fair! It's just not fair! All I asked for was to achieve something in this life! To achieve, without money, without help, without education, to achieve at least something! Myself, just achieve something... "

* * *

"Just achieve something..." - By the time when Momonga looked at the girl again, it was already possible to squeeze the water out of his sleeves, however, Momonga did not do it. On the contrary, rather, Animusphere herself was not worrying about it, since she has touched Momonga's hand, which was thoroughly stained with blood.

Unlike Caster, he knew that he could not bleed, so he removed the blade a long time ago, but it was difficult to move his hand. Of course, the feeling of pain was neutralized by his skill, but even so it was unpleasant to feel the two halves of his palm rub against each other. And yet he stretched out his hand, then laid it on the girl's shoulder, forcing her to look at him with tear-stained eyes.

"Don't worry." Momon tried to talk to herher as friendly as possible. "No one has yet begun their journey with solid victories. You will grow up, you will learn and you will achieve everything you want. I promise."

Momonga tried to smile at the girl in return, and then pulled her over to him, causing the Animusphere sitting on her lap to sway and fall into the arms of the man.

"Don't worry." memories of a friend surfaced in Momonga's head, overlapping with what he saw before him now. "I will help you. You will grow up - and I will be there to help you. Everything will be fine…"

Momon's calm and quiet voice reassured the chief, forcing her to stop crying and sobbing and shaking.

Slowly, Olga Marie looked up at the man, glancing up at him, and then steel confidence returned to her eyes.

"Well, that's go-mmmmm!" He did not finish that sentence since his mouth was sealed with a passionate kiss.

* * *

**Agility:** **C**

Agility is a parameter that is responsible for a Servant's Agility, speed, and accuracy. In other words, it is this characteristic that is responsible for the legendary actions like incredible accuracy, incredible speed -or for the ability to go through any battle without receiving a single wound.

Agility is a special characteristic since it is correlated with size. In other words, a giant possessing high Agility values, despite being incredibly agile for its size, is quite likely to be slower compared to a smaller Servant, while a giant monster that achieved the highest values, although it will be no second to anyone with the speed of his movement will simply be too slow to react to the actions of small targets.

Rank C - Indicates that during his life the Servant was nevertheless noted for his good agility, but not a single myth ever concentrated on it, and in the main legends this feature of him is often overlooked or omitted in the narration. At the same time, the Servant surpasses the supersonic barrier several times for his usual battle, and it is quite possible, that a dozen times for a reflexive actions.

* * *

**Pat reon \ rure**


	5. Chapter 5

Continuing to descend through the cave Caster merely glanced at his fellow Servant, who had not lifted her eyes from her feet, before grunting and lifting his eyes to the ceiling.

"If you are so worried you could have stayed with him." The girl with the shield instantly faltered and almost fell to the ground, holding on only by a miracle.

"W-what are you talking about?" The girl tried to brush aside the claim. But even if she didn't stutter and said the phrase confidently, her face turned red to the tips of her ears.

"You are a disgustingly bad liar, you know that?" Caster innocently remarked, after which he waited to appreciate the embarrassment and blush on the girl's face. He laughed, pleased with her reaction. "Okay, tell me, have you known him for a long time?"

"N-no..." Apparently also having come to the conclusion that she could not hide her feelings the girl embarrassed, lowered her gaze and answered. "A day, or two, I think..."

"Uh?" Caster smiled. "Then it's damn bad. It's usually because of this 'love at first sight' thing, humanity is changing. Say though, why did you fall in love?"

"Ummm, I'm not saying it's love..." The girl coughed awkwardly and then desperately began to divert her gaze along the walls of the grotto. "I... It's just that he saved me..."

In fact yes, in a sense Momonga really did save her. Because without him Mashu would have long ceased to exist without magical nourishment. But specifically in the case that Mashu herself remembered, immediately after the explosion Momon was not able to save her, but tried. However, in the mind of Mashu herself, the difference between these two things were insignificant.

"Hoooo" However Caster who was not initiated into such secrets of the maiden soul, only stretched indefinitely. "Then I suppose it can be forgiven for one to start falling in love if this is about saving lives."

After this statement Mashu began to blush even more than before. She finally stopped looking ahead, trying to find anything that would give her an excuse to hide her face from the Caster's watchful eyes. In response to her actions he just grinned again, but almost instantly became serious.

"Anyway" Said Caster. "Any thoughts that are distracting you - you need to drop it. You can not go into battle in this state."

Had Momonga been with them he would have probably thought something like 'You just made everything worse. Now she will be even more anxious because of your teasing.' But here and now Momon wasn't present and therefore there was no one to say how Mashu felt herself after such news.

"If it will be easier for you to concentrate-" Caster grinned. "Just remember the fact that if you lose now you will die, then your Master and then all of humanity."

Hearing such a thing Mashu, who was already not a sample of composure, paled to the level of white sheet. Caster, pleased with the effect burst out laughing.

"Relax, don't worry." After waiting a bit the man dismissed her thoughts as if they were nothing. "Your goal is just to not let Saber get close to me while being ready to use your Phantasm when she decides to use Excalibur. Oh and also run when I tell you. You can handle it, can't you?"

"I have no choice." Mashu said a little gloomily after Caster's words. Caster hearing this, smiled.

"Don't be afraid. After getting a new Master and a top-notch one at that it, it'll be easy to take down a small fry like Saber." Caster said trying to support the girl. "Although I must admit, this guy really does have a lot of mana..."

"By the way..." After the mention of Momon's mana reserves the girl remembered that she wanted to talk to Caster while they were alone with each other, as with a person much more versed in Servants as well as in magic "About senpai..."

"Caster..." The voice that was heard once again disrupted the conversation. The voice was deep and low, for a female voice, but not gloomy, giving it an air of cold indifference. "So you decided that you can't run away from fate forever..."

However, stopping and looking at the second girl present Saber unexpectedly delayed her statement.

"You have found an interesting ally for yourself..." Saber said vaguely, after which her gaze shifted to the shield. "And a shield, huh..."

"Well, well." Saber nodded slowly as if acknowledging the presence of the Servants. She pointed her blade forward. "Come to me, and my sword will decide if your shield is as strong as it seems."

Caster just grinned at these words. Mindless bravado will not help Arthur or in this case Arthuria win against them. Not now, when he has gained protection in the form of the girl's shield. Not now, when he has gained more strength in the form of support from a Master.

Mashu as if sensing the change of mood instantly rushed forward. Moving her shield in such a way as to protect herself while crashing into her target like a ram. Perhaps a good tactic but the girl was too inexperienced and slow for such a trick.

"Too slow!" Something that Saber did not fail to notice. Immediately the not so fast but still much more experienced Saber appeared as if out of thin air from the unprotected side of Mashu, bypassing the protection of her shield. The problem of Mashu's movement and the enormous weapon of hers was that of her inertia so she could not stop right away. But after taking just one extra step the girl exposed her back to the attack of Saber, which instantly used her blade to strike.

As if Caster would let her!

He did not waste time in vain and therefore a ray of concentrated fire hit the place where Saber was. Even the simplest rune acquired special strength when it was used by the Child of Light.

Even so, Arthuria possessed the class ability all Sabers possessed, Magical Resistance, therefore Caster should have acted for sure without using weaker spells.

"Hmm!" As if in mockery instead of dodging Saber only thrust out her damned blade, dispelling the attack directed at her in one blow. No not dispelling, it was enough for her to simply release a powerful wave of pure mana in order to break Caster's spell.

The idea that in such a case she would have spent much more for defense than Caster for an attack was short-lived. Of course Saber could afford it because she was fed mana by the Grail itself. In other words she didn't need to save mana.

"A problem, huh." Caster concluded dissatisfied. After which he instantly retreated when Saber rushed after him. Even in this form his speed exceeded the speed of Saber by an order of magnitude. However when in the middle of her step Saber sped up unexpectedly Caster cursed to himself. Damn this Grail and damn the endless amounts of mana given by it!

Crouching sharply and letting the blow flew over himself, Caster leaned on his hands after which he was in the air in one continuous movement. Even if Saber could accelerate due to her Mana Burst she could only accelerate in a straight line, so it was not so difficult for the more cunning Caster to evade her strikes.

However in the air Caster could not evade. Saber has the ability to exploit such a weakness, finding Caster in such a defenseless position...

If it were not for the blow from Mashu who appeared next to Saber who was distracted by Caster. However Saber, as if having predicted the blow by an animal instinct, instead of trying to follow Caster, took a step forward, dodging the shield blow behind her.

But at the same time, this also meant that Saber had stopped concentrating on Caster. That had taken his advantage over her distraction to its fullest. Another beam flew from his staff and then targeted Saber.

She did not have time to raise her blade for another Burst and even if she had the time, having retracted her blade, she would have opened herself up for attack from the huge shield. Therefore she could only be prepared to be struck, which immediately came afterwards.

Such a spell was not the strongest attack in Caster's arsenal, but it was still an attack and therefore, without having to make a significant contribution, it still forced the girl to take a half step back. But it did the most important thing.

It struck the first blow.

Mashu took advantage of the opening that had appeared and approached Saber once again. Raising her shield to strike, but the lack of experience negatively affected her again. Therefore out of inexperience she brought the shield too high above so the subsequent blow from Arthuria found a way to hit the girl.

Mashu's vitality was beyond all praise but even so Excalibur drew a transverse strip through the girl's open stomach causing her to hiss in pain.

Caster would likely to have done something about it but having decided to take advantage of Saber's distraction from him he took several runestones from his pouch at once then concentrated on the magic sealed in them. Mana from Caster instantly concentrated into several patterns. Manifesting the forces sealed inside, after which they merged and formed into a spell that is concentrated in the tip of the magician's staff.

Without losing a moment staying still while Mashu continued to fend off Saber he concentrated the spell under the legs of both girls.

"Shield!" The man cried instantly, after which, to his joy, Mashu had enough understanding to put her shield up to cover her completely. Saber, on the other hand, did not have such an option available to her. Therefore the whirlpool of energy that exploded under her feet slammed into her with at full force, throwing her several meters away with the shock wave.

Mashu also swayed from the force of the spell, but was protected from the explosion thanks her shield. Therefore she was able to grab her weapon more firmly and then rush forward, trying to use the trick she had failed at a little earlier. This time Saber was in the air and so could not dodge so easily. Even so Arthuria slashed her blade sending forth a wave of mana, forcing Mashu to crash into it, shaking the girl with the shield and stopping her momentum.

Turning in the air Saber landed gently on the ground, after which she instantly jumped away, leaving the spot where Caster's next spell hit. But Caster was only pleased with such a turn of events as it allowed him to keep Saber at a distance.

Mashu rushing forward this time used her shield in the manner of a claymore, deciding to maximize the strength of her strike.

However, Saber was much more experienced and besides that she possessed the advantages of her Mana Bursts. Therefore such a tactic was as unproductive as possible since having even more of the speed and accuracy of her attacks reduced, Mashu was deprived of any possibility of injuring Saber...

However, this was the best possible tactic in these conditions since the sweeping blows best concentrated Saber on Mashu and allowed her to keep Arthuria at a distance from Caster.

Whether Mashu specifically chose such tactics or simply accidentally stumbled on them Caster did not know, but he did not intend to waste the opportunity.

Sticking his hand into the pouch at his belt he looked cautiously at Saber. If she attacks him while he was building something really strong from his arsenal then both of them will most likely suffer. If Scathach taught him anything from all his time with her, it was the fact that runes do not tolerate haste and negligence. Especially Primordial runes.

As if hearing his thoughts Saber glanced at him. After which Caster used several runes. Perhaps he should have used something other than attack magic in this battle.

The runes that appeared into the world flashed with blue light in his hands. Saber attempted to rush at him, relying on the speed of her maneuver, but the magic turned out to be faster. Before she managed to reach Cater several roots appeared from under ground, forcing her to stop in flight and flinch under the action of inertial forces. Mashu who appeared next to her strengthened this impact by hitting her with her shield.

This time Caster made a leap back, readying his staff. But instead of another attack, Saber instead spoke.

"It seems that I have underestimated you." Her words sounded cold, but if it weren't for that Caster could have sworn there was respect in that tone. "Well, then I will destroy both of you with one blow."

At the moment when the girl picked up her blade with both hands at once Caster realized that that very moment had come.

"Mashu!" He commanded the Shielder then rushed with his runes. Even with the Mashu's Phantasm he would prefer to hedge his bets and use a pair of spells to strengthen it.

Mashu responded instantly, throwing herself against the trajectory of the blade. Intercepting the slash with her shield she exhaled and then shouted the name she chose for her Phantasm.

"Lord Chaldeas!" The shield that appeared before her eyes this time was much denser and larger than what she had called the last time. After all Caster's words about investing her own meaning in phantasm were not in vain.

"Excalibur..." But Saber wasn't going to stop. Evil black energy swirled around her blade instantly as soon as the girl uttered the first word of the name of her blackened sword. Completely inappropriate image for the holy sword, Excalibur.

'What happened to you, Saber...' Caster shook his head internally. But instead of paying attention to a distraction he used his runes to help Mashu.

"...MORGAN!" Shouting out the name of her Noble Phantasm, putting all her power into one strike Saber slashed the blade from which the flow of pure destruction surged in the same instant. The energy, corrupted in its very essence, rushed forward in a wave sparing none in its path.

Although initially such a force was intended to destroy wicked enemies now it did not see the difference between the righteous and the guilty, just biting into the shield of Mashu like a mad hungry beast.

Almost instantly the girl felt the pressure behind all the power of Saber's Phantasm. Cracks ran across the surface of her shield.

'Hold on!' But one thought did not allow the girl to retreat 'We need to hold on!'

Behind her stood Caster, her only chance of winning.

The pressure of the damned Noble Phantasm did not weaken. The incredible power of Saber's Phantasm seemed to obscure the entire horizon in front of Mashu, as if darkness had swallowed all the light in front of her. Cracks ran across the unexpectedly thin shield that separated the girl and the sea of curling blackness.

'Just hold on!' Masha gritted her teeth. The runes beside her flowed into the shield, supporting it under the force of Saber's Phantasm.

Behind her was her senpai, awaiting her return.

Excalibur Morgan's damned strength was aimed at destroying people. That which did not contain life in itself should not have been touched. However the sheer force of the attack itself destroyed like boiling fire, crushing stone and devouring mana. Even the Primordial runes in the hands of the Caster could not withstand such a force - the runes threatened to crumble under the sheer force of Saber's sword.

'Almost there!' From the tension in the eyes of the girl, tears came out, preventing her from seeing the true strength of Excalibur. And so the black sword as if sensing its own end rushed to the shield that continued to stand in its last insane attempt.

The shield could not stand up to such force. It was covered with the thinnest of white cobweb, threatening to crumble at the last second. As if at the peak moment of the attack Mashu's phantasm could not withstand, the very center of the shield crumbled with a quiet crunch, exposing the first gap in the defense...

Which was instantly closed again by the shield of Mashu.

Insane force continued to rage, biting into Mashu's shield. Streams of darkness passed through her weapon, touching her hands, causing her to hiss from powerlessness and pain.

But…

Having burst out at the last moment, Excalibur's insane force rose into a whirlwind. After which, without accomplishing its goal of destroying the shield, it was dispelled in a final blow.

It was this blow that was the last straw for Mashu's shield. The last blow of the cursed sword caused the faithful shield to shatter one moment then fall down like a rain of broken glass.

Mashu having felt how the danger of the attack had finally disappeared. Fell helplessly to the ground, allowing Caster to see the surprised- no, the shocked face of Saber.

"Who is this girl?" The tone from Saber was not cold this time, rather it was with naked surprise.

For a second, even Caster stopped to pay homage to the incredible will and strength of Mashu. But a moment later he still concentrated on his opponent.

"And that's what you got, Saber!" Caster grinned. The reason why he did not use his Phantasm from the very beginning was the threat of Saber's own Phantasm. Excalibur was too damn powerful of a tool and could easily destroy the Phantasm of Caster by itself, leaving him without hismain trump card and the main core victory in this battle. However no matter how much mana was in Arthurias's body she could not use her Excalibur twice in a row, such were the limitations of her power. The Noble Phantasm was in itself the essence, the crystallization of a legend itself, bringing a part of the myth into reality. It was impossible to bring the myth into the reality in which this myth already existed, it was necessary to first allow the myth to dissipate in order to reveal the 'miracle' again, since a 'miracle' created twice is no longer a miracle, but just a trick.

And now Saber was left without her main trump card, her 'miracle'.

Caster picked up his staff then slammed it on the ground. Feeling in his soul, in the very essence of his being, the original essence of the Servant awakens. Yes, this power did not belong to him during his lifetime when he was a man. But it belonged to that heroic spirit, that Servant, whose image he embodied and therefore answered to him.

"Wicker Man!" The words uttered taking shape. After which they were embodied in the world, gaining the appearance of willow branches intertwining into a single figure. A moment later the huge arm of the creature, consisting only of intertwining branches, literally pulled Saber, grabbing her in one of its hands. Even if Saber was extremely strong and enduring she was still a small and fragile target, vulnerable to the woven giant.

Caster's Phantasm firmly grabbed its goal, after which it raised its fist to his huge chest.

Despite the fact that the underground grotto was huge, being a hundred meters tall, the giant that emerged from Caster's legends made the cave look quite small, towering tens of meters above the ground. With how easily he could play with Saber, it only confirmed its incredible strength, which made it seem even more titanic.

Like the jaws of a hungry beast, the thorax of the woven giant opened, allowing it to push the previously picked up Saber inside and then instantly closed it, cutting off any path of retreat.

A moment later, fire appeared on the body of the giant then spread through its thorax. Instantly the fire spread to the willow branches, cutting off any escape route. A moment later fire penetrated into the cage where Saber was now trapped inside. As if all the flames of hell gathered at one point inside the Wicker Man it exploded with a flash of fire and light.

Embodying a sacrifice to the ancient gods, the Wicker Man did not leave the victim a chance to escape the fire of sacrifice.

And yet after a couple of seconds Caster was again able to find with his eyes the place where his Phantasm exploded. He was able to see a body at the place of the ashes. It was the wounded, burned but still alive body of Saber who managed to survive even the embodied sacrifice to the old gods of the Celts.

Caster appeared beside Arthuria instantly, but to his relief, his anxiety was in vain. The body of the King of Knights was burned and her hands barely moved. So Caster could be called the winner in this battle without any reservations.

And yet when he raised his staff for the final blow the wounded Saber opened her eyes and caught the gaze of Caster who intended to end this war once and for all.

"You are not bad, Irish Child of the Light." the girl's voice still remained cold but there was no denial or hatred in it, just a recognition of defeat.

"However, without her-" Saber looked at the slowly rising Mashu nearby "You would not have lived even ten seconds."

"I know." Although Caster would like to claim the opposite, he was forced to admit that Saber was right. "I know."

With these words, for the last time, Caster pulled out a rune and used its power. Bringing down a spell upon Saber that ended the Holy Grail War.

* * *

Endurance: B

Endurance is a parameter that is responsible for the amount of physical endurance, health and resistance to wounds of a Servant. It is important to note that this characteristic does not denote resistance to the damage received by a Servant, but only shows how much damage the Servant's body allowed to withstand. A Servant with a high rank in Endurance will still be injured if a knife hits him. just that the wound itself will be so insignificant to the Servant, that it may be possible to say that such an attack did not cause any damage at all. Although theoretically the owner of any ranks of Endurance can still be killed in the simplest ways. If you attack for a long time, and if the Servant does not have any other defensive abilities nor the desire to defend himself.

Rank B - Indicates that during his life the Servant had tremendous endurance, which is not of insignificant note in most of their myths. But this was still not his main ability and strength. At such a rank, the Servant is enduring enough to, without taking into account any other abilities, to fight for several weeks without any interruption, sleep or rest and his endurance is great enough so that anything less than naval caliber artillery and carpet bombardments would not even have a chance to be seen as threats.


	6. Chapter 6

By the time Momon reached the battlefield the battle was already over. Animusphere who was embarrassed and red to the very tips of the ears and tried not to look at Momonga also came with him, just in time to see how Caster's last spell finished Saber. So at the moment when Momonga stepped forward looking at the people in front of him, his surprise knew no bounds. But not at the level of self-destruction. This was expected and did not surprise him at all, but the crystal which unexpectedly shone in the crumbling smoke remains left over from Saber did.

"What's this?!" Momon was shocked in a split second before his strong emotions were extinguished by his emotion suppression. He whispered to himself almost unbelievingly "A data-crystal?"

What Momonga saw in front of him really turned out to be a data crystal. The sparkling silver uneven crystal looked exactly the same as the one in his game of Yggdrasil. Moreover, judging by the size and brilliance it was a good mid-level data crystal.

"This is, she dropped loot after her death?!" Momonga quickly headed for the flashing stone, then picked it up. And indeed in his hand was a real data crystal.

"So, this means, the rest of the monsters..." - From that thought Satoru's pupils widened. All other monsters probably dropped data crystals when they died as well. And he... He violated the first main rule for any player in a DMMORPG.

He did not collect the loot!

With horror at the realization of this, he squeezed his hand. No, maybe if he hurries back, then he still has time to collect the drops...

"Hey, Master." Caster drew his attention to him. "Something is dragging me back, so sorry and bye. If you call me next time call me as a Lancer!"

Immediately after these words Momonga felt his connection with Caster become thinner. And although he could resist it he chose to simply allow it, allowing Caster to crumble into black smoke, like the many defeated monsters and Servants before.

"Monsters and Servants from whom I did not collect their drops..." Momonga clenched his teeth and closed his eyes. What carelessness, he should have checked out this possibility from the very beginning!

"S-senpai..." Mashu who appeared next to him with her ragged breath reminded him that besides the missed loot there was something else in the world. "Senpai, we won..."

"Mashu." Despite the fact that at this moment Momonga strongly wanted to make a command like 'get ready and run back to inspect all the destroyed monsters for data crystals!' he still restrained himself and merely smiled and nodded to the girl. "Thank you Mashu. It's all thanks to you."

"Huh?" instantly the girl was confused bt these words, but she immediately looked away. "N-no, this is all thanks to Caster..."

"Really?" Momonga looked at the girl with surprise, after which he tried to remember. "But, as I remember Caster said that he would not have stood a chance without your intervention, or something like that..."

"S-senpai!" However Mashu as if she was not exhausted just a moment ago, instantly covered herself with her shield to hide from the eyes of Momonga. "Do not say such embarrassing things please!"

However Momonga reply was interrupted by yet another new voice.

"Just imagine it!" The voice seemed to Momonga to be vaguely familiar. "It is surprising that only you were able to get this far! This is beyond my predictions. No, I must say that this is beyond even my wildest dreams."

"I didn't like your fashion taste right away." Momonga instantly replied withthis. But instead of answering to the Servant the only person in Momonga's memory who wore a fur coat at work only looked at the man condescendingly. Even scornfully, it can be said, before choosing to ignore the seemingly lowest - although Supreme, unknown by everyone - life form.

"Professor Lev!" Mashu instantly shouted but noticed something was off. Instead of rushing to the person she jumped in front of Momonga, shielding him with her body. "No, you are not Professor Lev!"

"Forty-eight candidates." Taking a step forward the man shook his long dark hair and sighed. "But who would have thought that the only one who would get so far would be the most useless of them?"

"Lev..." Only at this moment did Olga realize what she is seeing in front of her. "Lev! You are alive!"

Ignoring her intuition's bell-ringing voice that told her that there was something wrong here, Marie rushed forward with a joyful smile.

"Lev! Lev!" She rushed forward with a clear desire to hug the man who appeared but restrained herself at the very end. "Lev, you survived! I don't know what I would have done without you!"

"Chief!" Mashu tried to call out to her while trying to keep her eyes on the man in front of her. But Animusphere ignored the attempt to reach her.

"Ah, Olga!" As if just noticing her, Lev sighed. "Apparently you also had a hard time..."

"Yes, Lev!" Looking into the eyes of the man devotedly, Olga Marie shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Will you help me, Lev? I can't do it without you!"

"Of course, it always happens that way. You plunge into some deep shit and then I end pulling you out of it." The man sighed, then rubbed his nose. "You know, this was one of the reasons why I set the bomb under your feet, yet here you are, bothering me as always. Honestly I'm starting to think that it is some form of curse."

"L-Lev?" Having blinked several times the Animusphere looked at him with incomprehension. "What are you talking about, Lev?"

"Though you died, after all." Lev sighed. "Your body, I mean. To be more precise you couldn't participate in rayshifting while you were still alive, but after death you were able to somehow accomplish this. Do you understand this? If you were able to rayshift then this is because your body was destroyed and all that was left of you, is your soul and consciousness. In other words. even if you return to Chaldea you'll just die instantly. Good, no more of you bothering me, at least."

Momonga looked at the girl. Strange, so she was dead all this time? So technically she was an undead, but for some reason it was not recognized by the abilities of Momonga. Although rather despite the fact that she was simply incorporeal, but formally a living spirit all this time, so she still was alive. So the ability of Momonga and could not identify her as a ghost.

Incidentally, precisely because the weight about someone else's death did not constitute such a defining trait for aServant with the personality of'grinding mobs for the sake of a drop', Momon could so easily think about the possibility of death or non-existence of Animusphere.

"But, I confess, it will be a pity if you just disappear without a trace." Lev hesitated at that moment after which he sighed. "Well, consider this as my gratefulness for all the years I spent under your command and all the years that you gave Chaldea. I will show you what is happening right now."

A moment later Momonga found himself inside Chaldea in the main hall where the central simulation of the Earth was located.

"Forced teleportation." Momonga said unsatisfied by himself. In Yggdrasil traps and sophisticated combinations of it involving various types of teleportation of enemies were quite a common problem, so all players gained counter measures to similar abilities at the higher levels and late game, whether by increasing their parameters or by finding suitable equipment. Momonga himself was no exception, even more so - both his characteristics and his equipment granted him protection from such influences, so he even forgot to think that his protection acted only in his true Servant's body. "This human body really is too weak...".

However at that time while Momonga himself was busy with his thoughts Animusphere looked first at Lev then at the main Chaldean simulation where with each passing moment more and more horror manifested through her pupils.

"Lev... Lev?!" Olga's gaze fell on the huge globe which was a simulation of the whole planet hanging in front of her. "It's just an illusion, right?!"

"Oh, I assure you it's not. For this demonstration I connected space and time so that you could look at everything with your own eyes." The man, with an exaggeratedly careful movement pointed to the huge, painfully red core of the simulation. "Not a single point of blue that represents humanity. And you know why? All thanks to your mission and your leadership! It is thanks to your intervention that humanity will not die in two thousand sixteen, you broke the timeline which means that humanity has already been destroyed!"

Having uttered this last phrase, Lev clapped his hands.

"It's amazing, Olga!" The man grinned. "Your incompetence is worthy to be recorded in the history books - the only independent decision you ever made ended the existence of all mankind! I'm not even sure if I should be surprised, delighted or horrified!"

"But okay, jokes aside." The man sighed after which Animusphere suddenly rose into the air. "If it is time for our parting then let me give you a parting gift. All the time you treasured your Chaldea so much, so you can be one with your treasure!"

Slowly, the body — although in this case it should have been called a 'spiritual body' of Marie flew to the floating red core of Chaldea.

"No! Wait! Wait! STOP!" Instantly, in a second that was necessary to realize the direction of her movement, the girl screamed. "YOU WILL KILL ME!"

"I will kill you?" For a second the movement of the girl in the air stopped. After which the man straightened his hideous fur-lined coat and pretended to be surprised.

"Oh no, I'm not going to kill you! Chaldea is more than just a simulation. This is the whole history of mankind! This is not just a map, it is an interweaving of thousands of mythological lines. It is the door to any point of the existence of all civilization, it is the core that supports billions of space-time pockets. Chaldea is a whole world, united in a masterpiece of magic and technology! Do you think that you'll just die if you touch it?"

"Oh no!" Lev stretched his lips in a smile. "The forces of Chaldea will split you into atoms, smear a thin layer of you on it's core, absorb all your mana, information ingrained to you, your soul and your mind, supported by the power of Chaldea, will be forever locked in an agonizing state unable to live or die completely."

'So is it a _world-class item_?' Momonga looked surprised at the core of Chaldea in front of him. If you think so, then it looked like one. Not only by functions, but the description itself 'However, I don't remember that world-class items would destroy players too weak to handle it... Although, I suppose, different worlds have different rules. Or, perhaps, even in Yggdrasil there were similar objects. After all the shitty developers did not let the players to find all two hundred...'

"NO! NO! PLEASE!" The cries of the Animusphere resumed with a new force as soon as her body moved toward the sphere again "SAVE ME!"

Was it worth anything to Momonga to save her?

The question of the salvation of mankind has been spinning in Momon's head since the end of the brief briefing, but he could not get an answer to this question.

On the one hand it was noble, it was right, it was natural.

On the other hand he was not concerned. Yes, millions, billions will die, the death of all civilization will follow... He did not care. Even if this world burns to the ground he would not care. He will always be able to call his Nazarick and live in it until the end of the universe, not even concerned about the end of the world outside the walls of the Great Tomb.

He was not disturbed by the death of people, the end of civilization, none of this was able to shake the heart of the undead.

But still…

"I JUST WANTED RECOGNITION! I JUST WANTED TO GET ANYTHING!" First the foot of the Animusphere passed the line denoting a safe distance from the core. Mashu would liked to rush forward in a reckless attack but the power of the creature that took the form of Professor Lev before her, literally paralyzed her.

Something in the soul of Momonga gave him no peace.

Memories of his Nazarick returned to him. However along with his own desires, in his mind were pictures of his friends, his Ainz Ooal Gown.

HeroHero, always tired, he came to play with them even when, due to constant stress and overwork he eventually started to have kidney problems. One day he even missed the preparation for an important raid.

Touch Me, a good-natured advocate of justice. Always ready to help, be it a battle in a game or a difficult life situation in the real world.

Ulbert Alain Odle, an underrated, crammed magician. He was a poor man from the lower strata of society. He had nothing but one game and his friends who played said game, so he went to every battle ready to fight to the death, even to the death of his real body.

Peroroncino, a stupid younger brother, always eager to fight with succubi, harpies or any monsters whom had a beautiful girl's bodies. After all reality has proved to him that growing up is not fun at all.

Bukubukuchagama, always cheerful, she took care of all her friends and was like an elder sister to the whole guild. She never missed an opportunity to laugh at her real younger brother though.

Bujin Takemikazuchi, the brave meathead. Nishikienrai, obsessed with his ideal build. Tabula Smaragdina who created her own lore within their guild...

They all came to mind in his head and they were all united by Ainz Ooal Gown...

"NOBODY EVER RECOGNIZED ME!" At the moment the foot of the Animusphere crossed the first protective contour. "NO ONE EVER LOVED ME!"

But they were bound by something more.

They were bound by the fact that they were not yet born. They will be born only decades into the future, if not centuries. They will be born in this world, in this humanity...

But without his intervention, they will never be born.

Momonga could have lived his whole life at the ruins of a lost civilization, enjoying Nazarick, but could he have lived his whole life knowing that he had become a part in destroying Ainz Ooal Gown? That he did not save his own friends? His family?!

"EVERYONE HATED ME! I NEVER ACHIEVED ANYTHING IN MY LIFE!" Animusphere's shout did not turn into crying only because the emotions, echoing in her head, did not allow her to close her eyes, forcing her to watch her foot cross the second protective contour.

But more than that, his friends from Ainz Ooal Gown were united by something else.

The Future.

The bleak future of the twenty-second century.

Sulfur clouds covering the night sky. Gas mask required just to exit from the territory of arcologies. Synthetic diets for maintaining nutritional balance. The depersonalised slaves of companies who have suppressed all the governments. Stories of beautiful cities and magnificent countries destroyed during the Third World War.

And only the digital space, as the only source of enjoyment in their lives.

"CHALDEA!" Death inevitably approached Animusphere. "LEV!"

"MOMON!" Looking for the last time at the only person who believed in her, Olga Marie Animusphere prepared herself for death.

And after that the world stopped.

The girl's leg stopped only a few millimeters from the core of Chaldea. A drop of sweat running across Mashu's face stopped motionless. Lev's smile froze, ceasing to seem pompous.

"Time Stop is a really terrific spell." Momonga took a step forward, and then another to stand in front of the creature who called himself Professor Lev.

"Sorry, Touch Me." Momonga sighed. "I cannot become a hero like you were. I have no altruistic desire to help people and there is no willingness to sacrifice myself for the sake of humanity. But even a good deed can be done out of selfish intent."

"I will control them and help them avoid going down the wrong path..." Satoru Suzuki, Guild Master of Ainz Ooal Gown, Eclipse of All Life, Momonga, said. "Even if for this I have to personally cut all those who disagree with me."

At that moment, in the eyes of the human body that was unable to withstand his power of magic, a body that is beginning to disappear, steel confidence appeared. "_Delay Magic: True Death_".

With a touch of a bone hand to the body of Professor Lev, it was all over.

A spell that did not bear hostile intent, did not bear damage and did not bear black malice, which is filled with the magic of death.

This spell just killed.

In Yggdrasil such a spell could easily kill even a level one hundred player, if said player did not wear the necessary equipment or did not possess the necessary skills to protect them. Moreover, it had an unpleasant additional effect, blocking most types of resurrection magic, except the one that only the most high-leveled specialized clerics could use and some rare and very valuable items. Which made such a spell one of the most unpleasant in the arsenal of Ainz, who specialized in Death magic. In addition to this, his abilities strengthened any dark magic, especially one that has been linked to the magic of death or insta-kill.

However, in the world where he was summoned, their own laws existed.

And because of this, the spell killed Lev instantly.

Turning into reality, the spell was changed according to the principles of Yggdrasil, then applied to this reality. Therefore the ninth rank spell gained strength that could not be imagined by the simple mind.

True Death was death and therefore it kills the target instantly, but at the same time it was 'true'. In other words it was not death from the sword, not death from poison, nor from illness or even from magic, no matter how strange such a concept sounds.

It was the 'true' death, death beyond which nothing exists. No death, no survival, no rebirth, no hell, no heaven, no ghosts, no abilities, no magic, nothing.

It was the death that comes at the end of the road. True, measured not just by a god, but THE God himself at the creation of the universe, the death that came at their hour.

In other words if we present this in the form of a graph, then the average life expectancy of a person varies within seven or eight decades, however, people live as much shorter or much longer. And yet, when they die, there would always be a physical cause. Whether heart failure or the brain has ceased to function, people die because their body dies. Their soul departs from the body, going to the next round of rebirth but it does not die.

And yet one day the moment will come when the long life of the soul will end and it will be destined to go to Akasha.

This spell made it possible to establish the moment of this 'final departure from the cycle of life' as 'this instant'.

It was even difficult to determine what it was better classified as, the magic of death or the magic of time, but like 'Time Stop' it certainly remained an incredibly powerful ability that only a couple of dozens of creatures could resist all over this world.

However, Professor Lev could.

More precisely, of course, Professor Lev could not do this, but the reason for the strength of the being inside him lay in the fact that at the moment when Saber was defeated it was he, or, more precisely, the creature inside him who took advantage of the opportunity to get to the disfigured vessel of power, the Grail, and merged his body and his mind with it, gaining access to an incredible power from the damned source.

In fact, this Grail did not exist in reality. Chaldea only created a perfect imitation of Fuyuki a decade ago, allowing a separate part of the existing world to be embodied in the form of a small pocket dimension. dividing the line of history into 'the one that really happened' and 'the one that Masters fell into', after which, should a need arise, Chaldea will be able to cut, like scissors, the real history 'Fuyuki that happened' and replace it with the 'Fuyuki into which the Masters fell'.

However even so, the created copy of Fuyuki was not an illusion, but a real world. One could even say that it was a parallel world, replicating the real world in all things , with the difference being that Momonga appeared into this one. However, all creatures, all abilities and all artifacts that appeared in it were genuine and possessed the same power as in ordinary reality.

So the Greater Grail created in this reality, despite the fact that it was not 'real' in relation to the real timeline and therefore could not influence anything except its own version of Fuyuki, possessed all the power of the original and bestowed upon Professor Lev incredible power within the created pocket universe. By merging his power and mind with the Grail, he became one of those who could resist the spell of Momonga. All he had to do was to wish for immortality and protection from dark magic or the magic of time to defend against such an ability. However, it was here that the crux of the problem for Professor Lev arose.

He did not wish.

Manipulations of death and time were incredibly powerful abilities, available only to a limited circle of the strongest. The mind of Professor Lev could not even imagine the idea that in Fuyuki he would be able to meet someone who could rule these two fundamental principles.

And so Professor Lev died instantly, as soon as Momonga wished to utter a spell.

Time again regained its passage after which the man called Professor Lev fell. Instantly without a magic support, the Animusphere fell also, having hit the steel partitions of the second protective contour. While still not understanding what exactly happened, she however almost immediately rushed away from the core of Chaldea.

Mashu who was watching Professor Lev a moment ago suddenly found her senpai standing in front of her.

"Senpai!" She tried to shout but immediately noticed the professor lying at the feet of Momon "What happened?! Senpai,are you... Senpai?!"

"It seems that this body has reached its limit" was the words of Momonga, feeling his body crumbling under the weight of his magic, exposing his body of a Servant. "Well, in that case..."

Momonga's spell spread across his body, changing it, clothing him with his clothes, activating his abilities and spells, allowing him to finally feel the correctness of his state. The uncontrolled pressure that struck in all directions instantly pressed Mashu and the Animusphere to the ground. Unable to withstand even a couple of seconds of Momonga's presence, the two girls fainted almost instantly.

"Hm" Momonga quietly remarked to himself, feeling how his emotionlessness subordinated his mind to logic "It seems that they cannot withstand my direct presence. Although I think I turned off my passive auras... What a pity..."

However he could not stay here.

"_Gate_" he commanded the spell which could reliably take him out of the temporal anomaly.

A moment later, the time anomaly cracked, after which reality began to change under the influence of the changed course of history, but Momonga was no longer interested.

"Hmm?" He glanced at the two unconscious girls, after which he lifted Mashu and turned to the unconscious Animusphere. "Unfortunately, apparently, you have already died. It is a pity, because I have to use a wand on you..."

With these words Momonga took a step inside the opened passage.

A second later the overlord's leg touched the metal floor of the central room from where all the masters would be sent to Fuyuki. The situation around him was still the room that have remained from the explosion, but there was no more blood, corpses and body parts around.

"Another pity" If Momonga could now find at least one finger left from the body of Animusphere, then he could use the resurrection magic of a lower level. However without a body all he could use to resurrect was 'True Resurrection' which did not require a body. And unfortunately the magic of such a rank could not be placed on wands, with a potentially infinite number of uses, but only in crystals, that he possessed a finite amount of "But, I suppose, if I already saved her, it would be too stupid to let her reamin dead anyway."

Thrusting his hand into the gap in space that appeared next to him in order to reach his inventory, Momonga extracted a crystal, and after a quiet sigh sent a command to it, unsealing the spell stored inside.

A moment later a ball of light appeared before Momonga, the usual effect of resurrection, after which sparks were scattered and immediately began to form the body of Animusphere, which looked exactly like she looked a couple of minutes ago.

Momonga looked at both the unconscious girls, and then turned away from them...

To suddenly meet face to face with a beautiful woman. Her black hair, falling down to an extremely prominent breast, framed a beautiful face, adjusted with perfect precision, emphasizing her blue eyes. She looked great...

If it were not for the staff that was instantly buried in Momonga.

"Who are you?" The girl's voice was quite high, but there was no playfulness in it.

Momonga thoughtfully looked at the girl. After having made his decision he bowed to her.

"My name is Ainz Ooal Gown" after all, he was not the only one who came to the defense of humanity and not by his own will. All of Ainz Ooal Gown took the side of humanity in this battle and only for their sake did he choose this path. So honoring them was the least that he could do for them. "However, I am also known as 'potential master number forty eight'."

The girl's eyes in front of him did not lose its steely edge but the staff in her hands became a little less pressuring.

"So, you are the forty-eighth master, Momon?" She looked at him again, after which she motioned with her staff.

"Yes." Ainz node, then looked at her. "However I understand your disbelief. And yet you have to believe me. In an hour I will be back and, I think we will be able to discuss with you the situation in which humanity found itself in."

With these words Ainz turned to the still-closed passage into the pocket world of Chaldea and took a step inside. He should at least try to collect as much loot as he could!

After a dozen seconds Roman burst into the ruined room but could only notice the Da Vinci, laying on the floor clutching her head. Her staff laid aside, as if discarded and unnecessary while her pupils frantically scanned around the room.

"Da Vinci!" Roman who has fallen into the inside didn't waste his time on sentiments. "What just happened?! I almost got crushed and I was in another part of the complex!"

Slowly, the gorgeous girl turned to the guy.

"Roman?" Glancing at him, she slowly ran a hand over her disheveled hair, then sighed. "We are in deep shit."

* * *

**Luck:** _A++_

Luck is the characteristic responsible for luck — accidental luck and risk, but in a more exact sense it means "the ability of a Servant to live through something" or "to resist something". Whether it is something with an ability that instantly kills a target, or an attack that can destroy a Servant and has only one weakness - luck is responsible for the Servant's chance that he will be able to choose or acquire the most favorable outcome from all possible outcomes.

Grade A++ - A special rank, which means that during his life the Servant had luck that cannot be ignored - most likely his ability to live through incredible events often became the defining theme of his myths and one of the main forming elements of his legend. At the moment, the Servant knows no defeat and he does not have to make any effort to achieve even the most incredible of victory.


	7. Chapter 7

The four who had gathered at the table probably should have plunged into a discussion of the problem that had fallen to their lot. But instead they only continued to sit silently, periodically exchanging glances with each other.

The click of a flip-off lighter cap brought Mashu out of a strange trance, forcing her to turn to the source of the sound. It turned out to be Animusphere, lighting a cigarette.

"You smoke?" Mashu asked. However in spite of the question asked, there was no interest in either of her tone or gaze.

"Hm?" Only after having made a couple of puffs in silence, did Animusphere realized that she was asked a question. She turned her gaze to Kyrielight, then shrugged. "Yes... I tried to stop... But it seems to have been in vain, huh..."

Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she was tormented by thirst. But other than that, Mashu did not see any other consequences from the resurrection used on the Chief.

Resurrection, ha...

"So..." Da Vinci tried to start speaking. But like several times before, only beginning her narration with an introductory word, she stopped as if unable to determine the topic of conversation, after which she became silent.

Dr. Roman continued to look at the table thoughtfully, watching the ashtray slowly fill up with cigarette butts produced by Animusphere. As Mashu noticed the ashtray was already half filled and yet she herself had not paid attention to this even when Animusphere, with the persistence of a smoking locomotive, continued to smoke one cigarette after another.

'I wonder, how long have we been sitting like this?' Noticing many cigarette butts lying in the ashtray , the girl thought.

"Resurrection means..." After several attempts to start a full-fledged dialogue, Da Vinci managed to gather her strength and utter a complete sentence "Hmm... Are you sure that Lev did not lie?"

"I don't know" Almost in melancholy, taking another puff Animusphere shrugged. "No idea. And it's all the same to me, to be honest."

Such a load from knowledge turned out to be excessive for a girl - even Mashu herself did not fully understand how she was still conscious. First, the explosion, then the death of her friends, colleagues and subordinates, the battles in the Singularity and then the man who was like her father tried to kill her - not just kill but to torture her with a fate worse than death - only to be killed by her subordinate and savior all at once, who turned out to be a powerful mage, if not a god, who ressurected her. Breaking all the known laws of magic in the universe after it turned out that she had already died long ago.

To be honest it was more surprising that Animusphere could still react to the world around her and not that she continued to smoke cigarettes after another, as if drilling one point in space with her gaze.

"Hm, the resurrection..." Da Vinci repeated again. She looked at all the people in the room, which is composed of their newly assembled company of four sitting together, planning to discuss the situation that had arisen with her senpai... With Momon... With Ainz Ooal Gown?...

"Technically if your body was destroyed but your soul managed to reyshift, then you did not actually die. It's just that your physical shell was destroyed." Da Vinci, thinking about the resurrection , tried to come to a logical explanation of what had happened. "Recreating the body and bringing the soul back into it ... I think it is possible."

Mashu understood why the Da Vinci was so desperately trying to rationalize what had happened.

Even gods and True Magics did not have the ability to resurrect the dead. Gods and Magicians who stood above Servants just as much as Servants stood above ordinary magi. The very thought of a being whose abilities allowed him to wield a power superior to the power of the gods was unthinkable.

"So he was able to recreate the body and return your soul back into it." After coming to some inner decision, Da Vinci nodded to herself a couple of times. "Such abilities are worthy of admiration and envy, but they are possible according to what we know."

Mashu saw what Da Vinci was trying to do. She desperately clung to the immutable truths that she knew to keep her mind from falling into a pit of doubt and madness. However the demi-servant herself did not try to either support or refute Da Vinci's conclusions. She did not want to immerse the girl opposite her in despair, but she herself...

Memories of how senpai's body collapsed, letting bones to appear, arose in her mind. However, there was no blood and no screams of pain, senpai hadn't even winced at it, as if his own crumbling body didn't bother him. Rather he watched it as if it was an expected outcome and having come to a definite decision- started it. And then…

Instantly, the situation around Mashu changed. It was as if all the light of the world had faded and the whole of life ceased to exist. The sky became as black as an abyss and the earth cold and dead, as a grave. All sight and hearing from Mashu were gone, her body betrayed her, and her legs could not support her. She fell to the ground and the last thing she managed to see was a the black abyss of despair and death wove into a figure that Mashu saw before finally falling into oblivion. After that her mind could not stand such a shock and retreated, allowing her to fall into a dreamless sleep.

But even this state did not last long. After just a few minutes, Da Vinci brought her back to her senses, telling her that, the terrible creature that seemed to be absorbing the light by its overwhelming presence was her senpai, Momon. And he, judging by the state of Animusphere, possessed the power of resurrection. And if Da Vinci was able to reach for a rational explanation of this ability, then Mashu took it immediately. Unlike Da Vinci the Shielder saw the bare power of the creature that had become her Master.

'Master, hmm...' The girl turned to her inner feelings. Apparently Momon, or now Ainz, artificially limited the flow of mana into her body and since then has not increased the amount of energy sent to the girl. However the energy itself has changed. As if it had become darker and colder, as if the indifferent waters of the river, separating the world of the living and the world of the dead. The quality of mana itself has changed, although before the transformation Momon's mana was of the highest quality. Now to Mashu it seemed that a crystal clear power was flowing inside her, as if directly connecting her soul with the Root, penetrating her body completely, infusing strength into her muscles and her circuits. 'But he warned that a contract with him is a bad idea...'

Mashu thoughtfully leaned back in her chair.

"Hmm in this case his skill is at least equal to mine." Da Vinci concluded, and then she ran her hand through her hair, ruffling them more than smoothing it. "And that amount of mana..."

After these words, all four of them who sat at the table was startled. Da Vinci and Romani felt the manifestation of Ainz in the world, but even the seemingly completely blind to the external world Animusphere and Mashu twitched at the mention of Ainz's power, because they were there at that moment when he took his true appearance.

"May he be a god?" For the first time since the beginning of the meeting Romani gave his voice, causing an approving thought from Mashu. The pure volume of his power suggested that Ainz was something close to a divine being, but his appearance and the sensations created by his presence narrowed the possibility of candidates by a lot. "Perhaps Hades?"

Such a thought was not without logic. Hades was the god of the dead and was one of the three supreme deities of Greek mythology, so his strength and presence should be akin to the sensations emanating from Ainz. "But why Ainz Ooal Gown?"

Neither the name nor the nickname 'Ainz Ooal Gown' were mentioned in any mythology or historical chronicle. So it was strange that a God would choose a nickname for itself consisting of random words.

Once again the lid of the Animusphere lighter clicked, setting a new cigarette on fire.

"What other options do we have?" Romani certainly didn't want to sound rude, but given the circumstances the tone of his voice was more strained than it probably should have been.

No one answered this question however, of all those who were present here, only Da Vinci participated in the dialogue. Animusphere just continued to smoke cigarette after cigarette, while Mashu herself thoughtfully watched the conversation, thinking about how her life had to change.

Should it have? Strictly speaking, no, there were no precedence for this, but one thing was to make a contract with one's senpai, and quite another with a divine spirit.

"What should we do, then?" Da Vinci's voice was strangely, but obviously interested. "If he really is Hades then this creates so many questions... Was he called as a Servant, and if so who called him - and how did they call him? Why was he called and for what purpose did he go into Chaldea? How could he become a Master and most importantly does he plan to help us with our problem?"

As Mashu found out on awakening, the moment when Mashu returned to Chaldeahumanity was already destroyed. Fiery hell reigned outside the Chaldeas' shields, there was not a single sign of intelligent life and any attempt to leave the building would be the last stupid act a person would have done in their life. As it turned out after a change occurred in the singularity in Fuyuki, new singularities began to emerge throughout human history, changing history again and again. Because of which the current history of humanity was altered into their current state.

"If he really is Hades, then he should help us..." Da Vinci sighed. Despite the habit of recent years to portray all those associated with the world of the dead as antagonists, in the original ancient Greek myths, Hades was possibly one of the most kind and understanding of the gods. However given the scale of Zeus' rampages, he was regarded so in spite of the fact that he kidnapped his wife and forced her to marry him by deception.

'Tricked into marriage...' Mashu looked at herself. But he tried his best to dissuade her though...

It only remained to determine how much about Hades was true, how much was fiction and how much was fiction that became true. If this of course really was Hades at all.

"What other choice do we have?" Romani looked at Da Vinci, as the only one that participated in the dialogue. "Not that we have so many other possible options..."

Mashu only looked at the two people leading the dialogue, then shook her head.

In fact, the fact that behind the barriers of Chaldea, there were now only a raging firestorm and the centers of civilization showed no signs of life then they were already too late. And yet thanks to Chaldea's existence, perhaps they still had a chance of winning. However without senpai... Without Ainz, what could they do? Even taking into account Da Vinci's abilities and the abilities of Mashu herself, they were only two Servants who were facing an impossible battle with an unknown number of enemy and in unknown conditions. Perhaps even the presence of a divine spirit such as Hades did not guarantee them victory in this battle. However ,the help of a God could at least prove useful to them, in the current situation they could only hope for any hand extended to them, especially from the god of the dead.

"We'll have to turn to him anyway." Da Vinci sighed then shook her hair and folded her arms in front of her face. "But what if he doesn't help us?.."

"Well then..." Despite his usual appearance, Romani looked irritated. "We will cope on our own, what other choice do we have?"

The room sank into silence for a few minutes, everyone present trying to understand the situation in which they were all in, before a dry cough interrupted the thoughts of the three who had not paid attention to Animusphere.

Putting one hand on the head, and the other on the table, she coughed hysterically. An unkempt, half-burned cigarette fell to the floor, continuing to light the girl's legs with its smoldering coal.

"Severe nicotine poisoning." Da Vinci instantly recognized the cause and so she reached out her hands to the boss. "Now you will feel better ..."

After Da Vinci's magic had taken effect, the Animusphere almost immediately calmed down. Taking some breath tests several times the girl than pushed the Servant's hand away from herself, then sighed slowly.

"So it means..." - Despite the fact that the Animusphere's voice was still hoarse and her tone was fraught with bravado, Olga Marie was able to pull herself together and look around to everyone attentively. "I am still the director of Chaldea and therefore having listened to your suggestions my solution is..."

Sighing a couple of times the Animusphere exhaled in such a way that it seemed to Mashu that she herself was taking a puff from a cigarette - the girl's breath in front of her was so saturated with nicotine.

" Chaldea is not currently in any condition to refuse or neglect the help of anyone. Be it a divine spirit or a human being." The Animusphere paused for a moment, closing her eyes then looked around at all of those present. "If he does not agree to lend help to us let it be so. But if he agrees he will become the main aid to us in the matter of saving humanity. No objection is accepted."

Although Olga Marie noted this, it did not look as if anyone planned to object to her.

"Excellent." Having noted this on her own the girl nodded to herself. "Regarding the real nature of the forty-eighth master... We will not ask him about it."

After that Mashu wondered why they would not do that but realized almost instantly. For whatever reason Ainz did not want to disclose his nature. The most important thing they could hope for was his favor and assistance in the event of a problem, so they should avoid any possible provocations on Ainz. If he did not want to tell them about his nature, then their duty in this case was only to nod along and not provoke him.

"However, regarding the rest of the people here..." The Animusphere stopped at half the sentence.

The explosion organized by Lev killed many people, however, a small number of Chaldea's employees survived and at the moment is ensuring the continued functioning of the institute. They were only a few of them but that was all Chaldea had at the moment. Even if 'all' meant only a small group of frightened to death people on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The emergence of a new, powerful, divine ally could provide moral support in this case... However the emergence of an ally like Momon... Ainz, especially if he does not act friendly, could be the nail in the coffin of any hope of saving humanity and the fragile chain of people who worked at the moment to maintain Chaldea's incessantly, it would simply have collapsed and any chance of preserving the working capacity of the institution, therefore the salvation of mankind, would have been lost.

"We ... We will not interfere directly with his actions." The Animusphere having thought for a second, nevertheless tried to express her opinion. "However our immediate goal is to restrict Ainz's contact with the rest of the people except for us... At least until we are convinced of his intentions."

This was the most logical course of action, so there was no objection yet again.

"Fou." Four's quiet, snorting sound came to Mashu. The little creature looked slightly worried, a very rare sight to Mashu. If she thought about it, she never saw Four concerned at all. And very rarely was he seen in public, especially when Mashu was not alone.

"Four!" Mashu stretched out her arms to the creature and raised it closer to her. He usually didn't like when Kyrielight allowed herself such actions, but this time he only meekly allowed her to twist him like a kitten in her hands, after which he settled more comfortably on her hands when she brought him closer to her body. Other participants of the discussion noticed the appearance of the animal, but at the moment they were too concentrated on their discussion to respond to it.

"Four, do not run away from me like this anymore," Mashu expressed herself to the pet. This morning when she met senpai, Four escaped from her immediately. As soon as he felt the presence of Momon... Although if you think about it that way, perhaps it was the right thing to do in those conditions.

"You after all, felt something in senpai, yes, Four?" Mashu looked at the creature, the one, who was much smarter than anyone could have imagined but that did not possess the ability to answer her, continuing to remain silent.

However after a second, the fluffy beast in the hands of the girl tensed at the same time as the three people sitting in front of her tensed as well. Mashu herself also felt that her connection with her Master had increased. A sign that he had left the anomaly, which he had gone into a couple of hours ago, after he had brought Mashu and the Animusphere away.

Instantly, Animusphere and Romani, who were simple normal people, breathed heavily from the presence of a creature with such a volume of power close to them - and Mashu herself felt how, as the Master traveled closer, the pressure of a power emitted by an unknown source increased on her shoulders. Under these conditions, only Da Vinci could maintain her composure - although even in this case, Mashu saw the woman sigh a few times deeply, calming herself. Even Four in her hands tensed, anticipating the appearance of an unknown spirit next to him.

A moment later, a light knock on the door spread through the room, and then slowly the door of the room, which was temporarily assigned as a meeting room, opened.

Immediately Mashu was able to see him. Her Master and senpai, Ainz Ooal Gown.

His appearance was that of a skeleton - bare bones and a skull with two red lights flickering .like a flame, in his eye sockets - however, it was impossible to call him just a skeleton. Each part of his figure exuded an unbearable burden of pure power and embodied the mighty figure of a God — no, something more than just a God.

His height exceeded two meters with a large margin - even with the high ceilings and doors of Chaldea, he looked like a giant in the world of the Lilliputians - which, however, only added to the regality in his posture and movements.

His bare bones were dressed in a robe with an opening on his chest, exposing the empty thorax and spine and converging at the level at which the average person had a mid-belly hiding his belt and legs. Even Mashu, who had never learned to recognize the value of artifacts in her life, could say with absolute certainty that each line of embroidery on his robe was infused with more power than any magical catalyst in Chaldea and the cost of the creation itself was likely more than any country on Earth could afford.

"Hmm," Appearing on the threshold Ainz sighed, after which, as if finding something with a glance — although it was impossible to determine exactly where he was looking because of the absence of both eyes and facial expressions — he stretched his bone arm forward. Instantly on one of his fingers a ring flashed. After which, as if nothing strange had happened before, the feeling of overwhelming superiority disappeared.

"This ring is intended to protect against espionage." The spirit that appeared stated in a deep, inspiring voice. "However, as I see it, it can also be used this way."

Mashu blinked several times and then slowly exhaled her breath, which she held in herself for all this time. After the action of Ainz, his presence ceased to express itself. In the room, it became suddenly brighter and Mashu herself was able to take her eyes off the figure that no longer stood out in her sight. Of course Mashu could still ,at a glance, identify both the incredible power hidden in the creature in front of her and the value of the robes worn, but his presence stopped blotting out everything else that she could see or feel.

"May I have the pleasure to greet you in this world today?" Realizing that the meeting with the divine spirit had begun, the one that was least affected by the presence of an impressive figure, Da Vinci, took the dialogue into her hands. "Lord Ainz Ooal Gown..."

"Please," He interrupted her almost immediately. "Just call me just Ainz."

"Well, Ainz," Da Vinci nodded then looked at the man attentively. "In that case, allow me to thank you for helping us solve the problem with the singularity."

"It was nothing, it was my personal decision." Contrary to the expected response from a creature possessing such power, Ainz was extremely restrained and modest in the conversation. "Besides I was also involved in the situation. I just acted in my own self-interests."

" Nevertheless, I should thank you for your actions." For Da Vinci herself communicating in this style was also unusual, but she did everything possible to prevent the only possible chance of saving mankind to leave, by avoiding causing any offense.

"Okay," Having resigned himself to the girl's words, Ainz nodded. However, even in this movement, the dignity of a real king was visible. "However I suppose that this is not all that you wanted to tell me."

"Yes, of course..." Gathering her thoughts as if preparing to jump into the water, Da Vinci exhaled. "To tell the truth, we all would like to know about your future plans..."

"My plans, hm?" Thoughtfully Ainz put his hand to his chin in a completely human gesture. "First I suppose it will be necessary to deal with the emerging singularities. However up to this point it most likely will be best to look at Chaldea. Yet taking into account your reaction to my body it may be worth putting an illusion for this..."

"So, you are still going to help Chaldea?" Da Vinci looked seriously at the man, if you could call a skeleton, a man.

"Yes, perhaps," Ains however just calmly nodded at that then looked at the girls in front of him. "But I suppose you want to ask me why."

Despite the fact that the goal of four people in front of him was to avoid any provocation on their part, after Ainz had guessed about their thoughts, it was useless to argue about it, so she only nodded.

"Hmm, in that case..." Ainz thought about it then turned his head slightly toward Dr. Roman who was silent up to this point. "I suppose Dr. Roman may know something about this."

"Eh, me?" Surprised, the man pointed to himself and looked at Ainz. "But I didn't do anything..."

"You gave me advice." Although Ainz's expression was completely absent, Mashu could have sworn that he was smiling now. "Which led me to my current decision. In that case, I suppose we can say that all this is thanks to you."

Da Vinci and the girls who were silent before, turned their eyes to the man, who was in thought after his advice was mentioned. But after a couple of seconds the face of a doctor cleared after which an understanding appeared on it.

"Back then in the room!" The man slammed his fist into the palm of his hand, realizing what the skeleton meant, to which Ainz nodded favorably.

"Yes, that was what I meant by that." The burgundy lights in the sockets of the skull went out and Mashu was able to determine that such a gesture was equivalent to closing the eyes for a normal person. "So you can say that I helped you because I am returning an old debt. Of course it would not be right to say so completely. Perhaps it would be better to say that humankind has become or perhaps will become the source of the thing that I would like to preserve by all means."

"And," After this, Ainz turned his head slightly again, this time towards Animusphere. "I promised the girl that I would help her in her difficult task of managing Chaldea and I'm not used to breaking my promises."

After that Mashu shifted her gaze to Olga Marie in order to see that she had begun to redden to the very tips of her ears and was desperately trying to hide her face in her palms. When did he promise her that?!

"In that case..." As if trying to walk on thin ice, Da Vinci tried to change her tone to be a bit more relaxed. "Perhaps you should not use illusions? I think I can create something like a pseudo-body... Although it will take time for me to do something that will not collapse when you use magic of a higher strength, so something that I can give you right now... It cannot use magic that is higher than, I suppose D rank?"

"D rank?" Ainz said as if calculating something in his head. "Does this mean... Second rank?"

"That will be quite a bother, but I suppose, this is the best that I can count on in these conditions." As if weighing everything internally Ains sighed then bowed. And he really bowed, it was not a symbolic bow of a king who acknowledged the existence of a servant but a real, full-fledged bow out of respect. Of course even so he retained the dignity of a king, but it was unlikely that he did it on purpose. Rather this type of regal behavior was entangled in his very essence so much so, that he simply could not behave otherwise. "Thank you very much, Da Vinci."

"Of course, Ainz..." The girl said a little more relaxedly, slowly returning to her usual behavior. "Of course, whatever you want at any time!"

"Then let's go!" Jumping up from her seat, the girl was next to the divine spirit of unknown origin. "Come, I will take you to my workshop!"

And yet ,even so, Mashu could easily see how wary Da Vinci was, while trying to appear careless.

"Of course, let's go..." But not confirming her fears, Ainz behaved more than calmly. Following the leadership of Da Vinci, he followed her without any objections or problems.

For several seconds there was just silence in the room, before Mashu realized that the two most powerful magi she had ever seen, left her company and only then did she realize that Four had disappeared from her hands. Looking around several times the girl did not find him, after which in the absence of other options she decided that he ran away from Ainz after seeing him again.

"By the way, Olga," Romani's voice distracted her from the search for the beast. "Regarding Ainz's support for you... What exactly did he promise to you and how?"

After these words the girls, whose face was still red, and Mashu, who did not fully understand the situation in which she found herself in and how she should now act toward senpai, felt that she would not like the consequences of the story...

* * *

Name: Mashu Kyrielight

Race: Heteromorphic

Title: Shield that forgot its name

Occupation: Servant of Ainz Ooal Gown

Residence: Chaldea, Mashu Kyrielight Room in Residential Wing

Karma: +200 (Good)

Racial level: Homunculus (1)

Demi-servant (2)

Class level: Shielder (15)

Lord of the Shield (5)

Warrior (10)

Scientist (2)

Others (5)

Total: 3 Racial levels + 42 Class levels = 45 General levels

HP: 80

MP: 60

Physical attack: 40

Physical defense: 0

Agility: 20

Magical attack: 0

Magical defense: 80

Resistance: 40

Special abilities: 0 (?)

Ability: Lord Chaldeas

Power Level: 20

A simple ability that creates a shield in front of the user. The shield has a strength in proportion to the characteristics of the one using it and is able to absorb a certain amount of both magical and physical damage. However it protects the user on one side only, therefore a player who has bypassed from the flank of the user can still attack the user without any difficulty. The shield itself also does not have any special strength or any additional effects, so this ability has a rather limited range of use and due to the general weakness of the ability, it is used only in the early stages of the game.

Skill: Transient Wall of Snowflakes

Power Level: 40

A skill that can temporarily increase the physical and magic resistance of the user and his allies if the user uses only one large shield and does not use weapons. The ability can be quite effective, especially for the commander build with a focus on tanking. But the restriction, on the lack of weapons greatly reduces the practicality of its use and requires high skills of the user. Bukubukuchagama had a similar ability.

Skill: Obscurant Wall of Chalk

Power Level: 40

A skill that can give invulnerability to a user's ally for a very short time. Unfortunately this ability with all its effectiveness can be applied only to one ally, cannot be applied to the user and also has a very long recharge time, due to which its efficiency is not very high.

Player Comments:

\- Who ever thought of making a tank build without physical defence?!

\- It looks more like a mob for farming than a real build.

\- The ability is quite useless, only if you urgently need something to block a blow, and all the normal skills are on cooldown.

\- Someone wanted to make a build to troll mages, but because of its agility it can't even reach them. Just garbage.


	8. Chapter 8

Following behind Da Vinci, Ainz watched her hips thoughtfully. However the very act of this observation there was nothing lecherous, at least not intentionally. Despite the fact that Ainz was and still remained ,at the current moment, completely considered himself to be a man. His personality as a tired, lonely thirty-year-old man and his undead heart, deprived of all human passions, would simply not let him look at the hips of Da Vinci with any ounce of lust. He watched the girl's movements for a different reason.

'Shouldn't Da Vinci be a man?' Thoughtfully, Ainz glanced at the back of the girl in front of him. 'Or did the Grail change something when she was summoned?'

Although Ainz was not initiated into the inner workings of the magics of the universe in which he found himself, thanks to his status as a Servant called by the world, he was nevertheless aware that sometimes the Grail made 'mistakes'... No, probably not quite mistakes. It did not allow 'mistakes', rather, the Grail simply called for Servants and not the very people they were in life.

The Grail called not so much the 'heroes' themselves but people's ideas about example, so let's say although during their life a hero behaved according to their code of honor corresponding to their time, but later due to changes in their their legend over time. The hero's code of honor was forgotten, but the knowledge that the hero followed a "code of honor" was preserved, so the summoned Servant would have completely different moral "codes"than the one they had at the end of their life. Like with the King Arthur.

But still…

'Why is Da Vinci a woman in this case?' The man could not figure out the answer to this question and finally looked up from Da Vinci's hips, ceasing to look at the girl. However, fortunately for him, thanks to his lack of facial expressions and eyes, to ascertain he was looking at all this time was almost impossible.

'However this is not particularly important' After a few tens of seconds of thinking about this, the lich came to one definite conclusion: 'The situation in which I found myself in is more important.'

Ainz was not a genius, it was not worth praising his mental abilities. He was only minimally educated formally, he received only an elementary school education, since he could not afford a middle school level education in a grim world of the future and he himself had to confess, that he had a very, very low opinion of his mental abilities. However it was in vain.

Of course, it was not worth overestimating Ainz's mental abilities, but it was not worth downplaying it either. Although while Touch Me was a graduate of a prestigious university, Tabula Smaragdina remembered Greek myths as much as Aristotle because of his strange passion and Punitto Moe was superior to him in terms of tactics in a Guild war, it is unlikely that even a dozen people in the world could boast such thorough knowledge and understanding of both the mechanic and the inner lore of Yggdrasil. And of course if he truly did not have a well developed mental abilities, Ainz would never have become one of the best PvP players in the game while being a player with such a non-optimised for PvP build.

Therefore it was really only worth as a way to distract him from the contemplation of a beautiful girl walking in front of him, as the mind of Ainz plunged into an analysis of the situation in which he found himself in.

The death of humanity did not trouble Ainz. Mentally and physically he was no longer a human, but the fact that literally several hours after the Ainz decided to protect humanity, it had already disappeared, somewhat... Was worrying. And to deal with such a worrying thing Ainz planned first.

In the end, for starters, it was necessary to first determine what caused the disappearance of mankind in the first place. In Yggdrasil there were only a few items, whose abilities were so great, World Class Items. Although, even among them there was not one that could directly erase all of Mankind's existence on the world and set fire to its remnants. However even regarding this, Ainz was not completely sure. He knew about the existence of at least one WCI, which with a certain interpretation could be called as having such a power and with those shitty devs it would be possible for them to create a couple more that could be implemented in a similar way. However, fortunately, there were no players in Yggdrasil who decided to act in such a frenzy. After all, even if they had decided to do so, then the best thing that could have happened to them would be becoming outcasts to all players and the united parties of players who had suddenly lost an entire game, the world, with all the NPCs and quests, would kill them repeatedly until they left the game. In the worst case, for such an action they would be attacked in the real world.

However it was a game, in reality the use of such an ability, especially if no one could counter it, was quite possible. Also. in reality, it is not necessary that the WCI was used to achieve a similar effect. After being transferred to reality, Ainz was able to understand that many of his abilities and spells acquired other effects that were not available in the game, many of which were based on the 'lore' of Yggdrasil, such as, for example True Death. And if considering not only about the forces proved capable of destroying the whole world, but about the abilities that 'could' do it according to 'lore', then there were a lot more of them than just a few WCI. However, there were not too many of them either, nevertheless, the level of power necessary should have correlated, at least in some sense, with the power of applied abilities. Therefore 'the abilities that threatened the balance of worlds and magic' remained, in any case, only for the most of high-level characters.

In other words, the death of humanity that had occurred could be the result of three actions. In the best case scenario what happened occured due to the ability of a one-time use WCI. Tn this case it was easy enough to fix what have happened. A much worse possibility is the case if what happened was the result of a reusable WCI, or in the worst case scenario the power of an unknown enemy.

Ainz could resolve the situation, he had several ways available to him to reverse the apocalypse that had begun. However none of them was easy. Some were very costly, others were limited in its number of applications and some might not work at all, depending on whether the incident was the result of the actions of the enemy's abilities or the WCI. So the easiest and fastest way in this case was unusable. Even if we assume that it will work all this will be useless if the enemy can simply destroy humanity again.

Therefore the simple and quick way to solve the problem in this case was postponed. At least until the discovery of the cause of what happened to humanity.

However, besides the question of the direct cause of the disappearance of mankind, another remained. The question of the perpetrator of the disappearance of mankind or more precisely, of the one who was behind it. Comparing the previous two problem, this issue looked even more incomprehensible than with the death of humanity itself, since in this case Ainz could use only the words of the very unreliable and already dead Professor Lev.

Although it's not that he said a lot himself, but from the very fact that Professor Lev was speaking out against his boss, Olga Marie, it meant at least that there was "someone" opposing Chaldea and all of humanity as well. But who exactly? There was no answer to this question. However, there were guesses.

Forced teleportation was not a rare trick but nor was it simple, it requires certain skill and level of power from the user for its use, as well as applicable classes of a sufficiently high level. Considering that Lev who used the spell most likely used something similar to 'Greater Teleportation', an eighth rank spell, then the probable cause for the death of humanity would probably possessed even higher level abilities. In the same case Ainz himself could not allow himself to be so relaxed about the available trumps of his, trying to neutralize the actions of an unknown enemy, especially considering that at the moment he could not even begin to guess who his opponent was.

For a second, Ainz's mind was visited by a tempting thought. If he called upon Demiurge or Albedo, then they probably would have easily solved the riddle that had appeared before him, but the overlord's mind was not convinced. Nazarick was - is - and will remain his strongest and most secret of trump cards. First of all - its strength is simply too great to be considered something other than Ainz's 'absolute trump card' and secondly... Naturally, because he too wanted to be in Nazarick. And so of course he did not want to summon it and risk never wanting to leave it.

"That's it, we have arrived." Da Vinci's voice brought Ainz out of his trance and reflection .e twistEd his head around several times to determine where he was at the moment.

Although, of course, he ended up in Da Vinci workshop but to be more specific to the cause of his curiosity, the workshop, as Ainz imagined it, looked nothing like his imagination. As a man of the future, his mind responded to the word 'workshop' with a row of small, dark, filthy rooms, the smell of engine oil and dirty clothes thrown in a corner. And the fact that the magicians of this world called their laboratories as "a workshop"brought the visions of 'magical' laboratories of alchemists and enchanters from Yggdrasil. Da Vinci's workshop was neither one nor the other, although it surprisingly managed to combine the features of both.

It was a spacious room which due to the abundance of numerous drawings laid out here and there, strange figures and mechanical models, incomprehensible crystals of obviously magical purpose and all sorts of books, seemed so tiny that Ains with his large figure was forced to slouch a little in order to not touch anything.

"Come here!" However, Da Vinci, seemingly not at all concerned with the problems of the skeleton, just fluttered into the workshop first and then literally disappeared behind the huge shelves of books and strange devices, leaving Ainz alone with the pile of papers and strange things.

Ainz who entered after her was only able to see where the girl disappeared to, in one of the inconspicuous doors, hidden by numerous strange devices, standing, lying and even hanging in front of it. He then took a breath and sighed, and even though he did not have lungs the action turned out to feel truly natural.

Moving slowly through the cluttered workshop, Ainz could only shake his head. Da Vinci looked so decent, neat and well-groomed, that he couldn't imagine what a mess her main workplace would be in. Although they did say that chaos is a sign of a creative mind?

"In that case," Ainz's memories of his empty and uncomfortable, almost sterile clean, because of his non-use, apartment made him sigh. "I suppose Da Vinci can truly be called a genius."

Miraculously, Ainz managed to squeeze through the rows of cluttered tables without hitting anything and a second later he was rewarded by the appearance of a joyful Da Vinci who was holding something in her hands. To Ainz's surprise, the body of a young man, literally a little older than sixteen years old. In addition, the young man himself looked incredible, the features of the face, body, hands, legs, honed to perfection, everything up to the tip of the nose was perfect, as if adjusted by a maestro and brought to perfection by a master's brush.

"Here it is!" the appearance of Da Vinci, holding the body of a boy in her hands, turned out to be strangely unexpected for Ainz. Such that the idea that the body that is in the girl's hands was given to him as his new body didn't immediately visit Ainz's head. It just looked so beautiful, so perfect that the overlord could not relate the picture he saw before him and himself.

In his memories, he always had two bodies. This body, the body of Momonga and his human body. However in his human body, Ainz looked... Average. Typical. It may even be called 'gray.' And of course, he was at least twice as old as the body of the boy shown to him.

"Well, this is for you." Da Vinci smiled at him, carrying the body forward, after which, pushing several sheets from the sofa with her hand, laid him on his back.

Ainz, on the other hand could not do anything more than stare at the body in front of him with bewilderment.

And what was he supposed to do now?

Of course he agreed to get a human body - officially in order not to frighten people, but with a completely unambiguous real reason. To get himself a human body.

No, there were no problems with his undead body. To him it felt full, right even, however he lacked some things. There was a lack of pleasant sensations from the touch of the wind, muffled as if through clothes, and he would not like to give up the opportunity to eat delicious food or feel the pleasant warmth of the bath. And maybe even of a woman... Well, it doesn't matter right now.

In any case, he wanted to get a human body, even if it is limited and not able to withstand his full strength. In the end, he could always destroy the body and start to fight to his fullest ability. However even so, what he imagined was similar to his past body and certainly not like... This masterpiece.

However Da Vinci regarded his silence in her own way.

"Oh." Smiling at him the girl turned around in order to return to the warehouse. "I did not think that I would be able to meet anyone here who shared my tastes. This body is the only male body that I have at the moment, but if you prefer a female..."

It took Ainz a second to understand exactly what Da Vinci said.

"Stop!" He shouted , but his undead mind immediately extinguished the emotion. "No, I would prefer a male body. Simply…"

Lost in thought Ainz sighed. "It's just extremely beautiful, that's all."

"Of course." The reply came from Da Vinci instantly and was full of meaning , as if what was said needed no further explanation. "I created it."

"You?" Turning to the girl, Ainz looked at her in surprise, which however remained unnoticeable due to the lack of facial expressions. Ainz' surprise in this case was completely unnecessary. Of course he heard from Tabula about what kind of existence Leonardo Da Vinci is, a brilliant scientist who was considered a genius in all fields, but due to his lack of systematic education he could not fully imagine what it really meant 'to understand everything at once'.

"Of course." Da Vinci's smile came out even more calm this time and this time there was some pride seen on it. "I am a genius in everything that I try. I don't think that before or after me there would be a person who understood everything as much as I do... Except one of my friends, perhaps."

Ainz could not reply to this and again looked at the boy's body, which because of its beauty looked more like a porcelain doll.

"Although, if you want, I can create a different appearance for you in the future." Seeing Ainz' indecision Da Vinci smiled at him. "I think it will take me a week to create a suitable body that can withstand A-grade magic. If you wish I could make a couple of sketches now."

"Thank you." Ainz sincerely thanked the girl. After which he again looked at the body of the boy lying in front of him. Apparently he really had no choice.

* * *

When Ainz opened his eyes again the first thing he saw was an unfamiliar ceiling, from which several strange devices hung, the purpose of which Ainz could not understand. As well as Da Vinci leaning over him, carefully looking at the awakening undead.

"It seems that everything is in order." After a couple of seconds of inspection the girl came to a conclusion. "To be honest, this puppet was meant for me so I was not completely sure that he could contain you. However, as expected, my creation was extremely effective. How do you feel?"

How do you feel?

On this question Ainz inspected himself.

The sensations were strange and extremely unusual.

During his years of gaming in Yggdrasil, he must admit that he was already used to associating his "self" with the body of the undead Momonga rather than with his human body. Of course, this fact was only strengthened with his summoning and being put in his skeletal form as a Servant in the new world, Ainz mind became used to his inhuman body even more, to such an extent that he began to consider it his 'real' body instead of the body of that unfortunate young man whose place he accidentally took in this world. And at the same time, although his current state was not entirely 'natural', to him it was in this body that he felt the warm atmosphere of the Da Vinci's workshop, in which he found himself and the touch of clothes clothed in advance by the girl to the naked body. Additionally, unlike the body of the young man that he had occupied before, this body felt more like a 'suit', perhaps of the most beautiful cut but still not as natural as his usual bones and draped mantle.

"I suppose everything is normal." Nevertheless, Ainz did not find any other answer, and slowly got up from the sofa. After his impressive physique was reduced, almost half the room abruptly ceased to look chaotically cluttered to him and change into a simple category of creatively erratic, so that the Master who occupied the new body could stretch his arms a little bit.

"Okay." The girl nodded to him after which she almost immediately handed him a few sheets of paper. "Here look, I already made a few sketches."

It was unexpectedly fast, in such a way that Ainz did not at first realize what Da Vinci meant and only after looking at the neat pencil drawings and distinguished sketches of bodies and faces in precise lines. And naturally, as was expected, they were all drawn without a single extra dash, so perfect, as if someone had spent all their life creating the most perfect drawings , until they were able to create their masterpiece. However judging by the time, Da Vinci managed to sketch the drawings in the few minutes that it took Ainz to wake in his new body.

"Which do you prefer?" looking at the man who occupied the new body, the girl smiled at him. "Bear in mind if you change your mind I can still give you any female body that you want."

"Thank you, but I still refuse." The thought of the possibility to occupy a woman's body did not entice the male personality of Ainz. Although technically, given the absence of some things in the body of the undead, it could be considered asexual. "However some problems may still arise. The fact is that these sketches are... Extremely beautiful."

"Naturally, I created them." Da Vinci smiled at him, shaking her beautiful hair, as if saying 'What else did you expect from true genius?'

"No, not just beautiful, but... Too beautiful." Ainz sighed. He admit, it would be simply uncomfortable for him to use it due to its appearance, which is not so suitable for him. Of course, he never considered himself handsome, but he never desired to correct this fact. Yes, maybe he would have been pleased to have a clearer cheekbones, a strong chin and other features considered 'manly' but he grew out, a long time ago, from the age when he wanted to look like a model from a poster and even more he learned to appreciate the advantages of his own 'gray' appearance. "Perhaps you could have done something more... Ordinary?"

"Ordinary?" - Da Vinci, was even a little surprised by the proposal of Ainz, - "But why? Don't you want to be beautiful? I'm pretty sure that I didn't add any excesses to my drawings."

"Yes, but..." Ainz hesitated. "Perhaps I would just like something more... Ordinary and inconspicuous. And maybe a little older?"

Unfortunately, the sketches provided by the girl showed a person hardly much older than twenty years and Ainz would therefore prefer a more mature body in this case.

"Ordinary... And older?" It seemed as if the words of Ainz had wounded the girl in the heart, breaking through like arrows, forcing Da Vinci to repeat them. "But... What about beauty?"

"I'd be quite satisfied if I was not handsome... Although of course I would not like to have any obvious physical defects. Just an ordinary appearance, perhaps thirty years old... Or at least twenty-five?" The man said uncertainly, and looked at Da Vinci, who looked as if she would have a stroke. However after digesting what was said to her, the girl sighed and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she looked at Ainz with a satisfied smile.

"Of course, the creation of something ordinary presents no problem for me." Da Vinci nodded to him. "Then perhaps I can come up with something a little later... Maybe tomorrow we can discuss everything that you want?"

"Of course." Ainz nodded to the girl, but a second later he was distracted by the strange sound that reached him from under one of the tables. Having shifted his gaze he was able to find a small creature, resembling a dog or a very large squirrel of white color, sitting under the table. His mind recalled memories of having already seen such a creature not so long ago.

"Fou," Ainz called the animal. It seems that last time this creature ran away from Ainz when they met.

Fou however was clearly not going to run away this time. Even more than that, Ainz could have sworn that the strange creature at the moment was closely watching his movements in his new body. However the creature was obviously not going to do anything except attentive watch.

"Ainz." Da Vinci turned unusually to the man or, judging by the body he was given, to the boy."I'm sure his name is "Four."

"Is it?" For a moment Ainz was distracted from the contemplation of the being. "I was ready to swear that it was "Fou"."

"No, I'm pretty sure that this is Four." Da Vinci nodded at the name confidently and Ainz was forced to retreat before the girl's unequivocal confidence and looked at the creature who was looking at him closely at the moment. However, it was clearly not going to do anything right now, so, after staring at each other for a few seconds, without having come decision on what Ainz had to do with the creature, he decided to ignore him for the moment. Moreover, after a few seconds someone knocked on the door of Da Vinci's workshop, so the girl was distracted from the contemplation of the confrontation of glances by the two beings.

Behind the door to Da Vinci's workshop was Dr. Roman, however this time he looked somewhat better than he did at their last meeting. Firstly, he was clearly not so much worried about the actions of an unknown ally, Ainz, and secondly he was slightly excited, in the most proper sense of the word. And at the moment, glancing at the girl, he began to speak rapidly when he saw her.

"It seems we managed to complete the system for summoning Servants!" He happily announced the news and only after that he noticed someone was standing nearby. "And who..."

"This is Ainz." The girl instantly enlightened him, after which she tried to put thoughts of what had happened on the rails. "So what are you talking about? How did you manage to finish the system?"

"Mashu's shield turned out to be a terrific catalyst for summoning." Roman smiled at the girl after which he turned his gaze to Ainz, who was silent, uninitiated into the conditions of the systems. "I congratulate you Mr. Ainz, now we can organize the summoning of Servants!"

After the same phrase Ainz became interested in what was said.

"In what sense?" He made to move from the cluttered tables to be opposite the man.

"The FATE system or a pseudo 'Throne of Heroes'." Romani explained right away. "This is the system that the Masters were supposed to use to establish contact with the Servants if they are needed to intervene in the fight... However the system was never finished, the high energy costs and low chance of success due to the attempt to reproduce the ritual of the Holy Grail War by simple equipment were its main problems. Of course we didn't manage to do anything with its energy expenditures, however using the shield of Mashu we were able to achieve a stable, working ritual for summoning Servants. Although, of course there will be other problems, but it is quite possible that we still managed to at least do its basic functions!"

"Servant summoning..." This time Ainz said the phrase thoughtfully and as if distracted from his thoughts, looked at Dr. Roman. "And how many Servants can this system call upon?"

This time Dr. Roman was the one thinking. "Well, formally... As long as we can provide the system with energy and at least the minimal of a catalyst for invoking a Servant."

"That's it?" Said Ainz. No, of course he was not a slave owner and would not like to force people to work or fight for him, however... "And what is necessary in this case to call a Servant?"

"Well, first of all the source of energy." Answering to the slightly suspicious question of Ainz Romani. "The main powers of the Chaldea are now aimed at maintaining shields and life support, so we simply cannot afford to spend any significant amount of energy to use it. Especially since without a catalyst the likelihood of success will still not be very high. As for the Catalyst..."

"Of course, some personal object of a Servant would allow us to call upon the Servant with a one hundred percent chance but if we don't have that, then perhaps we would need a source of mana or abilities similar to the hero being called." Roman stopped after these words.

'Data-crystals' Ainz thought.

Ainz concluded that trying to summon a Servant required the use of data crystals and in order to summon a specific Servant requires data crystals that was appropriate for this particular Servant. For example, the corrupted Saber left behind a medium-level data-crystal with the parameters of 'dragon' and 'darkness', so it was more likely that when used , the Servant summoned would be related to these two parameters. Although, even if he uses low-level data crystals, such as those that Ainz eventually collected from the killed monsters who practically had no parameters of their own they could also be used in the summoning . However in this case, the lack of special parameters of the crystals limited the scope of the summoning and the likelihood of failure was much higher.

'In a strange way, this system somehow resembles the gacha...' Ainz noted the strange similarities.

"In this case perhaps..." Ainz started, after which he shook his head. "We should try to call on some Servant, for a trial?"

Romani looked at Ainz inquiringly, after which he nodded then took a step to the side, opening a passage to the man in the body-puppet.

Ainz on the other hand, felt how much excitement began to spread over his body. After all, many years before that, he spent practically all his money on the gacha in Yggdrasil and not because he was a gambler.

Slowly but surely in the soul of Ainz the spirit of the collector began to flare up.

* * *

Noble Phantasm: EX

Noble Phantasm is the special characteristic characterizing for the Servant's Noble Phantasm, the crystallization of power and the legends of the hero. However there are two separate types of evaluation of a Noble Phantasm, the rank of the Phantasm itself and the rank of the parameter 'Noble Phantasm'. While the rank of the Noble Phantasm itself is responsible for its 'strength', whether it is of destructiveness or the power of the applied effect, the 'Noble Phantasm' parameter is responsible for its 'closeness to being a miracle' or, in other words, for how incredible it is in the overall scale of the world. For example, some Noble Phantasm, although they do not possess any special powers, by themselves still remain beyond the limits of the possible, because of which, although the rank of the Noble Phantasm itself will be low, the Servant's parameter for it will be much higher; and vice versa, although some abilities may have an incredible 'power', by themselves their abilities will simply be stronger versions of the most ordinary of things, because of which the rank of phantasm and parameter will again be different.

RankEX - Highest rank, beyond any normal ranks. This rank means that this phantasm has an 'impossibility' parameter that surpasses any numerical value or ranks — in other words, it is beyond what is possible and impossible not only for people but also for Servants and comparable to the Mystery of the Gods, and perhaps even surpasses them. Thus, it can be said that this Noble Phantasm are beyond all limits, surpassing the very concept of the possible and the impossible.

* * *

**Some people talked about Olga's kiss as the first kiss Ainz ever had. Well, while it may be a 'conceptual' to make Ainz a 'true wizard', but he is not a virgin, as you would expect a 30 year old man to be. Although, perhaps, he never truly had any sort of meaningful relationship and didn't have sex for a few years before he was transported in FGO.**

**Also!**

**Pat reon \rure**


	9. Chapter 9

Moving along the corridors of the deserted Chaldea, Ainz couldn't think of anything except the possible consequences of the use of summoning of Servants in the near future.

'I wouldn't be considered a slaveholder for using it?' However, his thoughts were on the nature of contracts and summoning of Servants. 'Do they voluntarily go for it?'

Memories about his previous world cropped up in his mind however. Yes, formally, the workers of his past world also 'choose' their own work 'voluntarily', no one forced them into slavery and did not force them to go work in the mines, in hazardous industries or in waste handling. However could it be considered a voluntary choice to go to work for a black company if you were no longer offered any other choices? And they didn't just not offer anything, the very possibility of choosing wasn't there, all of the arcologies were ruled by titanic megacorporations, which brutally held a monopoly on providing people with jobs. Either you work for them or you don't work at all and if you don't work then you are left without money for living. So ultimately you still forced to work for them, taking the work that the company offered you. Was Ainz similar to these 'mega-companies' which only offer the choices of 'work for us or die'?

Reflections about this caused pain in the non-existent abdomen of Ainz... Although, no, given that at the moment he was in the body of a homunculus, this time it was quite corporeal.

And yet, on the other hand, Ainz's desire to collect the most of a collection was always part of his personality. From the time when he was a mere Player and the collection was, at the time, just a collection of virtual data. Now, when his possible collection acquired a natural, real form and even more, not just a form but the bodies and personalities of real legendary heroes with whom Ainz could meet in person, communicate, learn from so many secrets and truths , answers to various questions, maybe even learn something from people so legendary that they could surpass the limits of humanity itself? Perhaps he could even strengthen his own abilities, at least Ainz hoped that he could do so without resorting to some radical methods...

Unfortunately the dialogue that Ainz conducted with himself did not end by the time he saw the shield of Mashu in front of him, currently lying in the center of the Servant's summoning circle and therefore, when Romani turned toward him, quite joyful of the current situation, wanting to give the go-ahead for the summoning ritual, instead of anticipation for finished ritual he saw only a man deep in thought.

"Ainz?" Cautiously, Romani addressed the man frozen in thought. "Is everything all right?"

Ainz only glanced at the doctor, after which he returned to his contemplation of the ritual.

"Not at all." He replied after a few seconds of silence. "I'm a little worried that the summoning of the heroes is, in fact, a slavery contract... Will they not be against this?"

"Are you worried about their reaction?" Roman however incorrectly interpreted Ainz thoughts. "But you can always defend yourself with the help of the Command Spells. You still have your Command Spells for Mashu?"

Command Spells?

Ainz did not immediately understand what Romani was talking about, before the information crammed into his head at the moment of his summoning stirred up as a wave of understanding.

Command Spells or Command Seals , Absolute Orders.

The spells, demonstrating the absolute power of the Master over the Servant, orders that can rewrite reality itself or to subdue the Servant's will or to turn a possible loss into victory by giving an order like 'Win this battle' or 'Recover your mana'. At least, they were described in this exact way. In reality the use of the spells was fraught with a whole galaxy of various restrictions.

Although formally, such orders could achieve anything and everything, their use was dependent on the existence of a Servant. In other words Orders without a Servant were useless and if the Order used was not related or casted to the Servant himself, then the Command Spells were simply radiant tattoos on a Masters arm. Also, the Command Spells were rather limited in how much power they had. Although an order which was held back only by the personal issues of the Servant or their refusal did not require much, for example to force the Servant to fight another Servant whom he did not want to fight against - it was impossible to order the Servant to destroy the Earth. At least if he did not have the abilities of this caliber, which the Servant simply did not use according to personal preferences. More powerful effects also required more magic in the form of several Command Spells used at once, such as temporarily raising the rank of a Phantasm. And even in the simple case of subjugating the mind of the Servant to give an order contrary to what the Servant could stomach or tolerate, the aforementioned summoned Servant could resist it. Few could really overcame it and in this case several Spells could still force the Servant to obey the given order. The very fact that someone could resist the Absolute Orders was somewhat... frustrating for Ainz. In addition, even simple psychological changes like attempting to change the personality of the Servant could be excessive for the Spells, using one or even two spells would give too weak of an effect, if the hero's mind was affected at all. In addition there were only three such Spells for any Servants along with one Master.

In other words Ainz who always saw the benefit of using any, even the smallest of resources, simply forgot about the existence of the Command Spells as a factor after defining them as an extremely narrow version of 'Wish Upon A Star' which was applicable to specific people.

But still, having checked just in case, Ainz was able to find three Command Spells tied to him and to Mashu so he could quite logically assumed that after making a new contract with a Servant he would also receive three Command Spells for it, so in response to Doctor Roman's question he nodded.

"Then I don't see any problems in the summoning of Servants." Roman nodded to him. "Even if they will be hostile against us, as a last resort, you will be able to use the Command Spells."

'Forcing a person to work with a tranquilizer... That's what I really would like to avoid!' Ainz could only mentally exclaim at Romani's arguments but looking at the summoning circle Ainz sighed. This time with his very real, though not quite human, lungs. Judging by the nonchalance with which those around him treated the summoning of Servants it seems that there was really nothing extraordinary about this. Considering his pre-existing desire to collect a new collection... Ainz sighed and extended his hand to open his inventory.

As expected, a small black gap in the fabric of reality formed next to his hand, to which the pupils of Dr. Roman, who was standing nearby, widened.

"That is..." He began vaguely, having observed Ainz's hand emerging from the gap. Where in his hand a bunch of white-transparent crystals rested. "Is that... A pocket dimension?"

"Yes." Thinking about his answer, Ainz turned away from the inventory, which immediately disappeared, after which he squeezed the handful of data-crystals, "Now what?"

"What?" Romani distracted from observing the pocket dimension exclaimed. "Ah yes, the ritual..."

"How many of those magical sources do you have?" Looking at Ainz Roman thought loudly. "Those are rather weak, it may take a few of..."

"Data-crystals?" Ainz looked at Romani to which Ainz responded with a nod.

"Data-crystals..." Roman thought about it and nodded in agreement. "Yes, in my opinion those seem quite good. So how many of these do you have?"

Ainz looked thoughtfully at the handful of low-level data crystal that he had collected after cleaning up the monsters in the Singularity. As it turned out, the monsters killed by Mashu did leave data-crystals behind. But only sometimes and are extremely weak. Moreover. without possessing any attributes, so under normal conditions in Yggdrasil they would be considered useless. However Ainz was a true DMMORPG player, he collected all the crystals dropped by killed enemies ,after which, taking advantage of how slowly the Singularity collapsed, he rushed forward with the dignity of a real professional to an obstacle that arose before every true connoisseur of Yggdrasil. Mindless grinding.

With the methodical movements of a machine, Ainz destroyed all the monsters in the Singularity, not only the skeletons but strange creatures resembling enormous hands or even stranger creatures like flying doors. However after Yggdrasil Ainz was not particularly surprised at the design of his opponents.

Also ,just in case, Ainz examined the bodies of the defeated Servants, with a satisfactory result, as with the body of the defeated Professor Lev and from a huge guy he ran into who was spending his time in the burning Fuyuki ruins away from the main battles, from whom he also managed to collect a drop. So at the moment he had enough of the necessary ingredients.

"A little less than a hundred small crystals, five medium, and two rather large ones." Ainz answered. "Will this be enough?"

"Yes, more than enough." Romani happily glanced at Ainz and smiled. "If you are talking about these small ones then I suppose it will take about... Twenty? No, twenty-one."

'What accuracy in calculations.' Ainz was surprised at this, but he trusted the calculations were made by someone clearly much more knowledgeable in the magic rituals of this world. He then laid out the data-crystals, which in this case were not catalysts but a simple source of energy and took a step back.

"It seems that this is enough." The man next to Ainz looked at the message that had opened in front of him and then ran his hand over his face. "I suppose in that case... Test launch?"

"Launch." Ainz nodded in confirmation after which he peered into the circle of summoning, in the center of which rested the shield of Mashu, not noticing the giant machinery that worked nearby to ensure the ritual.

The small data-crystals lit up instantly, after which as if reaching for a specific incandescent point in a second they glowed out sharply, illuminating the circle of summoning with a bright blue light. Ainz under normal conditions would not even be bothered by such a thing, but being placed in a Da Vinci puppet, he was forced to close his eyes at the moment when the bright light went up and when he could blink and open his eyes again, he heard a familiar voice.

"Well then, this time summoned as a Caster..." The speaker's voice was slightly disappointed, but still rather benevolent. "So you are my Master?"

When Ainz's gaze nevertheless was able to focus on the one who was in front of him. The Servant who appeared before him turned out to be a blue-haired Servant in a fur coat already familiar to Ainz.

"Caster" - Ainz smiled at the man.

"Ah, boy." Caster's smile became patronizing at the moment when Caster's gaze touched his summoner. "So you are my Master?"

"Yes." Ainz's voice was calm. "But, I see you don't recognize me."

"Don't recognize?" Looking at Ainz again, Caster frowned as if thinking about something. "Sorry, but I don't remember anyone with your appearance. About the sensations though..."

Thinking about something, Caster suddenly took a step back, leaving the circle of summoning and then glanced at Ainz. Surprised Caster replied, with an uncomprehending, but most of all wary voice. "Who are you?"

"Ainz Ooal Gown." Sighing, Ainz glanced at Caster again. "And the story about me can wait for some other time. At least the fact that I called you here and now won't change from this."

Caster's gaze did not soften, but however, he could not deny the absolute truthfulness of Ainz's words. So with a sigh Caster reluctantly put his hand forward.

"Contract." He said, as if forcefully.

"Contract." Ainz replied back, after which, feeling how the connection was being formed, he carefully scrutinized it. It is unnecessary that Caster should be limited to Ainz supply of mana to the same extent as Mashu, but even in this case Ainz preferred to protect himself. Using about half of Caster's full mana capacity was enough though.

"Oh!" Caster was genuinely surprised, after which he snapped his fingers several times as if to remember."Such power... And this power...I do recognize you!"

As if realizing something, Caster pointed a finger at Ainz. "Last time you looked different and even felt a little different, but this familiar power... In Fuyuki!"

"Yes that is right." Ainz answered. "Back then in Fuyuki."

"But how... Who are you?!" at this moment Caster's voice was genuinely surprised.

"My name is Ainz Ooal Gown, as I said already." As if talking to a foolish child the man repeated his name then nodded in the direction of Dr. Roman standing next to him. "And any other questions can wait for a while... As I said already."

'So there is one.' Ainz smiled to himself internally, feeling the pleasant feeling from starting a new collection spreading inside him. Who will appear next?'.

"Great!" However Dr. Roman was extremely satisfied, regardless of Ainz's thoughts. "So the system finally works! In that case I suppose now we should prepare more..."

"Prepare?" However Ainz was alarmed by such wording. "But what about summoning the other Servants?"

"But we decided to only do a test summon?" Romani's look became interested. "Didn't you yourself say this? It seems to me that before carrying out the next ritual it is worth it to collect more information and debugging the work of the machine..."

It's trueyes, Ainz certainly was the one who offered to carry out a test ritual. But now, finally, when he felt the joy of starting a new collection, his collectors desire rising from the depths of his soul can no longer be extinguished.

"Of course, it is necessary to conduct a test." Ainz's mind worked to its fullest at that moment. "But why stop at one summon? Even if this ritual turned out to be successful it can be a simple coincidence, right? Perhaps, it is worthwhile, in this case, to try to conduct a series of tests in order to finally confirm the performance of the System? Perhaps the error will lie in the sequential use of the rituals?"

"Hmm." The words of Ainz were not without logic, Roman could recognize this. However he didn't like something in Ainz proposal. And yet at the same time Ainz was the main ally of Chaldea in the current situation and the only available Master. Which meant that the Servants depended on him, the only one whom Chaldea could depend on. Sighing, Romani was forced to admit his impotence in this case. "Well, okay, summon as much as you want..."

However he did not have time to finish this phrase, as the next portion of small crystals took its place - and again the same sequences as before and again the glow of the crystals and again a bright flash of light...

"Second Servant in a row!" Roman nodded with satisfaction at the moment when the glow of the crystals dissipated, revealing a familiar figure to Ainz.

"Servant Rider, Medusa." The voice of the girl in the already familiar clothes, as if created by Peroroncino himself, was quiet but clear. "If you require a sacrifice do feel free to use me as you wish."

Ainz smiled, feeling an excitement slowly starting to awaken in his soul.

"Contract?" Without any preludes he turned to the girl.

"Contract." She agreed without hesitation and only when she felt the power that flowed into her, did she immediately turned her attention both to her strange Master and to the people who were nearby. "Another Servant?"

"Explanations will have to wait." Ainz waved aside, feeling the insatiable beast of collecting wake up in him. "Next summon!"

The Rider took a step from the pedestal but she did not even make three steps away before a flash of light arose behind her.

"The third successful call in a row!" Across from her a man clapped his hands in satisfaction. "It seems we really managed to make the system work!"

"Servant Archer." The man's voice resounded through the room. "I answer your summon."

"Excellent, Caster, Rider and Archer in one go!" Roman clapped his hands. He didn't have time to say anything other than that since he was distracted by the next flash of light. "What, another one?!"

However despite Roman'sexcitemet the fourth summon did not manage to summon a Servant. The light flashed and the instantly extinguished crystals this time did not obscure a figure in the glow of light so the crystals were wasted. However, Ainz did not seem upset at all. On the contrary, he seemed to be even happier after an unsuccessful summoning attempt.

"Here is the first unsuccessful roll." He happily proclaimed, after which directing his gaze on the three Servants standing next to him, with whom he signed a contract, he turned toward Roman himself with a look. "Well then, what can you say about these crystals?"

The new crystals which appeared from the space pocket, the so-called data-crystals, made Romani frown. These were much more impressive than the small fragments of before.

"Hmm, strange." However, Romani's thought was cut off by Ainz, who looked at the circle of the ritual of summonings. "Can this system call for equipment?"

"Equipment?" Roman blinked then looked at the circle, where at the moment there was no Servant. However there was something else.

A strange blade in the form of a cruciform lay in the middle of the place where the Servant should be summoned, as if it were summoned instead of a Servant. Although, of course, the system itself was not designed to summon anything other than Servants.

"This is... A Black Key." A man who did not immediately recognize the weapon in the end did recall what it was.

What lay in the very center of the summoning circle really was nothing but a Black Key, a tool of the church exorcists. However one thing still worried Roman. The FATE system was designed for the summoning of Servants... And certainly not the summoning of items!

In Roman's mind the thought passed through that the Black Key that was summoned was somehow a Servant who had merged with the weapon, but Ainz's voice that sounded nearby dissuade him from thinking so.

"Weapon, without any signs of a Servant." Ainz then looked at the Black Key with interest. "Although the weapon is also part of the collection..."

Roman sincerely wanted to investigate the strange Black Key that appeared in the place of a Servant. However, noticing how Ainz looked at it with genuine interest, he was forced to retreat.

"Hmm, well." Having lifted the blade from its place, Ainz twirled it in his hands for trial, after which, having come to some definite conclusion, he plunged it into his own spatial pocket. "Next one!"

Instead of small fragments, this time in the hands of Ainz there were three much more complete crystals, which was also placed in the summoning circle. These crystals, obtained from the bodies of slain Servants - well, not quite Servants, but rather their 'monstrous forms' - were much more powerful. But they also practically did not have any pronounced attributes, so that with their help, in theory, anyone could be called upon as a Servant.

'Am I seeing things or is Ainz seems somehow unusually joyful regarding the summoning of Servants?' After observing how quickly the ritual was prepared by Ainz, Roman could do nothing but think to himself. No, of course it was an honor for any mage to summon even one Servant, so the enthusiasm was completely understandable, especially considering that Ainz who played the Master role was clearly not limited in mana to maintain the Servants summoned. But there was something strange about Ainz behavior. Something that did not quite fit the picture of simple joy from being able to summon the Servants. More specifically, to Roman, it seemed that Ainz was not excited at invoking the greatest heroes of humanity as much as he was excited by the appearance of the Servants.

As Ainz did not bother to perform the Sacrament, which opens the way for him to the greatest and strongest representatives of the whole of humanity, but... Well to be honest it looked more like Ainz was just a child running around the candy shop. Moving from shop window to shop window, looking at the bright and colorful wrappers, before demanding that their parents buy everything at once.

A new flash of light and once again, a new Servant. It suddenly began to appear, as if the FATE System itself was not completely sure whether it should indulge Ainz's wishes, when with mania's persistence he began to call upon the Servants, and while biting his fingers.

"Assassin-class Servant." A black figure appeared in a hoodie appeared at the call site and spoke in a deep, confident voice that didn't fit with his white bone mask that hid his face and the tattered shroud that hid the body. "I heard your call from the shadows."

'I too seem to have already seen you before.' Looking at the Assassin that appeared, Ainz nodded to himself, after which thinking about something turned his eyes to the Servants who had been summoned up earlier who did not yet fully comprehend what was happening at the moment and how they should react to this situation. 'If you think about it, I only called servants whom I have already seen before. Only two of the non-summoned Servants remained...'

'I just had two large crystals left for two separate rolls.' Ainz nodded to himself and then glanced at the Assassin that appeared, as if he had just remembered that he existed. "Ah yes, the contract."

The next-to-last crystal appeared in his hand. Unlike many others, it had very distinct attributes, 'darkness' and 'dragon'. Guessing who would appear next was easy.

This time, the flickering of the circle of summoning was much brighter but the color of this flickering was almost indignant. As if it were saying, 'Enough, take your data crystals and get out!'.

However, regardless of how the light of the circle flickered, the summoning took place without any special incidents. The figure that appeared was dressed in black armor, which seemed to continue to the bottom as the dress was made of the same steel plates.

"I have come as bidden by the summons. You are the one they call..." Taking a step out of the circle of summoning, the girl, whose face was partially hidden behind a strange black mask, wanted to say something to Ainz but got a little lost, accidentally being distracted by the Servants standing next to the wall, because of this her last words sounded a little less majestic than the girl intended. "Master?"

"I suppose so." Nodding to her ,Ainz, feeling a bit despondent by the end of the gacha soon, extended his hand to her. "Contract?"

After these words, the summoned Saber merely glanced at the Servants standing nearby, after which she nevertheless stretched her own a little uncertainly.

'Excellent, it seems the gacha can be considered completely successful' Ainz's mood due to his suppression of emotions could not be called really joyous, however it is steadily kept at the level of 'significantly above average' by a successful summoning and the very chance to plunge again into Ainz's favorite occupation, collecting. 'However it's somewhat a pity that I can only call upon those Servants whom I saw myself. This however can be quite logical. "Win to recruit" was always a fairly common strategy, especially in games. But in the end, this only means that I will need to see as many Servants as possible in order to expand my collection.'

The data crystal that Ainz had collected from the body of the murdered Professor Lev was the last one to be brought to light. In terms of power it was approximately equal to the crystal that he managed to get from Saber's body. But it had two very pronounced elements, 'darkness' and 'evil' or in the language of Yggdrasil, 'negative karma'.

'On the other hand, I do not remember Lancer possessing one of these two parameters...' Ainz thoughtfully placed the last data crystal as a catalyst and the fuel. 'However at the same time it seems to me this is the only Servant from those that I have seen that I haven't called for yet... Although yes, there was also the big guy... Maybe he will be more suitable for these parameters?'

Truth be told, Ainz had a lot of items that he could use to make summons. His personal storage of data-crystals, not to mention the endless treasures of Ainz Ooal Gown, various powerful artifacts, magical and even quest objects from Yggdrasil. However... Ainz did not want to spend them so carelessly. In the end there was a chance that they simply would not work as a catalyst, it was a different world that had its own laws and it's not certain that this world would accept data-crystals or objects from Yggdrasil. And of course although theoretically some of Ainz's data-crystals from Yggdrasil could be replaced with the help of monsters from this world, this did not mean that he had to spend them right and left, especially considering the fact that the resources of the two worlds could have huge differences.

True, there was one more thing that Ainz took from the Singularity, which he thought he could well try to use as a catalyst or as a source of Mana but Ainz had doubts about it. Perhaps even more than about his own resources.

The last time when the circle of summoning flashed Ainz was already prepared to see either the stoic, almost hewn out of stone, Lancer's face or the animalistic grin of Berserker, twisted with anger. But instead the bright light did not fade but seemed to change slightly.

"Something's wrong." Roman instantly determined from the flickering of the circle of summoning. "Something..."

However he did not have time to react. This time the flash of light was much stronger. Because of this, even Ainz, who had already managed to get used to his new body, had to cover his eyes again.

"Everything, everything, everything as you would will it." The voice that spoke was female, very quiet and judging by the tone, very young. "I will offer all of myself to you. This body, this heart, all of it..."

The manifested figure, was not familiar to Ainz. It was not Lancer and of course not Berserker, and not even someone who was summoned again. Although theoretically this was impossible. The girl who appeared was head and shoulders below even Ainz's current body, so at best she could rest her head on the chest of an adult man when comparing her height. However given her voice, which was guessed at best sixteen years old, her height was not at all a problem.

'It seems that something that I was so afraid of, happened' Ainz sighed. He had to admit, he thought about it in passing but did not come to the unequivocal conclusion of what he needed to do if a similar situation developed. 'I summoned a child.'

Of course, surely stories about legendary children who have achieved something legendary in their lives existed, even at such a young age, and have accumulated through history. It would be foolish to assume that the Throne of Heroes, which was both soulless and heartless, would refuse to accept their souls to become Servants. However even so, Ainz's internal moral principles were very unambiguous. Memories of children working in the arcology would not have allowed him to send a girl, who has not yet grown up, to do a difficult task. Of course on the other hand if we are talking about someone like Aura or Mare, then Ainz did not doubt their ability to execute almost any order that he could give them... Although even he would prefer not to use them. In any case the girl's summon was the only dark spot in this rolls.

'Although she is quite cute' Like all children, the girl in front of him, even though her face was hidden by a bone mask, a mask strangely similar to the mask of the Assassin that appeared earlier, was cute in its special, childish sense. 'Or is it because I'm getting old and now I'm starting to consider all children as cute, like those old women?'

Thinking about this Ainz extended his hand unconsciously.

"Master, no!" She tried to warn her Master with a voice that was far louder than before, but after a second Ainz's hand still touched the girl's hair. "Master!"

"M?" -Ainz's reaction to the girl's voice led him out of his thoughts, allowing him to look at the girl and then realize his mistake. "Oh, sorry!"

Thinking that this behavior was rather rude, Ainz pulled his hand away from the girl.

"Master... Master..." The mask hid the girl's face in front of him, but even without her face being visible, one tone at a time, it became clear to Ainz that the girl was surprised, not to say shocked. "Master ... Are you alive?!"

"Alive?" For a second Ainz thought that the girl across from him somehow managed to guess that Ainz was an undead. Like Caster, who still was wary, but it's more likely that she meant something else. Because of which the overlord gently agreed. "Yes, I am."

"You... You... Everything that touches me dies... I am a poisonous flower, blossoming to the destruction of the enemy..." Each subsequent phrase of the girl was more and more difficult for her to say. Ainz looking at her tried to analyze the situation before him as quickly as possible.

'Poisonous flower? All that touches her dies? So she has a poisonous touch...' In Yggdrasil there were enough enemies of all possible types, including poisonous ones, including those who imposed poison not with their magic or attack, but even with a simple aura, which is why ordinary players were not fond of hunting somewhere in the swamps or caves, which incidentally made it possible for Ainz Ooal Gown to be the first to discover the Tomb of Nazarick hidden in a swamp. However for Ainz as a representative of the undead who was completely immune to poisons and diseases of any level - except perhaps a few incredibly strong ones that could be counted on the fingers of one hand in the game, such enemies never presented any inconvenience. And vice versa they often became the most beloved since poisonous enemies rarely possessed other strong special abilities. 'However, her reaction... Is she crying?'.

Without looking at the girl's face it was impossible to find out whether she was crying or not. But judging by her stumbling tone and the way she was now trying to draw air between her teeth, the mage was able to identify her state of mind.

'But why?' Ainz's thoughts again became confused. 'If you think about it, she is clearly a child... Besides, she said that anyone who touches her dies. If I have immunity to her poison then...'

'Ah, I think I understand!' Ainz came to a definite conclusion, - 'It hurts her!'

'It is unlikely that a Servant summoned as a child would have time to become famous in his life by accomplishing something truly significant, so surely her poison was her only weapon that left a mark on history, she was probably proud of it. As she said, anyone who touched her would die. But now when confronted with me, in her perception, probably an ordinary person, she could not kill me with her poison' Having come to this conclusion, Ainz suddenly frowned. 'Hey, it hurt when someone gets upset because you did not die!'

However, the girl who was not privy to his thoughts took a step toward Ainz - and then suddenly hugged him with all her strength, squeezing his puppet body to such an extent that Ainz felt his bones creak.

"Hassan of Serenity." Said the girl, and it took Ainz a second to figure out that that was the Servants name. "I will serve you for eternity, Master!"

'Hey wait, wait, isn't that a bit much?' Ainz wanted to step back from the girl, but suddenly found that she had superhuman strength. As expected from a Servant. Though Ainz would certainly be able to step away from her if he really wanted to.

"Khm." someone's cough attracted Ainz's attention. Then turning his gaze from the girl who it seemed didn't think of stepping away from Ainz, he saw five people standing at the wall at once. Earlier, the Servants and Romani, a little embarrassed, managed to avert their eyes from the scene that happened before them. Even Saber and Rider, whose eyes could not be seen behind their blindfolds, managed to do this.

"Of course that's all nice and all that." in the end, Caster was still able to respond first to the embarrassing scene, "But how about getting everyone up to point about why we are here?"

"Khm." Ainz also suddenly became embarrassed. It seems that he gave free rein to his exclusively paternal feelings towards the girl, distracting the newly called Servants. "Yes, of course, now..."

Slowly Ainz tried to remove the girl from himself, after which, having discovered that she obviously did not want to simply step back from her Master, he glanced at the Servants somewhat apologetically. "I apologize... Just give me five minutes."

However, judging by how strongly Hassan clung to her Master, it seemed things would go on longer than that.

* * *

Mana: *

Mana is the characteristic responsible for the mana supply of a Servant that he can use. Despite the fact that traditionally this mana reserve corresponds with the magis, not all owners of high mana ranks are strong magi, although the opposite is also true and magi with a small mana reserves are still very rare. Mana is an indicator of all the energy accumulated by the Servant and it is used to invoke their Noble Phantasms, use many skills like Mana Burst and even on physical enhancement and damage regeneration, which is why Mana is literally regarded as the Servants second Endurance.

Rank * - A Special rank. While the EX rank means "a number outside of ordinary numbers," * means "something that cannot be determined with an exact number" or, more precisely, "beyond the very concept of numbers". For example, a holder of the rank of EX in Mana may have a huge, in fact, divine amount of mana, however, the holder of the * rank of has, in a sense, infinite mana. Although in this case it does not mean "the ability to use an infinite amount of mana at any given time," but the fact that "no matter how much mana is taken from the Servant, in the end it will still be full." It can be said that the Servant in this case has a reserve of mana equal to or even superior to the divine, however, that it is much more powerful - if he completely exhausts his entire supply of Mana, he will be able to restore it completely in just ten or fifteen minutes. In other words, at almost any point in time, the Servant's mana regeneration surpasses his expenditure. At this rank, even if the Servant did not possess such abilities as Battle Continuation or Independent Manifestation, they become as if they were self actualized. In other words, if it were not for one thing, one could say that this Servant had reached the Root. Unfortunately or not, this is not true, this power is taken not from the Root but from another source.

* * *

**Before anyone would say anything - the * mark used as a sublimate for a star-symbol since this site did not support this one, and star-symbol are actually legitimate and existing rank, used at least once in a vast universe of FSN, by BB, nonetheless.**

**About Servants from Nazarick - no entity of Nazarick could be summoned by the gacha of FGO, since:**  
**1) It takes something more than just a regular ritual to summon a Foreigner - and all Yggdrasil entities are regarded as the Foreigners since they exist on the different principles. At least it would take a really, really good fuel - or at least a proper catalyst.**  
**2) All Nazarick entities are already part of the Ainz Noble Phantasm, since Nazarick itself is.**

**Ainz is not prone to experimentation on humans, but he may resort to it under some specific conditions.**

**Chaldea have lots and lots of food, especially given that only ~ 20 people eat it, but also Da Vinci can reproduce it in unlimited amount.**

**Also!**

**Pat reon \rure**


	10. Chapter 10

The four Servants took their seat at a table in a small office that the top officers, all four of them. of Chaldea had recently used, Ainz himself stood at the head of the table. He would also like to sit down, to be honest, but could not do so for a very specific reason.

'How long does she plan to mangle my hand?' Ainz thoughtfully tried to move his hand, currently being squeezed by Serenity as if she was a vice, then turned his eyes to the Servants who sat down on the seats besides the table provided to them, then to Mashu who is also sitting next to them and, just in case, to Roman and Olga-Marie. In other words besides Da Vinci who was currently engaged in her own business in the workshop, at the moment, all the people who had any significant ability to solve anything on the scale of the incident, humanity's extinction, were present in the room.

There was plenty of room for everyone but the girl, Hassan of Serenity, whose mask was currently taken off and dangling on her belt as if she had not seen it, instead continuing to stand next to Ainz. Wrapping his arms with her arms, as if it was a matter of course, continuing to observe all those present attentively.

'Of course, I know that children love to show their affection by cuddling...' At this moment Ainz fidgeted inwardly. 'But she realizes that she is not quite... A child?'.

The inner suppression of emotions, currently active thanks to Ainz's decision did not give him the opportunity to feel any excessively strong feelings, such as arousal, but he still could not completely suppress some interest in the girl. Because of this Ainz, aware of his feelings, continued to unconsciously respond to the hugs of Serenity.

'She is sixteen...' Ainz sighed at that moment. After all he , in the past world, could well have had a daughter her age.

However, Serenity was most likely simply not aware of her actions, continuing to embrace the hand of her Master. Carefully staring at the people around her Master as if they were the one behaving strangely.

'Or is it all thanks to my new body ?' Ainz looked thoughtfully at his reflection in one of the mirrors hanging on the wall, to find his young, beautiful, athletic, black-haired and blue-eyed body. 'As I thought, I should get a more mature adult body...'

"Khm" In the end after everyone else managed to take their places, with Serenity still holding on to the hand of the silent Ainz, Dr. Roman drew the attention of all present with a cough. Serenity also turned her attentive gaze on the man, not letting go of her Master. However, Romani did not start a conversation, but with a glance subtly suggested to Ainz that he should be the one to start the briefing.

'Of course, I am the Master after all.' - Ainz internally sighed. 'It can be said that in this case I am the head of the department who has just gathered a lot of new people to my team. In this case, I have to greet them, set clear goals for them, create a friendly atmosphere and immediately draw their attention and interest to their work. In this case…'

"Humanity was destroyed." The very first words that came out of Ainz mouth was as if a bomb had exploded in the conference hall, forcing all Servants to instantly show a surprised, interested and even disbelieving glance at their new Master. Even Serenity, who is continuing to hold Ainz's hand in captivity, looked at him with interest.

"So, humanity was destroyed." to consolidate the statement Ainz repeated the news again, after which he internally patted himself on the back. After that he was able to unequivocally capture their attention. Now it is necessary to explain to them who he is, where they were and what their future work will be.

"My name is Ainz Ooal Gown and I am currently your Master. I hope we will get along." Ainz bowed, which unfortunately turned out quite crumpled because of Serenity, who continued to hang onto the man's arm. "And this time you were summoned to the Chaldea Research Center. Some time ago, the center discovered the death of humanity in the future, during the unknown events of 2016, as well as a temporal anomaly that appeared in the Holy Grail War in Fuyuki."

"Chaldea promptly planned to send several rapid response teams to the anomaly that arose, but due to the betrayal of one of the scientists-" At this moment Ainz noticed a twitch from Animusphere, after which Romani, who was sitting next to her, put his hand on the girls shoulder. "A lot of people died or fell into a coma, and by the time the new team - me, the director and a Servant - returned from the anomaly, humanity had already been destroyed, the remnants of civilization had been wiped off the face of the earth with its burned husks fire just fading."

After these words, Ainz fell silent. In general, it is possible that in these conditions it would be most appropriate if Animusphere herself continued the briefing. However for some strange reason, Ainz had to be the one to do this.

'Although maybe, in this case Animusphere is something like a big boss who simply does not hold briefings for too small an audience?' Ainz glanced at the girl. For a couple of seconds silence reigned in the hall before the first one to speak, Rider, spoke. "What can we do, Master?"

Ainz looked at the girl for the first time since her summoning , after which he carefully examine her appearance over. Her most prominent feature was of course her blindfold. A blindfold on her eyes, which covered not just her eyes, but also a decent part of her face. At first, it seemed to Ainz that the girl was dressed in an overtly risque outfit. However after taking a closer look at her, Ainz, came to the conclusion that her outfit was still overly erotic, but a little less than he initially thought. The light, airy, dress emphasized her figure in such a way that both the upper half of the girl's more than impressive breast and the long, high-boots-clad legs of the girl remained strikingly open, leaving little room for the observer's imagination. Considering that , at the same time, the girl wore long sleeves on her hands, tied with leather straps, as well as her long, gorgeous purple hair which nearly touched the floor. Ainz only had to wonder, if her dress was created by Peroroncino.

'Although, he preferred less adult girls...' Thoughtfully Ainz looked at the girl again. 'Besides that strange mark on her forehead...'

Even so, Ainz could not confidently answer this question on his own, so he returned his glance to Roman. He, in turn, slightly nudged Animusphere, who was sitting next to him, finally she started talking

"Khm," Drawing attention to herself, the girl looked around at all of those present, after which she concentrated her eyes on Ainz. "We can do practically nothing. However, you are..."

She paused for a second, carefully examining Ainz and then atSerenity who is stuck to him, looked around at all of those present. "After returning from the Fuyuki anomaly, we were able to find several new ones, the study of which we believe will reveal the cause of the disappearance of humanity..."

"In other words," Caster interrupted her quite rudely, almost swaying in his chair. "You have no concrete plan and are simply trying to do something ."

Having failed to pick up a decent counter-argument Animusphere was forced to admit that Caster was right. "Yes."

"Pf, unbelievable." Sighed Caster, then after swaying in his chair again leaned against the table. "But okay, so be it. Master, what's the plan?"

At that moment, Caster glanced at Ainz, and so he was forced to think. And again he was forced to decide on a course of action as if the other authority figures had nothing to do with it at all!

However, contrary to Ainz's thoughts , Animusphere earlier agreed with Roman and Da Vinci to not even try to command Ainz, instead, giving him as much freedom and opportunity as possible to independently determine his future plans.

'Well then, in that case what would a good and proper boss do...' - Ainz thought for a second before coming to a realization. 'Oh, yes, we didn't introduce ourselves!'

Rider, Caster - in fact, they were no more than the classes of the Servants. In other words, referring to each other as their classes was for them the same as using titles like a doctor or engineer referring to each other by it was not optimal.

"I suppose, first of all we need to introduce ourselves to each other." Ainz spoke first. "I am, as I have already said, am Ainz Ooal Gown."

"Hassan of Serenity," Ainz was instantly replied to by the girl hanging on his arm.

'Hassan... Hassan...' For a second Ainz thought about it, but he never got the opportunity to scratch his chin, due to the fact that the previously named Hassan did not move away from his hand. 'No, I don't remember any heroes with that name.'

Neither in Yggdrasil, nor from Tabula Smaragdina or from his other friends had he heard the mention of that name.

"Just like that huh? You want us to reveal our True Names to you?" Caster looked at Ainz, but before the master could think about his reaction, the boy shrugged. "Well, okay.I am Cu Chulainn."

At that moment, Ainz thoughts stopped for a second.

'Cu Chulainn!' The man responded to the words of the Servant internally, and then peered at him. 'He heave no resemblance at all!'.

Yggdrasil, the beloved Grail of Ainz, was a game that contained many different universes, ideas, both modern and classical, crafted by authors and creative designers. Besides, it was a game completely dedicated to the variability of its content, including those created by users. In such conditions, it was almost impossible to refrain from allowing the already well-known and famous mythological cliches and fantasy elements to enter the game. Because of which, next to the versions of vampires that existed as horrific monstrous creatures of nightmares created from disfigured bats, lamprey and giant mosquitoes, there were quite classic creatures of light like wood elves, gifted with magic and archery. In this case it was quite expected that the most famous of heroes and monsters of mythology would make their way into the game.

According to Tabula, who was devoted to the secrets of Celtic mythology as well as the secrets of all mythologies, Cu Chulainn was one of the most famous heroes of Ireland who became famous as a monster-hunter and a great warrior who once fought with the army of a whole country alone. Tabula knew more facts about the legendary hero Cu Chulainn, however there existed another Cu Chulainn in Yggdrasil, one of the main NPC teachers of factions and races allied to the "light" races and about this Cu Chulainn, Ainz could tell more than Tabula himself.

Among the human and allied races an entire group of special NPCs stood out, being "mentors" teaching some abilities and unlocking various classes, as well as giving out many starting quests and selling various supplies useful for players at the start of the game.

'Finding monster-friendly NPCs was an extremely difficult task...' Ainz remembers the good old days when he started his game as an undead. That was another of the many reasons why nobody wanted to play as heteromorphs...'

Most often such NPC teachers were quite strong, with high positive karma and a whole range of different strong abilities and very often they were targets for various quests by players who chose the path of evil.

Cu Chulainn was no exception, he was one of many NPC teachers, a man with classes like Magic Knight and Spearman and also a holder of a very high positive karma value, so if having detected any owner of negative karma, Cu Chulainn would instantly threw himself at them. Because of this, getting him out of the walls of the protected fortress was actually quite easy, because of which the quest for the murder of Cu Chulainn was one of the most favorite quests in the questline of "murder of heroes" necessary for the unlocking of powerful classes that depended on the negative karma abilities of players.

'If I remember correctly Ulbert somehow also fought with Cu Chulainn' Ainz thought, looking at the face of Caster who is before him from a new angle. 'But he didn't need it to unlock any classes. He simply decided that if he is the most terrifying demon, then he should destroy all the existing heroes himself. As a result, he once killed all the NPCs with the title of "hero", for which he gained access to a special class... '

In any case, in Yggdrasil, Cu Chulainn was an adult man with brown hair and extremely impressive muscles, an image that did not fit at all with the young, blue-haired man with sharp facial features who was sitting at the table now.

'Besides'' Ainz thought. 'Why was he summoned as a Caster?'

The Cu Chulainn of Yggdrasil was the owner of the "Magic Knight" class and one of the teachers who taught it, but first of all he was famous for his spear, Gae Bolg, which had a very high chance of triggering an instant kill effect with every attack and few special abilities, which divided the players into two camps - those who had no defense against the instant kill abilities, that complained that Cu Chulainn had unbalanced cheating abilities and those who had immunity, for example players of the undead race, that, in order to annoy the rest, complained that Cu Chulainn was too weak and clearly lacked strong abilities to become a worthy opponent.

'Although Ulbert simply did not remember his battle with Cu Chulainn' Ainz recalled several facts about his friend once again 'But, knowing him, he most likely just showered Cu Chulainn from afar with the most powerful spells and killed him before he had time to react.'

'Although, it seems, I remember that Caster complained about the absence of his spear before...' Ainz at that moment glanced at Cu Chulainn again. 'So, he was left without his main weapon... Hmm, interesting.'

Cu Chulainn at that moment, as if sensing Ainz's gaze, shrugged and stared back at him.

"Well, in that case." As if deciding to support the actions of the others, the next person to introduce himself was a man in a black cloak that hid his whole figure. Because of which it was impossible to reliably determine even his height and his face is covered in a mask that resembled a skull that hid Assassin's face,"Hassan of the Cursed Arm."

'Hassan again' Instantly switching from thinking about Cu Chulainn to the new Servant, Ainz thought, 'And still not somebody I've heard of either.'

But now somebody did react to the name, though not from Ainz himself, but from the girl stuck to the hand of the magi.

"Master Hassan," She bowed, for a brief moment even moving away from her Master, but when Ainz thought that he could get rid of the girl, she put his hand back into his arms. "It is an honor to meet you."

'So they know each other.' Ainz concluded obviously, after which he glanced at the man in the robe. 'I should find out more about this later.'

"Archer." The man who had been silent up to this point in the far corner of the table answered, after which he added- "Just Archer. I have no other name."

'Strange,' Thought Ainz. 'Did I manage to find some kind of nameless spirit?'

The man who sat in the farthest corner of the table, identified as Archer, was wearing a red cloak that hid his athletic figure and also possessed a gray hair, shaved in the simplest way. His expression was harsh and looked cold — but not angry, but rather like the look of a lonely man, resigned to his fate.

'Another unknown spirit, hmm...' Ainz looked thoughtfully at the man at the corner of the table. 'It seems that Cu Chulainn was the only one that is really important...'

"King Arthur." The words of the silent girl stunned Ainz. "Arthuria, to put it bluntly."

'King Arthur' - Ainz looked at the girl who was sitting not far from him. 'And again a girl as well. Hmm, Da Vinci too, for some strange reason was summoned as a girl...'

King Arthur , or Arthuria in this case, looked very peculiar. Instead of the white-blue-gold robes expected by Ainz, she was dressed in a black armor that covers the entire upper body of the girl. Her strange visor was lying on the table next to her arm covered in a gauntlet, while a cold gaze almost at the level of being 'evil' studied Ainz. In response to which Ainz studied the girl calmly.

Below the belt from the girl's armor, there was practically nothing left — only a huge, black dress that completely covered her hips and legs.

'I wonder-' thought Ainz. 'How will she react if I say that I killed her once before?'

Of course, in this case, Ainz did not mean Arthuria himself but King Arthur from Yggdrasil, whom he once killed during one of his raids on Camelot. Unlike many people, he did not have to kill King Arthur himself. He sought only to get into the Merlin's library and Arthur became an accidental victim, one they ran into while moving around the castle - but Ulbert later waited for Arthur's respawn and personally dealt with him. Although given the style of Ulbert's attacks, this battle was no different from his battle with Cu Chulainn.

'However, even considering that in this case she is a girl, her appearance... Not exactly the way I imagined her.' Ainz shook his head. No, of course the black armor and the evil look were not in themselves indicators of the negative karma of the Servant, but Cu Chulainn looked at the moment, much more heroic, as one of the 'good guys' should be.

"Medusa Gorgon." The girl that was the first to raise the question of the plans of Ainz and the Servants in these conditions finally introduced herself as the last one

'Medusa Gorgon...' Thought Ainz, 'Tabula once talked about her...'

Both medusa and gorgon were two possible races for the players, NPCs or monsters in Yggdrasil. But Ainz remembered how Tabula once complained to him that 'fantasy stereotypes got here too.' According to him, the medusa should not have been one of the lamia subspecies at all, and the gorgon should not have been monsters at all, because according to the mythology, the Medusa Gorgon existed as one race and was not a lamia, but simply a girl with snakes instead of hair.

Just in case, Ainz glanced at the hair of the girl sitting opposite him, but without noticing anything special about them, he looked away.

Medusa Gorgon in Yggdrasil was not created as a separate NPC, and according to Tabula, she should not have any relationship with either the medusa or the gorgon race.

'Although as far as I te remember Medusa Gorgon should have the ability to petrify with a glance. Ainz examined the blindfold on the girl's eyes from a new angle. 'Just like a catoblepas... My real body is immune to petrification, but I'm not sure about this puppet body. However as far as I remembered she herself also does not have protection against turning to stone, so that by reflecting her eyes into herself, it will be possible to paralyze her... It's not that I should think about doing it. "

"Doctor Roman." Eventually after each of the Servants introduced themselves in turn, the three representatives of Chaldea, who were present, also introduced themselves.

"Mashu Kyrielight, Shielder." The girl also introduced her class just in case, and then glanced at the last of those present who had not yet introduced themselves.

"Olga-Marie Animusphere." The girl who had remained silent, finally introduced herself. "Chief of Chaldea and the commander of the survivors."

"Commander, hmm..." Arthuria uttered quietly under her breath then glanced at Ainz again, as if judging him. Judging by her expression she was not impressed.

'Although with her gaze almost any of her emotions would look like hatred.' For a second Ainz wanted to pull the collar on his shirt. 'But if it were not for that, she would have looked even... Beautiful, I say.'

"I believe we have all introduced ourselves now." Eventually having come to a definite conclusion, the silent Medusa started speaking again. "In that case, even if we do not know what caused the disappearance of humanity, we need to act. How soon should we go, Master?"

"How soon?" Ainz tried not to answer the question, but when he saw that none of the Chaldea's representatives present were going to answer, he was forced to. "I suppose, in something like a week..."

"A week?!" To the surprise of Ainz those who reacted to his words turned out to be none of the newly summoned Servants, but Mashu, who was so silent before.

After the shout forced Ainz and those present to turn toward her, causing the girl to instantly be embarrassed by the attention paid to her and shut her mouth.

"Just... I mean..." As if the girl is trying to justify herself. "A whole week in such conditions..."

"Is it worth it to hurry?" The deep male voice sounded in response made Ainz look first at the silent Servant in the red coat, then at Cu Chulainn, then at Roman and only then at the strange figure in the robe. That voice just now, didn't fit with Hassan's appearance in Ainz mind. "As far as I am able to understand it, humanity has already been destroyed so we are not limited by time, since the worst has already happened. In this situation we must thoroughly prepare and take advantage of the chance given to us to gather our forces."

"Mmm..." Mashu sincerely wanted to object to the man, feeling a strong conflict in her soul because of her desire to fight the catastrophe but also understanding of the logic of the arguments given by the man. "Yes, but..."

"As it seems to me, the Assassin is right." Archer was the one to support the Assassin. "However I do not agree that we have no time limit. As I understand it, there is the Hell in the outside world right now. Master, what protects this place?"

Ainz turned his gaze to the Animusphere. She was still the real commander of Chaldea and should have known this much better than Ainz.

"The Chaldea Security Organization are powered by the main core." The girl finally answered.

"Okay." Archer nodded at those words. "How long will this resource last?"

"The Chaldeas shields have never been subjected to such stress before." The girl hesitantly added,and then sent another glance to Roman, who was sitting next to her.

'In a strange way, it resembles a hot potato game, when people who do not understand the question throw it over to each other...' Ainz shook his head to this thought.

"This information is completely theoretical, but according to our calculations the current workload of the Chaldea's core would be enough for a year of continuous work." Romani shook his head and looked at Ainz. "Maybe, should we find another source of power - a little bit more."

"In other words, we still have a deadline." summed up Archer. "One year."

"That is a lot of time." Cu Chulainn remarked about the obvious while rocking on his chair, forcing a few to look at him.

"However, this is not a reason not to use the time given to us to our fullest benefit." Was the answer from Medusa. "Perhaps the deadline of a week is not critical, but we definitely shouldn't spend more time than is necessary."

"Enough" As a result of this interjection the Servants' conversations were interrupted by the voice of Arthuria. For a second Ainz even became jealous of her tone and a little sad that Arthuria was able to call the Servants to order so easily.

'Hey, I'm your Master...' A stupid thought slipped through the mind of the undead.

"Why discuss how long it is necessary to wait? It is much more important to find out the reason why we need to wait so long?" Arthuria looked at Ainz who still stood with Serenity in an embrace. "Master?"

"Khm." Unfortunately Ainz no longer had the opportunity to postpone the answer to his colleagues and was forced to respond. "In a week, Da Vinci will be able to prepare me a new body that can withstand some of my strength so that I can go to the front line by myself."

"New body?" Medusa instantly responded.

"Yes," Ainz didn't plan to make a secret of what was said before, so he nodded. "The thing is, I am... A kind of a Servant as well. The body that I occupy now is a puppet body made by Da Vinci, unable to withstand most of my strength."

"You are a Servant?" Serenity responded. Although up to this point she was not worried about the discussion concerning further plans of Servants and people - she would do anything her Master says - but at the moment when the question touched her newfound dear Master, she instantly became extremely interested in it.

"No. Actually, I am not." In the end after a few seconds of reflection, Ainz was forced to admit this. Nevertheless, his existence could not be categorized like the existence of a real Servant, a reflection of a legendary hero or god that existed in reality. "But something similar to a Servant."

"How is this possible?" The question instantly followed, this time asked no longer by Serenity but by the taciturn but very observant Archer.

'How is this possible?' Ainz shook his head. 'I would like to know myself...'

There were many possible explanations for how Ainz found himself suddenly here, in this world. But despite the fact that Akasha packed his mind with practically all the basic information that he needed to survive, answers to the question "how did I get here" or understanding about the purpose for which he was called into this world were not available. So even if he wanted to answer Archer's question he could not. This of course, assuming that he would have wanted to answer at all.

"It doesn't matter." Finally without having come to a definite conclusion he dismissed Archer's question and then glanced at the Servants again. "In any case Da Vinci would take a week to prepare a new, suitable body for battle."

"Master?" At this moment, Serenity, who continued to hold the man's hand, looked at him. "Is this not your real appearance?"

"Hmmm," At this moment, Ainz suddenly felt somewhat embarrassed. "No, it's not."

No matter how he looked at it, Serenity could so happily react to Ainz only because he looked as a handsome man, moreover close to her age. Or, at least, Ainz himself thought so.

'If I tell her that I actually look like a thirty-five-year-old office clerk... How will she react?' Ainz looked at the girl thoughtfully.

In his head, a scene suddenly appeared in which a young and beautiful girl, with an appearance that was beautiful enough to become a popular idol, disgustedly pushes a middle-aged man from her with her beautiful face in a grimace of contempt, waving her arms and shouting "Gross, gross!". From the scene that he imagined, Ainz's belly twisted into an unpleasant knot.

"If this body is not your real one and is not able to maintain your level of strength..." Interfering in the man's thoughts however, Arthuria distracted him from the unpleasant thoughts. "Why don't you take on your real appearance?"

At this moment, the three representatives of Chaldea present became tensed from the idea that was suggested to Ainz, but he instantly dispelled their worries.

"Unfortunately, my real appearance can be somewhat... Frightening for people." Picking up the appropriate word, Ainz answered, and then, locking his eyes with Olga-Marie, who was sitting next to him,then slightly shaking his head in that instance, as if paying tribute. "Besides, I was asked to take this form."

Hearing these words, Animusphere nodded slightly, feeling her surprise grow. When talking with Ainz before, he seemed to her to be extremely modest, especially for a creature capable of competing with a deity in power, but now, during this conversation, she could see his calm politeness in all its glory and now find out that he agreed to limit his strength and even change his appearance just because she 'asked' him to?

In fact, besides all the above reasons, which, of course, was also one of the causes but not the main reason. The main reason that Ainz wanted to be in a human body was to experience sensations he could not in his undead persona - be it touch or temperature, or anything really. However Ainz himself chose not to talk about it to people, finding the fact that he was eager to change his real body simply for the sake of carnal pleasures a little... Shameful.

"Even if so ... What level of strength are we talking about?" Archer's look was interested.

"In the new body, I will be able to use the magic of rank A and most of my abilities... However, it's still not complete. And even in that case it will be difficult for me to use my Noble Phantasm." Ainz shook his head. "Nevertheless if the need arises, I can take my real form."

"Magic of A rank..." After these words, each of those present looked at Ainz in a slightly different way... Except Medusa however, who may also be looking at Ainz, but it was impossible to be sure because of the blindfold.

"Were you a famous magi in your life?" Unexpectedly, Arthuria was the one who asked this question, continuing to view at Ainz with the same evil look. "What is your specialization?"

'Or is it her normal look?' The man shook his head.

"Not at all... Although it may be possible to say that my name was maybe known to people" True, primarily due to the fact that he was the leader of Ainz Ooal Gown, a guild with an insurmountable dungeon, eleven World Class Items and Touch Me, one of the World Champions in their ranks. "As for my specialty..."

Regarding pure magical power and damage, Ainz was significantly below average, due to the fact that he did not have in his arsenal many particularly strong attack spells, skills and classes that enhanced offensive magic and had in fact quite low magic attack parameter for a level one hundred mage. Therefore he could not say that he was an offense specialized magician, so...

"I am a necromancer." Having chosen the most appropriate description of his abilities, Ainz answered. "And I understand some things about black magic and curses."

And after these words silence instantly reigned in the hall.

Necromancers were magi who were feared and avoided throughout the whole of human history. Servants of death who dedicated their lives to spreading death to the world. For someone who drew strength from the death of the living, there was no more beautiful sight than war, slaughter and genocide.

Considering that at all times magi never gave up power and sacrificed people even when there was no need for it, for profit or for whim, necromancers was of the most hated and frightening of magis.

In addition, a necromancer and a specialist in black magic, who reached A rank in magic... Considering that necromancers usually achieved their power with the help of methods very, very... unscrupulous. To simply imagine how many possible victims had to be brought - in a figurative, but much worse, literal sense - to the necromancer in order to attain such achievements during his life. The personality of Ainz, their new, humble Master, looming before the Servants, was rapidly changing.

'But if he is Hades — he would be a necromancer and a master of black magic.' Nevertheless, as if trying to justify her thoughts internally, Mashu tried to find a suitable explanation for her senpai's abilities. 'But this does not make him worse as a person. If he is Hades, then at the same time, he may be the only decent necromancer...'

Unfortunately, unlike Mashu the rest of the Servants did not respond to Ainz's statement just as graciously. Even more so for the frivolous Cu Chulainn and the silent Archer instantly turned their eyes on the Master and this time their gaze was, if not openly hostile, clearly suspicious.

Whatever the initial impression on them made by Ainz the first impression was often deceptive, it would not be strange if, in an attempt to attract the Servants to his side, their new Master would try to hide his real identity. And even if he was as modest and calm as he seemed during communication, this did not mean that there was not a shadow of the multitude of people killed by him behind his back.

'Medusa Gorgon is the same one of the Greek myths?' Mashu suddenly realized - 'Maybe I should find out from her whether Ainz really is Hades...'

However, in contrast to the three strained Servants, Medusa among them, instead of any reaction the Hassan in a black cloak and Arthuria only noted this fact for themselves, while Serenity did not seem at all interested in the information that had been divulged.

'Doesn't she worry at all that her Master may turn out to be a monstrous murderer?' The question arose in the head of the silent Roman who was watching everything, trying to analyze the information available to him, watching the silent girl continuing to clasp her hand on the man. 'Or does she believe that he is not?'

In fact, despite the fact that Serenity could not exactly vouch for Ainz, was he such a terrifying monster that he was supposed to be by the general idea of necromancers or not, she was not really worried about this question. He was her Master, he was immune to her poison, he patted her head. These three things would have been enough for Serenity to descend into Hell for him and such trifles, as the possible blood of many innocent people on his hands, did not make Ainz less appealing to her. In the end, there was no less blood on her hands either.

However, at the same time after what was said, Serenity was the one who first objected to Ainz.

"Master, but you must not fight." Only the reason for this objection was completely different. "That is too dangerous. You may die."

"What Hassan says is true." For a second, Ainz wondered if it was strange for one Hassan to call the other Hassan, Hassan as well. "Lord Mage, we are just Servants, we can be sacrificed. If we die, your mission will only become more difficult. At the same time, if you perish, all of your Servants will perish, which means that mankind would be doomed. In these conditions, regardless of your strength, going to a battle in person is not the most reasonable course of action."

Much to the regret of Ainz himself, this was true. However, before Ainz could argue with Hassan, while feeling that it would be inconvenient to shift the responsibility he took himself to the shoulders of the Servants, like a boss forcing his own projects on the shoulders of subordinates - Before Ainz could object however, Romani interjected.

"Unfortunately, this is impossible." The doctor responded instantly. "The Master is an anchor for the Servant, even if we manage to transfer the Servant without the Master, the Servant would be left without magical nourishment, the Servant will disappear almost instantly."

Ainz for a second rejoiced that the need for his presence could be justified without his intervention, but to his misfortune Archer had a rather sharp mind.

"I have the skill 'Independent Action'. In other words, I can exist without a Master for three days." Unfortunately for Ainz, Archer was smart enough not to back down from his chosen position of behavior. "I can go on my own, without a Master, to explore the area. In the case of my death or exhaustion of the resource I will return to Chaldea, after which I can be summoned again after some time. In case of emergency or the presence of a problem I can serve as a beacon necessary for guiding the reyshift of the Master and the other Servants to my location."

Archer's words were logical to the point of disgust, so that Ainz felt an unpleasant sensation rising inside his stomach.

"This is..." Romani, as the chief specialist in the procedure of reyshift slowly shook his head, realizing the option that had suddenly opened up to him. "Actually possible."

'But I can't let this happen!' For a second, Ainz's emotions rose to the point of panic, which is why his automatic emotion suppression immediately drowned them out.

Why did Ainz not want to accept the most logical course of action in this case? Of course, because of his desire to personally take part in eliminating the threat to humanity. Also because of his unwillingness to subject the Servants to unnecessary danger - even if they could be summoned again. And one more small factor.

'He will not collect the loot!' With depressed emotions, Ainz's turmoil was only because of his instinct and not of panic, which one would expect from the deeply rooted mindset of a DMMO-RPG player thoroughly imbued into his soul. 'Besides, if I can only summon those Servants who I have already seen in the past... I must personally see as many Servants as possible.'

Of course Serenity, who is still continuing to look at Ainz at this moment, was some exception to this rule. But it was possible that her summoning was special in some way - she was an exception.

'Romani said that something unexpected happened when she was summoned.' Ainz recalled another of the facts supporting his idea.

Besides, in the end Ainz just wanted to participate in what was happening. Not as a commander and not as a guide, but as a member of the team. As one of the players embarking on the next adventure in the vastness of the distant worlds of Yggdrasil. As…

As…

'As with Ainz Ooal Gown.' Ainz admitted to himself his desires, after which he shook his head. Memories of the happy times of the game, together with dear friends, made him to crack a smile. But his smile did not reach his eyes, where instead of joy, for a second, there was sadness.

Yes, the opportunity to observe Servants was interesting, but still. It was really just one small factor in Ainz decision. No matter how much his player spirit broke through, the thing that really could have invoke any real feelings in him was his Ainz Ooal Gown.

"It is impossible." In the end, having come to a final decision, Ainz said calmly. "I will go along with everyone."

Yes it was impossible, the happy days of Ainz Ooal Gown, the days of carefree adventures, battles, quests were over. And the attempt to return to them was meaningless, doomed to failure from the very beginning. But still…

But nevertheless Ainz wanted it, even if it was self-deception, even if only for a second, to return at that time. The time of battles on the front line and solving quests, the next event that affected the whole world.

'Besides' In the end he still managed to slightly cheer himself up. 'This is indeed one of the ways to expand my collection.'

"Lord Mage, this is not the most logical option." The man in a huge robe shook his head a little disapprovingly.

"Master, this is too dangerous for you." The girl instantly objected, squeezing his hand again.

"Perhaps," Nevertheless Ainz did not argue, instead acknowledging the veracity of the claims made to him by the Servants. "But I will still do it."

"In the end, as I said a little earlier, I promised to help humanity." At this moment Ainz shook his head a little. "And as I said, I was not used to breaking my words."

After saying what he wanted to say, Ainz nodded and smiled. Despite the fact that, at the moment, Ainz opposed the advice of his Servants his smile was not proud or self-satisfied, but rather apologetic. As if saying "I apologize, but I will do just that." And despite the fact that just a minute ago the information that Ainz was a necromancer made the Servants around him look at him with caution, his uncertain smile seemed to serve as proof of his intentions, forcing everyone present to look at him again. This time with interest.

"In that case," Eventually finding that none of those present was going to continue the dialogue and a calm assertion and an apologetic smile could stop the altercation no worse than Arthuria's cold tone, Olga-Marie became the one who officially summed up the meeting. "As the chief of Chaldea and the commander of the surviving humanity - I declare Ainz Ooal Gown as the full-fledged representative of Chaldea and assign him the rank of special institute operative."

Despite the fact that Ainz clearly did not need such a title and in these conditions the title also did not influence much, he bowed gratefully to the girl. Showing respect, it was the least that he could do in the current environment to maintain the image of Chief of Chaldea.

"Thank you for the honor, chief." And therefore, when he looked up again and looked at the girl she suddenly blushed and looked away.

Ainz was embarrassed for a second as well, suddenly remembering about what happened in the Singularity. But fortunately his suppression of emotions did not give him the opportunity to blush and cough uncomfortably. In being an undead, there were indeed its own advantages.

'Even so,' An inappropriate thought came to Ainz's head after looking at the girl. 'She is really very cute.'

And as if sensing the thoughts of the man, Serenity, all the while hanging on his arm, squeezed his hand a little bit harder.

'And she is also very cute.' In the end Ainz couldn't ignore the obvious facts, after which he glanced at the girl again. Her purple short hair only emphasized her lilac-colored eyes, which glittered like two precious jewels on her beautiful, young face, which seemed to have been made by an unknown master...

'No, no, she is only sixteen' All the same, in the end he pulled away from the contemplation of the girl, glad when his suppression of emotions worked again, after which he turned his eyes to the side.

Arthuria is the cold, deadly beauty of a female warrior. Mashu is the warm, friendly beauty of the sweet kouhai. Medusa is the beauty of an adult full of pure sexuality. Olga-Marie is the strict beauty of an out-of-reach girl.

Romani is a cute and caring geek guy. Cu Chulainn is a guy, living the life of an alcoholic and adventure. Archer is a cold guy with harsh features and a lone wolf's gaze.

'In this world there seems to be an abnormally high concentration of handsome men and beautiful women per square meter' And with these thoughts, in the end, the most powerful necromancer in history has become the main hope of humanity.

* * *

Skills

Skills are responsible not for the impersonal and general characteristics of the Servants, but for their unique personal abilities, skills or even parts of their legends that expresses itself in the world as an integral part of the Servant himself - as like the petrifying glance of Medusa Gorgon or Medea's, the witch of Colchis', magic. Skills are divided among themselves by ranks like parameters, in addition among themselves the skills are divided into Class skills and Personal ones.

Class skills denote those skills that are inherent not so much to individual Servants, but to a whole archetypes of heroes, like Magic Resistance or Riding skills. Each class usually possesses two Class Skills, one way or another manifested by each class representative, stronger or weaker in rank depending on the specific Hero.

Personal skills, respectively, are the skills that are characteristic not for archetypes, but for individual Heroes. Often these are unique features that distinguish the heroes from each other, the details of their legends and stories — however, some Personal skills can be common in some heroes— the simplest example is Divinity.

The number, like the strength of skills, depends on each individual hero, but usually the number of skills of the average hero is four or five, while the strongest or well known of heroes can have eight, ten or as many as they possible- although usually the skills that are not suitable for the class of a Servant summoned are simply suppressed, given a lower rank or non-existent.

* * *

**To the wondering one's - I am okay, everything is fine, I didn't forgot about the story. The thing is - this is my hobby, that I am writing at my free time, usually when I didn't trying to get money to live from some shitty part-time job, so this is actually really fortunate, that I can write it even as fast, as one chapter per ~2 weeks. Once there was a time when I didn't write a single word for 8 months straight, so...**

**Also!**

**You can support me on pat reon \rure to mitigate the problems of my own money absence if you want. I swear, if I get at least a little bit of money from it I would drop my job and start writing much more often than now.**


	11. Chapter 11

When she woke up, Olga-Marie Animusphere sighed several times, as if checking to see if she could still breathe after all that had happened. After which she slowly opened her eyes. Her eyes were stuck together and did not want to open - though it was somewhat expected, as yesterday she fell asleep drowning in tears.

Slowly the girl rose from her seat, feeling the vile sensation of clothes sticking to her sweaty body. She fell asleep yesterday without undressing. It was not surprising though, considering all that had happened to her.

Having risen from her seat the girl slowly stretched, then lowered one leg off the couch, then the other and slowly stood up only to trip on the bottle lying on the floor. The bottle with remains of unfinished whiskey then, with a mocking splash, poured out smearing the carpet that was already past the best days of its life.

'I should ask Lev to send someone for cleaning.' The thought automatically went through the girls head before she could catch herself. Lev will not send anyone. And he will never come. He is dead. And even if he were alive, it is still not clear what would be worse in this case...

Her head throbbed, not from a hangover but from the thoughts that had overwhelmed the girl.

'Why always me? Why only me? Why do I constantly get into some kind of carousel of fuckery?' - was the only thought the girl could think of.

'Why Chaldea? Why a Singularity? Why Lev? And in the goddamn Hell, why me?!' The girl finished.

All her tears were wept yesterday. They went in proportion of one to one with the unfinished whiskey already soaking the carpet in her office. She went through all of the five stages - denial, anger, bargaining, depression and eventually acceptance. Now she no longer wanted to cry and shout to the sky, asking why was all of this happening to her. She did not want to cry, remembering Lev, and did not want to ask dark questions about the future, thinking about Momo... Ainz. She didn't even want to drink alcohol, which she got yesterday by raiding Lev's stash.

She only wanted to go to the bathroom.

The Animusphere's office was a whole complex of rooms, among which there were even living rooms. So to the girl's pleasure she didn't need to risk running into other people, showing everyone her wrinkled clothes and matted tattered white hair. She needed to take only a few steps.

Reaching the shower, the girl took off her clothes. In the past, she would definitely have folded the clothes and placed it to the side in a neat pile, after which she would have called someone to take her things for washing. But now she just threw everything off the floor and climbed into the bathtub herself.

With a blissful sound, hot water poured from the faucet, immediately starting to fill the bath, after which the Animusphere with a sigh, threw back her head on the side. The main core of Chaldea was the main power source of absolutely everything that exists in Chaldea. It was both an electric and a heating station at the same time, because of which, even under current its conditions, the hot water supply was not affected.

Olga did not want to think about the current situation. She only wanted to lie in the bath and slowly dissolve in the warm water. She wanted to dissolve completely, just to not think about everything that had happened. She tried to think about it yesterday and as her crumpled clothes and spilled whiskey showed — did not succeed.

She also wanted to smoke, but the girl used up the last remaining pack of cigarettes yesterday after her revival.

She didn't want to think about the revival either.

In addition she had long wanted to start solving her smoking problems. Health problems, supply problems, problems with hiding it from Lev - all of it. If he knew he would definitely scold her. No, wouldn't scold her, he was too soft and kind for that - most likely, he would just have looked with his slightly offended look and shook his head, as if to say 'I want only the best for you, but you could do anything you want to do' and this would be the most cruel punishment for the girl.

Least of all, she wanted to avoid thinking about Lev.

Continuing to lie in her bathtub, she closed her eyes then focused on the sensation of warm water rising higher and higher. So she would not think about anything.

Unfortunately the girl could not concentrate on the water indefinitely. The bath was quickly filled completely and Animusphere was forced to start washing. Having left the bathroom ten minutes later, in her usual place, the girl found a spare set of clothes.

'Probably, Lev thought that I would need it...' The thought slipped through the girl's head before she closed her eyes and tried to shake it off, as if trying to force this thought out of her head. Did she succeed in this or did she convinces herself that she had succeeded, but only after a few minutes the girl was still able to distract herself from the events of yesterday.

Putting on her new clothes, a white blouse like the one she wore yesterday and a black jacket with a matching skirt in color, with a dark orange frame, the girl took a step toward the mirror hanging on the wall, then looked into it.

What looked back at her was not Olga-Marie. It was more like a zombie or a ghoul - dark, almost black circles laid under her eyes and the eyes themselves were red from the alcohol and tears. The hair however, looked better this time as they were just washed and is now styled with a simple ponytail behind the girl's back.

'I should ask Lev to..." The girl again caught herself thinking those thoughts and silenced her inner voice.

"On the other hand..." Finally, she said out loud after ten seconds of watching herself from the mirror. "The ponytail is a classic hairstyle that suits me. Just like any other hairstyle, though."

Therefore she placed a simple rubber band on her hair to place them in one ponytail, the girl looked at herself in the mirror again and began the routine procedures. She is Olga-Marie, a noble lady of the Animusphere and not some rootless girl. She has no right to look less than impeccable in any circumstances!

Olga-Marie knew how to use make-up well and therefore after only a couple of tens of minutes, the face from the mirror that looked backed at her belonged once again to the unshakable chief of Chaldea.

"Well." The face from the mirror smiled tightly. "It is quite the thing!"

After picking up the clothes that were on the floor, the girl neatly packed them in a pile then folded them on a bedside table nearby. She should call L... people so that they could take care of the discarded clothes.

Coming out of the bathroom, Olga-Marie was ready for the new day as the commander of Chaldea.

'Good' In the end the girl still held herself together. 'What are my plans for today?'

Without a timetable drawn up by Le... her subordinates, the director did not have any idea about what things were planned for her today. Usually, L... someone just presented her her schedule, and then showed here where she needed to sign, with whom she needed to meet, and sometimes how Chaldea's projects, which the Animuspheres are responsible for in turning it into reality, are working in progress. In the current conditions the girl was not sure that she would need to sign any documents or meet with anyone at all.

But what should she do then?

Usually in those days when nothing special was included in the schedule of the director, she just spent the days doing whatever she wanted by herself. Communicating with Le... With subordinates, in general. Chasing Roman, threatening to fire him. Reading books. Listening to music. Sometimes she flew to some country to rest when she was bored with sitting still in Chaldea. Maybe even researched some magecraft.

Olga-Marie herself was not sure what she needed to do at her post. Usually she just gave instructions to Le... Damn, this constantly slipping of his name was more annoying than the girl would have liked!

Usually she simply gave instructions to her subordinates, after which her deputy and right hand organized everything behind her back, creating documents, writing lists, counting estimates and then told her where she had to sign and then magically all her instructions were done independently and her wishes were satisfied, buildings were built, people were hired, everyone followed her orders and problems disappeared by themselves.

It's not that Olga-Marie did a lot of things at her workplace. Usually she sits in a large chair, placed at before massive desk, she simply read or watched movies on her tablet computer.

Having made her way to the desk , she glanced at the huge desk shining of polished cedar and then at its surface. In the corner there was an inkwell, exclusively for her use, next to it were several seals - those were not particularly important. And next to them lay a few sheets of paper.

'Documents?' The girl stumbled in her step for a second. What were these documents doing on her desk? It seems that everyone knew that the documents were never perused by her, except for her signature. And the intricacies of the bureaucracy has never met her eyes before.

Surprised by a strange coincidence the girl walked around the desk , after sitting down on the armchair she leaned closer to a whole impressive stack of documents that were lying in front of the girl at that moment.

'Chief, please hand over these documents to Lev. I could not get into his office, so I leave them to you for the time being.' - this was the inscription on a small sticker glued to the top sheet.

Finding the answer to the girl's object of interest, what the documents were doing on her desk, she leaned back and closed her eyes.

"I leave them to you for the time being..." The girl said slowly, after which she sighed. "You could at least try to pretend..."

Although if Olga-Marie had been her self from the past, just a couple of days ago, she would not even be surprised at such a remark but would simply hand over the documents to Lev... To her deputy. And it's not that the writer of this sticker was wrong, she still couldn't imagine why she needed these documents.

"But not today!" The girl nevertheless exclaimed in the end after which she returned to contemplating the papers, tearing off the ill-fated sticker.

The documents were from the day before yesterday apparently and someone managed to bring it to her literally just the mission to the Singularity. Although judging by the thickness of the stack, there was also a monthly report from the various Chaldean subdivisions.

'Okay.' Thinking to herself the girl pulled the pile towards her. 'Good.'

The first sheet however turned out to be a real obstacle for her.

"This is..." Thoughtfully Olga Maria looked at what was written. "Report from the Japanese department of Chaldea..."

The report consisted of four columns - spendings, allocated fundings, growth dynamics and the ratio of allocated finance to spending and growth dynamics.

And what should she do about it?

Looking at the report the girl felt like she was becoming ill.

However a light knock on the door distracted the girl from the contemplation about the documents contents, forcing her to jump on her seat.

"I'm here!" At first she was only able to shout out but after stopping for a second and taking a few breaths Olga Marie managed to lower the volume. "Come in!"

After the girl's voice reached the visitor, behind the opened door she saw the last person she wanted to meet right now.

"Momo..." the girl corrected immediately, "Ainz! What can I do for you?"

Putting the sheet away, the girl instantly jumped out of her seat, suppressing the desire to bow to the one who just appeared. When looking at the man in his new body... No, the godlike being in his new body, Olga-Marie did not know what she should feel and how she should react to him. Yesterday, while in the company of many Servants, Mashu, Roman - she could feel at least a little secure, but now, having met with the necromancer one on one...

Ainz was very modest, but at the same time he was a godlike entity capable of sending her into oblivion with a single glance. He was her savior and the person who may have actually revived her, but he was also a necromancer who have achieved rank A in the darkest magical system in the world. He was a man who promised to help her in her endeavour, but he was also the one whom she accidentally, while being overwhelmed by her emotions, kissed forcibly.

"Ah, chief!" Olga-Marie just grinned crookedly at such an address. Chief, of course... If he wanted to laugh at her, awarding her with this title, then he obviously did it right. "Good morning!"

After that, the boy's gaze reached the girl's hands, and he instantly stopped.

"Ah, chief, you are busy with reports?" Seeing the sheet in the hands of the Animusphere, the man came to the obvious conclusion and nodded to her again, as if apologizing. "Forgive me for the distraction."

If Ainz were a subordinate of the Animusphere, a similar reaction would have been expected, even more so, she would consider it an exemplary reaction by her subordinate. But in the current conditions, Olga-Marie only wanted to shout 'stop laughing at me!'

The man in front of her had enough strength, power and skill to declare Chaldea his property and then enter the office of Olga-Marie and put his feet on her desk as if he owned the place. He could do anything and personally order Animusphere herself to do anything. Even more so, if Animusphere herself were in his position of power she would do something similar!

But he has not done so. Instead of declaring himself the new commander of Chaldea, although he could certainly do so, he just hung his head in apology, continuing to call her chief. As if he really was her subordinate.

'Stop making fun of me!' The girl wanted to shout. A powerful necromancer with divine-like power cannot, should not, treat Animusphere herself as such and behave in such a way!

"Chief, can I come in?" In the end instead of just going inside, Ainz, stayed on the threshold, shifted his weight from one foot to the other, as if really in the face of his boss. No, he was not in fear, just how much he behaved like from the position of a subordinate of the Animusphere.

'But this is wrong!' The girl wanted to shout. 'Wrong, wrong, wrong!'

"Of course, come in." In the end, the girl still could not help herself, nodding to him, and looked away. Immediately many thoughts burst into her head like a hurricane, sweeping away all the mental balance that she had before.

Why did he come to her? What does he want from her?

The girl with a slight panic watched as the man or, rather, the incomprehensible creature in the body of a man - went inside then after looking around fixed his gaze on the Animusphere, forcing her to freeze again.

'Come on! Say it already!' The girl could not relax under the attentive gaze of Ainz. 'If you came to kill me, kill me already, just stop torturing me!'

If in reverse, Olga possessed Ainz's strength and capabilities, in the current situation, an insolent one, that have decided to kiss her without her consent, would definitely be killed. She would definitely take the leading position in any group in which she would find herself, as befits a noble Lady of the Animusphere. So from Ainz she expected similar actions.

However, contrary to her expectations, the incoming man just looked around, stopping next to the girl, he looked at her expectantly. For a moment the Chief of Chaldea is prepared for... Something, but instead of any expected reaction she received an unexpected one.

"Chief, I came to you to ask about the Servants." The girl was taken aback.

"But..." she instantly became confused, "These are your Servants... What did you even want to ask from me?"

"The fact is that some Servants began to make inquiries about Chaldea." Ainz scratched his head a little embarrassed, as if a manager in charge of his unprofessional subordinates, "For example, Archer wanted to know from me if he could work in the kitchen... Medusa also wanted access to the library... Cu Chulain and Arthuria wanted to get access to the staff lounge, those rooms where the game consoles are located... Hassan also wanted to see the blueprints of the building... And Serenity..."

Ainz fell silent and shook his head. "No, nothing."

A little thought after, Ainz decided not to voice Serenity's thoughts. She in any case had no special desires, except to be as close as possible and to communicate more closely with her Master, so her request was simple. Arguing at the possibility of an attack on Ainz at night, she wanted to get exclusive access to her Master's room. So Ainz decided not to inform the Chief about this particular desire on the girl's part in order to avoid the mere possibility of the chief's agreement to something like that.

Olga-Marie who had listened quietly up to this point shook her head several times, after which, having recovered herself a little, looked at Ainz attentively.

'Is he mocking me?' The thought slipped through her mind but Ainz did not sound mocking and therefore either controlled his emotions very well or really had no such thing in his mind about it.

Throughout her life Olga-Marie did not try to command others, and the people around her seeing this fact did not try to change that, allowing her to go about her business. Lev... Her subordinates simply brought her the documents needing her signature and showed where she needed to sign. She was not accustomed to someone asking her for permission and in such conditions especially.

"But... Are these not your Servants?" The girl asked. "Why do you need my permission?"

"The Servants are of course mine, but after all you are still the chief of Chaldea!" The boy smiled at the girl with a polite smile, as if not quite understanding the essence of the matter.

'You are the chief of Chaldea...' - these words were reflected in the girl's head with a ringing echo.

"Yes ..." Somehow suddenly, the girl internally unexpectedly agreed with herself. "Yes, I am the chief of Chaldea... After all, I really am the chief of Chaldea..."

"Hmm, strange," A comment from Ainz brought the girl out of her stupor.

"What's strange?" Immediately strained girl, seeing that Ainz slightly raised his hands.

"Nothing like that chief!" Ainz said immediately, and shifted his gaze to the document that continued to lie on the table. "I was just somewhat surprised... This document, this is a monthly report?"

Ainz pointed at the pile of papers, as well as at the very top sheet with columns and numbers.

"Yes..." The girl nodded slowly, and looked attentively at the necromancer in front of her. "What exactly in these reports attracted your eye?"

"Nothing, really..." The man shook his head, after which he looked more closely at the columns of the numbers. "Just... This department from Nagasaki shows a relatively large increase in their cost of maintenance..."

Ainz pointed a finger at one of the lines in the document and ran his finger to one of the columns, where next to the list showing an average of three or five percent increase in the cost of maintenance, contrasting with the Nagasaki department, the number was almost eighteen percent.

"And... What do you think this means?" The girl asked gathering her courage and determining that Ainz was clearly not going to kill her at the moment.

"It can mean many things," The man rubbed his chin. "If it was a newly created department then such expenses can be reasonable... But if not then perhaps the department is developing very rapidly at the moment... Or on the contrary, is not currently going through the best times... Well, was going through... Anyway judging by the money required to support their work... In the worst case, someone is simply pocketing large amounts of money from the allocated maintenance budget."

Ainz wasn't any major department head in his past world, but he still knew the basics and had at least a good grip on understanding reports and at least some common sense in order to determine that if one of the departments needed the money and if there was a reason for that.

"And..." The girl stretched uncertainly. "What do you propose to do in this case?"

"What I propose to do?" Ainz thought for a moment. "The simplest solution in this case is a direct inquiry to the branch head, but there is a chance that a reliable answer will still not be possible. If it was the branch head that was using the allocated funds wastefully, then it will not be possible to get an honest answer. Or even if the department is really faced with a problem, this may mean that some of the high-ranking managers are trying to claim more funds for solving the problem in order to take the extra funds for themselves. Or perhaps if they are really faced with a problem then some of the superiors may try to deny the existence of the problem, fearing for their position in the organization which they may lose because of their inability to deal with it."

Thoughtfully Ainz frowned and rubbed his chin. "A personal visit to one of these departments may be too unimportant for the head of the entire organization. Just like the director of an international company checking on individual stores..."

Memories of the old world of Ainz spun in his head at a breakneck pace.

"The best thing to do in this case is to appoint an auditor from an accountable commission near to the location of the department." Ainz nodded. "However if large sums of money are involved in the case then there is a possibility that the verification commission or auditor may be bribed. So the best option is to send direct requests of their budget allocation from the director, it would not require much time and effort, and then notify him of the arrival of the local commission. If the answer of the regional director and the commission does not match the data - then send for a different commission, but this time using one from a more distant location from the problematic branch territory, in the best case from another country, while also continuing to wait for a new budget report in the next month. If the reason for the increased spending is not found, but the increase in cost suddenly dropped, then it is most likely that someone from the branch's directors is guilty of theft. If the reason is not found and the unnecessary spending does not stop then not only the branch director, but also the inspectors are involved in the theft..."

Ainz continued to think out loud, recalling all the information that he had accumulated during his work experience in his world as a clerk. Constantly coming into contact with documents and communicating with various people inside and outside of the company. Watching various similar actions for finding corruption from inside and outside.

Olga-Marie while listening to every word uttered by the man could only remember carefully what he had said.

However the explanation of the man ended quickly enough and the room again plunged into quiet once againBut this time it did not leave Animusphere mind empty. On the contrary, her head was now full of thoughts.

"Ainz..." As a result of having come to some important conclusion for herself, the girl nevertheless after having collected her thoughts, was able to respond back to Ainz.

"Yes?" Distracted from his own recallings, Ainz glanced at Olga-Marie, who looked as if she were preparing to jump into a fire.

"I ask of you..." The words were spoken by the girl with an incredible creak, but she needed to ask him. "Please... Teach me how to be a chief!"

"Hmm?" As if he did not realize what was said, Ainz stared at the girl. "Wait - what?"

"Teach me how be a chief!" The girl almost demanded from the man, feeling embarrassed by what was said earlier.

"Ah..." Ainz spoke first after which realizing what was said he instantly scrunched his face. "Aaaaa..."

For a second Ainz fell silent, and Olga-Marie prepared herself for the answer...

"I can't." Ainz said eventually. "Even if you ask for something like that, the way I talk to people... Regarding how to be a good boss, I have very little experience in something like this..."

'Of course.' The Animusphere nodded to herself. This was to be expected, Ainz was a godlike magi possessing strength, intelligence and charisma, capable of dominating their will without any need for special knowledge or training. He simply could not teach someone like Animusphere, someone absolutely mediocre, what was natural for him. Just like a fish could not teach a person how to breathe underwater.

"I understand." The girl nodded to the man. "In that case..."

"But..." The man continued, forcing Olga to raise her head. "I think there are a couple of tips I could give that I think may be useful..."

Marie looked up again and this time Ainz, looking at her, smiled at the girl with an encouraging smile.

'And he has a bright smile...' The girl shook her head after that thought. 'No, it's not even his real appearance! He is a necromancer of rank A with the appearance of a skeleton!'

This was enough to extinguish any of the girl's stupid thoughts.

"So." Sighing and looking at the Animusphere from all sides, the man shook his head. "First of all, the most important thing is the distribution of punishments and rewards..."

* * *

The two talked for more than an hour. First, Ainz simply told the Animusphere about various management techniques, about the distribution of awards, setting goals, about relationships in a team and about other such things. After some time, Olga herself started asking Ainz clarifying questions, after some time she began to theorize how to do it herself and therefore by the end of the third hour of conversation, the girl was already engaged in a full-fledged dialogue with Ainz.

"I don't understand." She shook her head, making her ponytail, hanging behind her back, dangle from side to side. "If they get an increased number of days off then why should I give them extra leave?"

"This increases their productivity of work." Ainz nodded several times with foreknowledge.

Megacorporations of the future did not care about their employees, but very much cared about their profit margins. Therefore they always chose the most soulless, but the most effective way of policies with their employees, so when research nevertheless confirmed the need for a weekend break, gritting their teeth the chiefs were forced to follow the most rational and therefore profitable of possible schedules. "Short respite after short-term loads are best for solving physical fatigue, however mental fatigue, even if it accumulates much more slowly, passes by just as slowly because of which long periods of rest are just as necessary. That's a long period of rest is used simultaneously with short but frequent ones. In other words a five-day working week with periodic holidays is, if not an ideal, a reliably verified model of the functioning of the working environment."

"Perhaps," in the end Marie still had to agree and nod to Ainz. "But in that case..."

But the conversation between the two was interrupted by a knock on the door, after which, without waiting for the girl's permission, an unknown visitor opened the door. The girl who appeared on the doorstep was relatively familiar to the Animusphere. Yesterday they officially introduced themselves to each other, but could not look at each other closely up to this point.

The girl who appeared was not tall but her dark skin and blue hair were not features that many people could boast. Although even fewer people could boast of becoming a Servant at such a young age.

"Ah, Serenity." Ainz smiled at the girl. "Did you want to meet with the chief?"

"No, Master." The girl shook her head, then she cast a glance at the Animusphere, which made her shudder. "On the contrary. Master, I beg you, you should not move around without me. In this hectic time the enemy can be anywhere. You should not be left without my protection."

"Of course Serenity, I'm are already finishing with the Chief." Ainz immediately smiled at the girl to which she nodded back to him, while simultaneously throwing another look at the Animusphere, which caused Olga to catch her breath. Immediately after, the girl left the office, closing the door behind.

"Well, it was a productive conversation, but it seems that we really should finish." Having come to a definite conclusion, Ainz sighed and smiled at the girl again. "Well in that case, I only hope that I was able to help you, chief."

This time the title of 'chief' did not sound mocking to the girl.

"Ainz." However, having collected her thoughts before Ainz could leave, the Animusphere looked at the man carefully. "I would like to invite you to become my deputy..."

"I refuse." The man responded instantly, after which he added - "Please don't get me wrong, chief, but I'm afraid that this position will be too tough for me. I am simply not suited to being a boss."

"Beside..." Stretching out a little, the man glanced at Olga and smiled. "You're the boss here, and I'm just a special operative, aren't I?"

Only a completely blind person could not see the meaning behind his words, so Olga-Marie could only put up with what was said and nod to the man.

'I cannot and will not rule for you. I promised to teach you how to manage and I will do exactly just that.' - this was what Ainz said to the girl, so now she could only nod in response.

The knock that sounded through the door again made Ainz rise from his seat and move away, shouting through the door - "Yes, yes, I'm coming!".

"Oh, yes, also chief." at the last step, having already picked up the door handle Ainz turned around on the spot. "I almost forgot what I came for. So what about the Servants?"

With these words, Olga could not resist and laughed.

"Of course, you can allow them anything you want." She finally nodded. "Just don't forget to let me know. I'm the chief of the Chaldea after all!"

"Of course, chief." The man smiled at her, after which he took a step out of the office.

"And by the way, chief!" But before the huge door slammed behind him, the man managed to shout inside. "That new hairstyle is really suits you!"

The door slammed shut behind him a moment later, leaving the girl alone. And although her face was red, a smile played on her lips.

Turning away from the door, the girl reached first to the sheets of paper with the report, but, after thinking a little she got out of the chair and took a step towards the little sticker that lay next to her on the table.

'I leave them to you for the time being, you say...' The girl glanced at the partially opened folder, which they had just recently dismantled with Ainz and then at the small yellow sheet of paper in her hands and began to fold it.

In several movements of the hands of the girl there appeared a small paper airplane folded in such a way that by chance, the name of the former deputy of Olga-Marie turned out to be written on one of its wings.

'And he is not that scary either...' The thought came to the girls mind. 'Even in the form of a skeleton...'

After that, slightly waving her thin girlish hand, the chief launched the small plane into flight. But either because of its small size or because of the curved wings the plane almost immediately went into a steep dive, falling into the trash can, only having time to flash off with its wing with the name for the last time before the eyes of the girl.

"And Lev..." The girl said out loud, then shrugged her shoulders. "In the end, it is just a name."

And after that she returned to the analysis of the documents.

* * *

Ainz, moving along the corridors of the Chaldea with Serenity, could only think about what had happened.

'I feel so stupid...' Was the only thought Ainz could think of, feeling how periodically the suppression of emotions keeps him from clutching his face. 'I talked so confidently with my boss about managing people even when I don't have any experience in that kind of thing... I even refused to become her deputy because of this! I thought that she would be upset or angry but instead she so calmly accepted my refusal... She probably also understood that I did not understand anything about managing a company...'

"Master..." In the end, not restraining herself, moving alongside Ainz, Serenity took Ainz's hand into an embrace and then looked at him carefully. "How many goals did you set for yourself?"

"Ha?" Ains thought about what was just said, then looked at the girl in response, but she only carefully studied her Master's face. "I don't know... Honestly, I didn't think about any special goals, I just do what seems to be necessary to do."

"So, Master, you didn't do it on purpose?" Shocked, Serenity looked at Ainz.

Ainz was not completely sure what Serenity is hinting at, but finally he came to the conclusion that the best option was to deny everything, so he shook his head.

"Master, in this matter, you are terrifyingly effective." The girl shook her head then looked somewhere off into the distance. "But now I clearly have to prepare for the harsh competition..."

* * *

Name: Olga-Marie Animusphere

Race: Human

Title: Damned Iron Chief of Chaldea

Occupation: Chief of Chaldea

Residence: Chaldea, chief's office on the top floor

Karma: -50 (Neutral ~ Neutral Evil)

Class level: Mage ~ Academic (8)

Scientist (1)

Commander (1)

Total: 10 Class levels

HP: 3

MP: 10

Physical attack: 1

Physical defense: 0

Dexterity: 5

Magical attack: 20

Magic defense: 0

Resistance: 5

Special abilities: 0

Ability: Gandr

Power Level: 1-7

Ordinary spell that creates a projectile made of magical energy, capable of causing damage with a direct hit of a target. The projectile moves fast enough, which is why it can be quite problematic to avoid it at the first levels, but moves strictly in a straight line, which is why an experienced player can simply avoid the line of attack. Damage, range, recharge time and manacost for activation fully coincide with the spell "Magic Arrow". In fact, this represents just a slightly modified version of the spell "Magic Arrow".

Ability: Flash of Light

Power Level: 8-14

Ordinary spell that creates a bright flash of light. Usually this spell does not cause direct damage, but it can blind a low-level player with no resistance. It is also a spell that can cause damage to players with light vulnerability, such as undeads or demons. Quite a popular choice among novice players.

Skill: Clock Tower Magic

Power Level: 8-14

Skill, responsible for the use of magecraft related to the Clock Tower (Arcane). Gives access to the use of magic of the first and second tier. It has no other features at all, though.

Player Comments:

\- Level too low. Noob builds are all the same.

\- I don't understand why the commander class is given to a mage, but okay, I'll give it a chance.

\- The level is too low, but the absence of any defense and extremely low HP is fatal. Before pumping any points further in the magical attack, this problem should be solved.

* * *

**Well, while I'm not planning on the dragging it out to the level of Taylor Warga or something like that, this is indeed much more the character\personal communication driven story, not the action driven one, so I'm planning to give a more or less decent screentime to the maximum possible characters, such as giving them at least a chapter of their own. Not all the characters, not immedeately and not in a single pack of 10-15 chapters right now, obviously, but I do think that most of them deserve at least some love, so I would strive to give it to them throughout the story.**

**Also, given some time and thought, I decided to start giving the early access for the patrons for a 1$ fee on the Pat reon, just to get some money and see if I should even think about making writing the source of any income, or just treat it as a hobby. So I would give an earlier access to the patrons and publish this chapter later, when I would have the new one for the early access.**

**Okay, so, all in all, that's how it is. For anyone thinking they could donate to me 1$ for an earlier chapter access - it is here: Pat reon\ rure**


	12. Chapter 12

Sounds of clashing swords resounded in the room.

Strike. Strike. Another strike.

Arthuria's blade rushed forward towards Mashu but she nevertheless , managed at the last second, twisting her body to the limit to get her shield before the attack.

From a collision of the narrow strip of steel of a blade with a monolithic shield, Mashu swayed, feeling her hands flinch from the force of the blow. Although Arthuria did not even try to hit with her full force. Unlike the Arthuria's sword, Mashu's shield was not an offensive weapon. She also had little battle experience and there was no opening for her to attack. But she still tried.

With her huge shield blocking Arthuria's blade, Mashu rushed forward unarmed, with her bare fists. Unfortunately she no longer had the opportunity to attack Saber. Her huge shield was completely unsuitable in the close ranged fight between two Servants. It was more of a nuisance now, like a huge sword in an ordinary bar-fight. Yes it was possible that the huge sword could have been much stronger than any knife brought by the fighter - but it still remained completely useless if the fighter simply could not swing it for a strike. Therefore Mashu tried to attack Arthuria with her bare hands.

But as expected the swordswoman easily grabs Mashu's hand in the middle of the blow, after which the hilt of her sword slammed into the solar plexus of the Shielder, knocking the breath out of her.

"You are not defending at all." Arthuria shook her head, easily grabbing her blade with her other hand. "An unforgivable folly and negligence for a Servant of the Shield.

Mashu took a step back, then frowned. 'How do you think I should fight then?'

Having accepted the impossibility of trying to defeat Arthuria in battle using her fists she held her shield with both hands in a manner of a two-handed claymore. However, at the moment when she strained her muscles for a back-swing pain shot through Mashu's hands, making her grimace from the unpleasant sensation.

"Just holding your shield hurts you." Arthuria remarked. "You cannot continue training."

"I can." Sighing Mashu, overcoming the pain caused by tired muscles still held her shield up for a strike. "I must."

Swinging her weapon in the manner of a simple club she rushed forward. But Arthuria dodged the blow with some sort of dishonest ease.

"Why are you trying to hit me with your shield?" As if completely unaware of the meaning of the girl's actions Arthuria took another step backward, evading the blow that followed and then from another blow. "That is not a sword. You won't hit me with it."

'But I have no other choice!' This was the thought that Mashu was spinning in her head. Continuing to force out blow after blow only to miss Arthuria's body entirely. 'I have nothing more to attack you with!'

"Your body is at its limit and you are exhausted." Evading a few more blows from Mashu with some inhuman ease, Arthuria took a half step back. "Training should end here."

'She was not this strong back at Fuyuki!' The thought slipped in the girl's head for a second. The Arthuria now and the Arthuria then were like two different Sabers in completely different power tiers. 'Is this the influence of a Master?'

"No." Nevertheless, after another blow of Mashu hit the floor, knocking out dust into the air and yet missing its target, the girl, despite the pain from her strained muscles replied. "I can still fight."

Arthuria, having easily walked away from the blow, only looked at the girl in front of herself with a condemning glance.

"Well then, have it your way." Having come to some personal conclusion in the end, the swordswoman nodded.

The next second Mashu again brought her shield up to strike. However, this time Arthuria did not take a step back, easily dodging the blow. After dodging the strike, she instantly rushed forward easily walking around from the hastily set protection of the shield, after which she used her off hand wearing the gauntlet glove to punch Mashu, smashing in the jaw of the defender forcing Mashu to choket. A moment later pain shot through the entire body of the girl when Arthuria's blade plunged into her chest.

All that Mashu could do was to shout for a second. Stepping backward, letting go of her enormous shield in pain and fell to the floor. Causing an echo to rumble through the empty training hall.

"If I fought you seriously I could kill you now." Arthuria's voice was completely calm, unrelated to what she had just done. It was cold but calm and even somewhat detached, as if she were talking about something trivial. "Training is over."

Arthuria with one sharp movement pulled the blade out of the girl's body, forcing her once more to wince from the pain, and, as if not paying attention it, turned around and walked away, leaving the injured Mashu to lie on the floor, slowly bleeding.

If instead of Mashu it was an ordinary person or even the Mashu from "three days before" for example, they would definitely have died from bleeding. But the Shielder only sighed several times, feeling how the bleeding gradually slowly stop and then, overcoming the pain from the wound and pain from her overworked muscles, raised a palm to the cut.

Unfortunately, even the girl's armor did not protect her from just one exact blow of the King - or is it the Queen? - of Knights. At the site of the blow, a large wound gaped. However Mashu, even in her unprofessional opinion, could easily determine that this wound was only a lesson and not an attempt to kill at all. Although it was extremely painful, it was sufficiently superficial and accurate. It injured nothing truly important. If Arthuria attacked with all her strength and speed, she could easily have hit one of the more vulnerable points of the human body, like the liver, after which Mashu would have died from bleeding within ten to fifteen minutes.

In other words, Arthuria only showed the girl that she could not fight her on even grounds.

Saber herself didn't even turn around to check the girls state of health, simply leaving her lying on the cold floor, and headed to the exit. By the time Mashu was able to collect her thoughts enough to lift her head, the automatic door had already closed after the cruel trainer with a quiet click.

For a few seconds Mashu continued to lie on the floor, feeling the already coagulated blood gradually beginning to flake on her skin, and after feeling her cut stopped bleeding, slowly rose from the floor.

Her muscles mercilessly hurt, overworked and tired from the endless battles. But overcoming the weakness and her senses, the girl took several steps to the shield lying not far from her, then lifted it, feeling how the pain from tired muscles responded in some special interweaving way with the pain from a fresh wound.

No matter how much Mashu trained she still was not able to even touch Arthuria. No matter how many times she tried to attack her, she, with some mocking ease, avoided each of her attacks, evading the huge and cumbersome shield and intercepting her weak fists, continuing to attack her with a counterattack in the form of a sword hilt, crashing into the solar plexus of the girl. Remembering the numerous blows, the girl shuddered, which caused a new wave of pain in her strained muscles.

No matter how many times she tried, Mashu had never been able to injure Arthuria. The best result that she succeeded in, all this time, is that in the case that Mashu went into complete defense she could intercept nine out of ten swordswoman's attacks without any particular problem. However as soon as the shielder tried to attack in response she brutally paid for her mistake.

'How could I win then?' Was the only thought inside the girl's head before lifting her shield from the floor and shaking her head.

"Fou!" Unexpectedly, the voice of an animal caught the attention of Mashu. After looking in the direction of the sound, the girl could find a small white-blue animal that sat near the door, at the very end of the training hall.

"Ah, Four." The girl smiled as soon as she saw the creature nearby. "Have you come to support me?"

Four did not respond but slightly shook his head, as if in a confirming nod.

"Okay." The girl smiled at a small creature, then, leaning on her shield, so as not to fall from the unexpected weakness of her legs, took a step forward to the locker rooms.

Although the girl's current form was part of her persona as a Servant, she needed to at least wash off the already clotted blood and sweat accumulated during a long training session.

Passing Four in the direction of the dressing rooms, the girl rather easily noticed how he followed behind her, but she easily picked up the creature in a half of step.

"You can't go in here!" The girl mockingly waved her finger in front of the face of the beast after which she let him down with her hands.

Four, having reacted to the actions of the girl in his own style only shook his head a few times, and having come to some kind of his own decision, still withdrew from the girl and curled up next to the entrance to the dressing room.

"Thank you for your understanding, Four!" Smiling the girl nodded to the beast then went inside the dressing room. After turning back into her human self so that she could store away her shield , the room is somewhat big enough to fit it, but all the same there was not enough space inside to be comfortable if she carried her shield. So left without clothes the girl instantly went to the shower and inside for the first time in a long time, she was able to look at herself in the mirror.

It was already the third day since her return from the Singularity and the second day of training between Mashu and Arthuria came to an end. After Olga-Marie suggested Mashu to start training , Mashu was more than glad about it. In fact, she even wanted toto start them a little earlier, but could not find enough courage in herself to ask the swordswoman. In such conditions, the offer of the chief was more than welcome, but still...

"This is strange ..." Mashu shook her head, soaping her head with shampoo.

It was strange that Olga for some reason became interested in Mashu's progress. It was strange that Olga even offered anything to the girl! As far as Mashu herself remembered, Marie was never interested in anything but her adorable Lev and punishing ordinary workers of Chaldea for anything she can think of when she was bored. So seeing Olga interested in Chaldea's daily life or operation and offering something without Lev's prompting it was strange.

Perhaps not so bad, but definitely very strange.

Placing her head under the stream of water, Mashu rinsed her hair then gently moved over to the wound left by Arthuria's blow. The wound barely hurt anymore and as the girl slight surprise, even began to slowly regenerate. So Mashu gently rinsed it, grimacing at the moment when the water touched the incision.

After that, she looked up at the mirror hung in front of her.

A long training session with Saber that did not result in even remotely positive result - at least Mashu herself thought so. She could not land a single blow on the swordswoman in the end. But the same training gave her a few negative results that is reflected on the girls face.

Deep wrinkles now layered under her eyes, the folds of her mouth became clearer, adding to the appearance of the girl fatigue, but she only dismissed it and began to wash her hair with shampoo. She had more important things to worry about than her appearance.

The girl finished it in just a few minutes, washing off the remnants of sweat and blood, after which she began to clothe herself quickly - for the simple reason that in ten minutes another training session awaited her, this time with Archer. However at the moment she put on her blouse, a quiet click of the training room door that opened made her pause.

'Arthuria forgot something here?' The girl instantly lifted her head, but then she threw the thought aside when she heard the voice of the speaker.

"Hmm? She is not here?" The voice sounded quite hushed and young, but at the same time it harbored some hidden depth in itself. "But I was sure that she would be here..."

"Sen... Ainz!" - The girl at first wanted to refer to her Master in a more familiar way, but after thinking for a second she decided otherwise. Ainz was a powerful mage, a necromancer who commanded over life and death, a divine being beyond her power, intelligence, and understanding. It would be too stupid and most likely to some extent even insulting for Mashu to refer tohim as her Senpai.

"Ah, Mashu!" The voice answered the girl almost immediately, proving that she was not mistaken with the identification of the person who had just entered. "You are still here."

The girl looked over at herself in the mirror for the last time, nodded to herself and then left the dressing rooms.

'Four disappeared,' And the first thing that caught her eye was the absence of the eared beast next to the doors.

"I suppose this is because of me," At the moment as if on purpose Ainz stood with his back to the girl, because of which his expression was not visible. "For some strange reason I still can't even meet with him, he just continues to avoid me wherever I appear. Maybe I am just not fit to handle animals... If I think about I never had pets at all..."

"That's not true, Senpai." The girl immediately tried to argue. "It's just that Four is very shy, he avoids almost all people."

"Maybe..." Shaking his head once again, finally distracted from contemplating something from his past Ainz turned toward Mashu, after which, as if lost in thought he stopped.

"Mashu?" Unexpectedly, as if going over a different thought, Ainz broke off. "Are you feeling well?"

"Me?" The girl was surprised for a second. "Of course."

As if in response to this, the girl's weary muscles and the only just closed wound caused her pain, forcing the girl to wince.

"Are you sure?" the man looked at the girl attentively again, after which he slightly tilted his head, as if studying Mashu. "You look... Tired."

In fact, while looking at the girl who just emerged from the locker room, Ainz wanted to use another word but it's not really appropriate.

Mashu looked... Tired yes, perhaps it was a fairly correct word, but it did not convey the whole situation at all. The girl was pale, under her eyes there were several large bruises which stood out, especially clear next to her white face. Her body swayed a little from side to side like a weakened man ready to fall at any moment from the lightest breeze of the wind. And her expression, despite the fact that the girl tried to look as she usually did, was slightly twisted in pain.

Frankly, Ainz has seen such a picture only once in his life. In the mirror, almost twenty years ago.

He was extremely young, naive and ardent then. Then, on Christmas Eve, one of the bosses of the company he had just settled in, promised a gift to the person who proves to be the most productive worker by the end of the year. At the same time Ainz, still Satoru Suzuki at that time, was in love - like most of the man of his age at that time. He wanted to impress his beloved with a wonderful gift for Christmas, so he zealously took up the offer of the chief and began working with tripled dedication. He didn't sleep for three days, worked with breaks only for fifteen minutes twice a day for food, so that, at the end of the third day he would give his boss the results of his work. The chief was pleased and announced Satoru the most productive of all the department workers.

The gift was an old chair from the office of the chief, which he did not want to throw out after he bought himself a new one. On the same day, Satoru himself found out that his beloved girl had a boyfriend all along.

Perhaps it was the third worst day in the life of Ainz.

But in the end, that was a thing of the past, and Mashu, who was now opposite him was a matter of the present. And if the reason why once, looking in the mirror, Ainz saw in the reflection a living corpse was his naive youthful eagerness and stupidity, then now Ainz could not find any other reasons as to why Mashu was in a state like of a haggard zombie.

"It's all right, Master." But despite the fact that the girl didn't look normal at all, she only tried to brush aside Ainz's worry. "I'm fine.

"Are you sure?" However Ainz who was accustomed to trusting his eyes still did not let it go. As like no one else, he was familiar with the problem of overwork and if he was in a sense Mashu's boss, then first of all he needed to make sure that she received the necessary amount of rest. "Mashu, what have you been doing lately?"

And although Mashu wanted to protest at Ainz, in a strange way she found that unlike the Animusphere's, the words of Ainz did not sound accusatory, but rather worried, like the words of Doctor Roman were, because of the stern, instead of accusing, but concerned question sounded like a question from an adult to a child. Having discovered this strange feature, Mashu was forced to look away instead of give a full answer, she only said quietly. "I was training..."

"You were training?" However Ainz did not seem to be satisfied with this answer at all, but only became even more worried. "What exactly did you do?"

Finding herself unexpectedly in a place similar to that of a small child interrogated by a worried adult the girl looked away, after which she said even more quietly. "I was training with Arthuria..."

"And how long have you been doing this?" For a second Ainz even felt as if he was scolding a small child, pulling bits of information out of them with every question they did not want to answer, but had to.

"The body of a Servant is much more durable than the ordinary human." The girl immediately tried to find an argument in her favor. But Ainz was unmoved.

"So how long have you been doing this?" For a stronger effect the man frowned and disapprovingly shaked his head.

"Two days." In the end, having failed to resist the look the man gave her, Mashu was forced to answer him.

"Two days?" Ainz seemed to be more surprised. "But two days is not really much, if only... Wait... Did you do this for two days without stopping, all forty-eight hours?"

Mashu just nodded at that.

Ainz's mind froze in surprise. In other words, the girl fought for forty-eight hours without stopping with Arthuria and was still on her feet, at least capable enough to continue the conversation with Ainz. Perhaps Ainz himself could have done this without any problems, but this was possible only due to his state as an undead. When he was just a normalman, forty-eight hours without sleep... Perhaps, if he had spent all this time in Yggdrasil, maybe he could have held out that long. However - to fight for more than two days without a break with one of the most famous swordsmen in history... No, it was much, much more than anything that Ainz could have done.

Looking again at the girl, this time knowing where to look, Ainz was able to see that the girl's legs continued to tremble slightly just from supporting her body. Touch Me once talked about something similar, discussing a case where one of the newbies in the police force over-trained in the gym and the next day he could not walk except by leaning on the wall with his shoulder.

Mashu having noticed Ainz's studying glance at herself, only shrank a little, and looked away, trying not to look at the person in front of her at all. In spite of the fact that he looked hardly older than herself, for some reason the girl couldn't think of it any other way than of an adult looking at her from under his frowning brows, because of that she felt his judgmental gaze twice as heavy as it was.

Ainz himself, looking at the girl, quite easily noticed how she tried to keep herself standing a little different, without straining her right side.

"Mashu?" Ainz instantly turned to the girl."What's wrong with your right side?"

"Nothing serious, Master..." The girl tried to downplay it, however, noticing the focused look of the man like a child caught in a lie she hung her head. "A small wound. But do not worry, it will heal itself in a few days... By the beginning of the next Singularity there will be no trace of it left!"

Mashu tried to convince Ainz by adding false confidence to her voice, but judging by his reaction - she didn't succeed.

"Mashu..." Shaking his head Ainz sighed. In recent days he has been doing this more and more often. "You are pushing yourself too hard."

"But not enough." All she could do was shake her head, remembering that in the past forty-eight hours she had never managed to even touch Saber that was fighting with her. "I couldn't even touch Arthuria."

"She is one of the greatest swordsmen in history," Ainz smiled. "This is not surprising. It's amazing that you could even go on with her for forty-eight hours."

"She only played with me all the time and nothing more." Mashu though was ready to object. "And she showed me that well."

At these words Mashu rubbed her right side.

"Mashu, you get no more than five percent of mana from me" still tried to argue her point Ainz "And Arthuria got fifty. So no surprise there."

"Even if I were ten times stronger than I am right now I don't think that I could fight her on an equal footing." And with this argument Mashu only shook her head.

"You just didn't have time to get accustomed with your power, that's all." The man tried to argue again.

"And that is why I must devote the maximum time I have available to my training." Was Mashu's answer. It seemed as if she had set herself the goal of protesting against every argument of Ainz who was just trying to find anything to complement her with.

"Mashu," The result of this was that Ainz was still forced to ask the most important question in this situation. "Why are you so critical of yourself?"

"Master?" But Mashu, as if without understanding the very essence of the question, just looked at the man uncomprehendingly. "But isn't it logical? My Noble Phantasm is unknown, my fighting experience is insignificant, my skills are inaccessible for my use and even my body cannot handle the full level of power I can use. Isn't it logical that I am the weakest one and should concentrate more on compensating for said weakness?"

In her words Mashu did not show any self-deprecation, she seemed to be simply be stating a fact. But the words themselves painfully reminded Ainz of his old friend.

"If you think about it..." Ainz started which attracted Mashu's attention. Ainz glanced at the wall, as if peering to somewhere far away. "You really do remind me of her..."

Memories of another girl who fought using only a shield or, more precisely, as many as two full-height shields stirred up in Ainz's mind.

"Master?" The girl looked at the guy.

"Although ... Perhaps this is true." Looking at Mashu, Ainz looked at her from head to toe, then nodded to himself. "Yes, definitely."

"Master?" Anxiously she asked again, to which Ainz shook his head.

"Once upon a time ... I had a friend..." Memories of the bygone days of Yggdrasil made Ainz smile a little. "She was just like you, she fought using only a shield. Two to be more precise. Beyond that, there is probably no more resemblance. She was noisy, loud, one of those people that if they had an opinion they will definitely try to convey it to every person they can. As for the appearance..."

Memories of the grotesque form of a pink slime, which took the form of Bukubukuchagama, made Ainz smile.

"But there is another important similar trait in you." After that Ainz nodded as if to himself. "You are not giving yourself enough credit."

Bukubukuchagama was one of the most experienced players of Ainz Ooal Gown and one of a group of very rare players able to microcontrol the hidden parameters of mobs. like their aggression for example, but this was not always the case for her. Bukubukuchagama became a player later after her younger brother, Peroroncino and Ainz himself did. Initially when she was just levelling up from the lower levels she was just as inexperienced as a low-level player like everyone else. All players went through this phase, but usually they went through these stages of the game alone. Peroroncino at that time had already joined Nines Own Goal though, the first version of their guild, and therefore Bukubukuchagama was accepted into a team of people who were much higher level than her.

Many players would have been delighted by this coincidence, but not her. Instead of enjoying the quiet and quick growth, she very much hated her total uselessness, because of which, the girl assumed the role of one who was not dependent on the level. The role of a raid leader.

A girl who experienced not only her uselessness, but also the role of a leader, began to overwork herself. It was one of the features of the girl. She fully gave herself to any activities that she took part in, a trait that is extremely positive, but also very dangerous. Therefore when Peroroncino rang the alarm about his sister, she had already started to spend sixteen to twenty hours a day in Yggdrasil and lost six kilograms of her weight.

Fortunately, everything turned out well after some lengthy conversations and several attempts to limit her time spent in the neuronet. The girl agreed to participate in the game only in the presence of her brother or Momonga, who could control her stay in virtual reality. In the end, she lost almost fourteen kilograms. But considering that before the start of the game in Yggdrasil she already had some problems in this direction - she still continued to say that she was even grateful for the few weeks that gave brother a few gray hairs on his head. After that Peroroncino usually acted asa virtual cuff for her, she answered him and they had a regular brotherly-sister scuffle.

For the same reason Ainz always shook his head when someone turned to Bukubukuchagama as the only sane person in the entire guild of Ainz Ooal Gown, only giving his understanding look to her younger brother.

"My friend..." Remembering the whole story, Ainz could not help noticing the similarities. "She was somewhat like you. It so happened that once, when our acquaintance with her was just beginning... She became a part of our group... Our family because her brother was already in it. She was very worried that she was not strong enough then to help us, so she imposed severe restraints on herself and in the end it led to problems..."

"Fortunately everything ended well." The man shook his head. "But since then I know that even good zeal for helping people does not always lead to good decisions."

Although, in essence Ainz's words were short, for these few minutes before the man was silent, as if recalling what had happened in the past, the emotions reflected on the man's face. Joy, happiness, sadness expressed to Mashu even more than she needed. Although there was nothing special about the man.s words, a strange emotion that pervaded everything Ainz said about his past acquaintance made Mashu look at the man differently.

"And... This friend..." The girl could not help her curiosity, suddenly feeling that something more was hidden behind his simple words. "She ... Who was she?"

"She was?" To this Ainz, as if surprised that Mashu was even here at the moment, having forgotten about her existence, started up. "She was... She was... She was..."

With her naked eye, albeit hidden behind the glasses, Mashu could see how Ainz genuinely wanted to come up with something that would end the conversation with the girl as soon as possible, without disclosing information about the mysterious girl. But every repetition of the words seemed to tempt his to do the contrary thing.

"She was..." Finally Ainz gave up. "She was a beautiful girl. A friend ... No, maybe even a part of my life. Cheerful, loud, humorous - she always gave her all. Was always the first in all battles, always ready to take the hit... In the end that's probably why she made such a choice of weapon. Two shields, such a weapon is difficult to attack with, but it is more difficult to come up with a weapon that is more beneficial for defense."

To these words Ainz shook his head, as if reflecting on something of his own past. As if thinking 'what was she thinking then?'

Mashu felt suddenly enchanted listening to Ainz's past, without describing great events, she saw ordinary human lives behind them. Emotions, stories, personalities, dialogues. She saw Ainz remembering them, as if he is being transferred to the past.

"She was a shield for us all." But now shaking his head, Ainz seemed to want to tell more about his friend to Mashu. "She was always the first to protect us from anything, really, but she protected us more than from just enemies. Anyone who had difficulties, who had problems - she never refused to help anyone. The real shield of Ainz Ooal Gown."

Although what was said was the name of Ainz, it seemed that he meant it in some other sense.

"She..." At this moment Mashu faltered a little bit. "Was she a good warrior?"

"The greatest shield I've ever seen!" Ainz just smiled at these words. "In any battle, be it against angels or demons, if she stood in front I knew that I could turn around, drink tea, sleep, wake up and not a single spark of hell flame would reach to me."

On these arguments Mashu herself could only smile sadly. It is a pity that she is not at all like that. The battle with Arthuria proved that to her.

"However..." As if having heard the girls thoughts Ainz suddenly continued. "She was one of the worst when it came to not just defense, but battle. Yes, it was almost impossible to hurt her, but she could not hurt anyone. Even Amano... This blacksmith, was better than her in dealing damage."

"But..." The man shrugged his shoulders. "What does it mean in the end?"

With these words Mashu suddenly lost her thought.

"She was a shield, not a sword." Ainz smiled. "She defended us and we would not be afraid when she was with us. And she was never afraid when she was with us, because with her protection we would certainly win. After all, we were always with each other and none of us had to fight alone."

To these words, Ainz suddenly glanced at Mashu and nodded to her, to which she smiled. Of course, she really completely forgot that Ainz was not only stronger, but also much wiser than her. The girl nodded to Ainz, smiling in response.

She's not fighting alone. She just completely forgot about that.

"Master..." As a result, having come to a definite conclusion, the girl looked at the man seriously. "This may sound bold but... Can I still call you Senpai?"

Although she had to call him a Master in respect of all his merits, watching not only his superiority, but also those stories, emotions, and relationships that surrounded him, she wanted to see him as not only an unattainable ideal or a detached commander but someone who maybe one day will show her what the really beautiful world of human life looks like.

"Of course" Ainz himself only nodded favorably. "Besides, I have to admit, it was a long time from when cute girls called me Senpai... It's as if I am young again."

With these words, Ainz smiled to himself, and turned away for a second in order to reach out to a black hole, leading to the inventory available to him. Mashu, who heard her description from her Master, looked away, and then smiled. For some reason, her heart suddenly became warmer.

"Here," In the end, after finding the right one Ainz gave the girl a small phial with a red liquid, "Drink it."

"What is it?" Taking in the bottle she looked at the container of slightly transparent red liquid, but before knowing an answer still opened it.

"A health potion." Ainz shook his head. "If you are anything like she was... You still would go for another training session, so this would at least ease your fatigue and heal the wound."

And after these words, Ainz turned around, leaving Mashu alone, moving away from her and to the exit from the training hall. Mashu, remaining in place, continued to look after him.

'So, he is smart, strong, wise, supportive and helps with all kinds of problems...' The girl came to this conclusion, continuing to look after the retreating man, 'And also he thinks of me as cute...'

Uncorking the lid the girl drank the potion in one gulp and although she shouldn't have tasted anything at that moment Mashu could have sworn that she had never drank anything more delicious.

* * *

"The master is terrifyingly effective." The shadow that appeared next to the man made him lose his step.

"Ah, Serenity!" Smiled Ainz to the recently appeared girl. "As always it seems like I just can't escape from you."

"Yes Master, I am always on your guard." The girl just nodded at that, before looking with a thoughtful look "However... Master, how many goals do you need to achieve to calm down?"

"Goals?" At this Ainz only shook his head. To admit that, recently he only wandered aimlessly through the corridors of Chaldeas, communicating with the Servants and even now came to Mashu solely from idleness after learning from Arthuria that Mashu was here and finally started up the story of his youth in Yggdrasil. "As I said, I have no goals."

"That makes it even more terrifying." The girl sighed.

'Interesting...' The man eventually wondered. 'Mashu probably didn't like it, as I told her about Bukubukuchagama. Girls usually do not like it when someone near them is talking about other girls. Especially in the end I really felt my emotions deeply and told her about our past battles... I continue to make mistakes in communicating one after another..."

'If you think so...' At that moment, Serenity sighed just like Ainz, not for the first time in the past few days, 'Perhaps her poison is not such a bad ability in the current conditions...'

* * *

Scientist - is one of the basic classes, useful primarily for all kinds of crafters, as well as some magic classes. A class that allows you to increase the capacity and detail of the available recipes or blueprints, allowing you to learn more recipes for creating objects or potions, or memorize more spells. Despite the fact that the growth of the class levels by itself does not bring any bonuses to the above mentioned recipes and spells, and has a gain of only three points of stat points per level, this class stably remains extremely popular among the base ones. At every fifth level of development, the class also allows you to take one of the available perks - thanks to which some of the most inquisitive minds were able to discover the extremely rare class "Magic Explorer", which led to unexpected discoveries and special abilities. At least one of those who discovered this class is one of the most famous mage players under the nickname Kiss_Ur_Schwein_org

* * *

**Yup, nothing much to talk about. Only that early acess to new chapters are at my Pat reon \rure!**


	13. Chapter 13

Roman once again looked at the panel, after which, taking note of one of the indicators, called his superior.

"Chief," Roman instantly whispered to the communicator, "The power consumption of the Main Core is above normal..."

"THEN FIX IT!" - instantly the communicator yelled back, forcing the guy to wince and crouch a little, as if waiting for a strike that didn't follow, - "Do I really need to tell you to do this? Why then, tell me please, do I even need you here?"

There were so many problems with this statement that Roman did not even know where to start. Was it worth it to mention that his field of expertise was medicine and now he was conducting the test of the Main Core solely because there was no one more qualified in the technical team, or should she remind her that she was the one who organized the Core's check up, or he should tell her about her declaration "I want to become a worthy chief for Chaldea", she should not have to shout at...

"You - did you die there or what?!" - interrupting the thought process of Romani, there was an angry voice of the chief from the speakers, - "Romani!"

'If I can only tell her something like,' Hey, chief, don't you think that Ainz would not like a girl who constantly swears at her subordinates?', then she would instantly stop yelling at me and the others' - such were the thoughts of Roman .

For a second, he even thought about putting them into execution — at least that way he could get some moral compensation for what was happening to him — but instead he only shook his head and exhaled.

"Well, chief," he said into the communicator, then rose from his seat and headed for the exit from the control cabin. Most likely, the increased energy consumption was due to the loss of power connections and its loss was most likely due to the fact that they could not repair all the cables damaged during the explosion.

Explosion, hmm...

The explosion happened a whole week ago, but its effects were still felt - and it was not only expressed in the empty Chaldea or the bodies of the other Masters that is kept in their cryocapsules - even if it was a terrible and disgusting thing, the human psyche is such that, it quickly forgets about what it does not interact with daily. No, Romani was thinking about other things, like the central transfer room, which was still covered with black soot to this day, and with the pieces of metal still stuck in its walls all around it. Or on what he's doing right now, checking the central core, only to discover, quite by chance, that somewhere, in Chaldea, there was a broken cable which they had not found before.

With a quiet click, the door opened, leading the doctor away from the control center, after which Romani took a step out of it and headed for the nearby staircase to descend to the Main Core. Unfortunately, a closer control center, located very close to it, was also closed from access - another reminder of the explosion.

Having gone down several flights down, Roman sighed again, and advanced to the door leading into the room, then took a step inside.

"If you think about it..." - he wondered - "Why am I doing this? We have the technicians to personally change the cables... "

"Although, maybe they are busy right now?" - he instantly tried to find an answer for his own self-posed question and shook his head - "What if they are?"

Perhaps if now, going down to the core, he would meet several drunken or bored technicians - he could justify to himself his anger, or rather even disappointment, but without proof of any... laziness- all he could do was shake his head.

"This is an unworthy behavior for a servant of the Lord, to condemn one, about the life of whom you know nothing..." - Roman shook his head. Although he had not been a servant of the Lord for years, old habits were indeed very difficult to forget.

Upon entering the Core, he looked around a little bit, as if hoping that he would be able to see the torn cable by coincidence, however, when this failed for obvious reasons, he sighed and moved to the source of energy.

The Main Core of Chaldea was a real technomagic miracle, a whole gigantic thermonuclear power station, in a magical sense, that fit into just one room. Using it, Chaldea could maintain the shields for months, at the same time also using the Chaldea system itself, the virtual Throne of Heroes — all at the same time. And yet, there was a problem. If the Chaldea's core possessed such monstrous parameters, then Chaldea itself needed no more source of energy, since the entire Chaldea could be powered from just one core. So, if Professor Lev succeeded in destroying the Core, then all of Chaldea would have perished instantly, since the shields and life support systems would be completely de-powered.

Thinking about the possibility of this, Romani slightly shrugged, feeling uncomfortable for a second.

Fortunately, the explosion caused by Lev still did not reach the Main Core, simply breaking several important cables. And, no matter how surprising it was, it happened because Lev placed the explosive device in the wrong way. If he wanted to destroy the reactor, he should have shifted the location of the bomb a little bit - but Lev himself said that he just so strongly wanted to murder the chief, that he planted the explosives exactly under her feet. In other words, if it were not for Lev's desire to kill the chief, he probably would have destroyed Chaldea without any particular problems, so in some somewhat strange sense, the chief simultaneously took the blow of Lev instead of the whole Chaldea and was the single reason for the single chance Chaldea had now at the same time.

For a moment after this thought, Roman shook his head.

"I'm really not very good at placing blame at other people..." - the guy rubbed his neck, as if apologizing to someone - although no one was near him, after which he proceeded with a sigh then began to to search for the broken cables.

The reactor room was not very large for a room where the energy source worthy of several large nuclear power plants were located, but it was still much larger than an ordinary room, because of which the search for the cables took longer than Roman himself would like. Although, it's not that he wanted to inspect the Chaldea's Core at all - rather, he simply fell victim to the unruly enthusiasm of the chief who wanted to inspect the Core just before the expedition to the Singularity, while all other people who already knew of Olga's active personality just escaped, leaving him at the mercy of a girl.

If he had the opportunity, he would just shut himself in his office, sprawled on the couch, brew a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows, then close the curtains, turn off the lights, and then turn on...

The newest concert of "Love Love Aidol"!

Just thinking about the unseen collection of performances by the group of idols Romani broke into a smile, and then began to seek out the defect with tripled strength. The sooner the chief releases him - the faster he will get to the cherished password-protected folder with obscene materials for a man of his age. And he was not talking about porn - porn for a lonely man of his age was actually quite decent. However, an idol group ...

Trying to see through the collection of wires and cables was not easy, but a man inspired by his thoughts could easily find the beginning and end of the cable, and then, without any particular problem, he would determine if there was a problem somewhere. Of course, it might have been easier with magic, but the guy didn't complain and only continued to methodically examine and search the surrounding environment step by step. As was expected, though, after only ten minutes, he did come across the problem.

"Aha!" - the guy concluded encouragingly, finding the right point - "As I thought, the broken power cable".

One of the numerous wires leaving the central core to the wall was torn in the middle, because of which the geometry of the technomagic circuit was broken, which prevented the proper functioning of the equipment and the work of the Chaldea core. Under normal conditions, for someone like Roman, this would have been a disaster — although he was a very good scientist, he was still not a technician and the idea that he would have to recalculate the entire magic scheme to create a new one, and then direct the laying of new cables, would make him fall into powerlessness on the floor. However, fortunately, anticipating something like that, at the insistence of the chief, he discussed this problem with both Da Vinci and an assistant who unexpectedly appeared next to him in the form of Cu Chulain, who wished to take part in the conversation - however, he left in the middle of the conversation, when he got bored "with this humbers's discussion."

Touching the cable under such a voltage would be the height of stupidity, so after carefully examining and remembering the position of the damaged circuit that was required to be disconnected later, Roman already took a step towards the door before he realized something.

"What if there is more than one damaged cable?" He stopped for a second. If there were other damaged cables, then at the next test run it will still be noticeable, so the chief will probably send him to fix it all over again, also accompanied by some insult.

"Romani, you are an idiot and if I was not such a good chief — I would have thrown you into the core of Chaldea this instant!" - Roman could imagine the chief shouting something like that without any difficulty, which made him sigh and continue to look around the room.

If you think about it, then the chief yelled at him - and at all who came to her - all the time. No, that is, of course, not all the time! To be more precise, she did it when she was in a bad mood, when she believed that workers did not work well, when she felt that they were not sufficiently afraid of her, after contact with the outside world, after meeting other magi, during stressful times, when she was sad, overjoyed, bored, or when she was angry... As a result, Romani had to admit to himself that the chief really did yelled at all her subordinates all the time, so there was nothing unusual in receiving an insult from the chief. The only thing that could be strange at all was that the chief would now yell at him upon returning from the core and that this yell would have a reason for it.

Usually, the boss insulted people by inventing a pretext on the go, sometimes even without a pretext — after which, being satisfied with the result, she simply left to get the next person, but now, by a strange whim, Olga-Marie clung only to those people whom she could catch doing something wrong, according to her. Of course, it was not that a strong improvement compared to her in the past, as the chief would still use any of the smallest reason that she could find to start berating the person, but she still tried to become at least a little bit better of a person.

Moreover, in the past, the chief was accustomed to simply sitting in her office, entrusting his deputy, Lev, to do all the business, while now she herself was trying to participate in the operation of Chaldea. Yes, she repeatedly broke down and in the end everything ended with her calling people subordinate to her "brainless idiots", but she still tried to do at least something. In a sense, it was a real improvement compared to her past behavior - although at the same time, in the past, since the chief was less often in contact with the Chaldea's personnel, she entered into conflicts with them too...

On the other hand, if she entered into conflicts in the past, then the conflict always ended with the retirement of the person involved — or at least letting them go on a rest for a week or two, while at this time it was now quite easy to calm her down, someone would just mention Ainz.

In general, it was a more difficult question that could not be easily answered - "did it get better in Chaldea after the chief began to interfere with it's operations ". For the chief - definitely yes. For the Servants, probably, also yes. The chief tried to provide the Servants with everything they needed, after which several rather decent proposals followed from her, such as creating a new backup scheme for the technomagical contours from Da Vinci and Roman. For the general staff?.. Difficulties with an inaccessible bosses not caring about their conditions, they definitely disappeared - however, other difficulties arose related to the bosses, who were too interested in their life.

However, if someone had asked Roman himself whether this was a positive change — with great reluctance, he would have answered that "yes, this is for the best." Of course, while the positives were fairly balanced with negative ones, after a while, Olga-Marie will learn to manage people and her own emotions. At least it was the best that Roman could hope for.

Passing the remaining cables with an attentive glance, Romani stopped when his eyes stumbled over another damaged cable.

"Aha, I was right yet again!" - the man lifted a thumbs up a second when he managed to notice another damage - "Another broken cable!".

Not that it was so significant, but Romani himself was glad that he was able to detect the damage in the core the first time around, because it clearly meant that he would not need to go down to the power core one more time.

Looking carefully at the cables and remembering which cables were damaged, Romani nodded a couple of times, and then continued to inspect the room once again just in case.

Although, not only Olga-Marie changed after returning from the Singularity. And it was only possible to speculate about what happened to her - after what could have happened in the Singularity, her mind could have changed in any way. Then, at the same time, another changed person existed. Mashu Kyrielight. And if the changes in the boss could not be clearly determined as positive or negative, then the behavior of Mashu, although it did not change radically, became much more... Right? No, this word meant as if something in Mashu was wrong in a sense - which, of course, was not true. Mashu was like a daughter to him and he would never allow himself to say something bad about her. Just that Mashu... She has always been very demanding of herself - perhaps because of the conditions of her birth and upbringing, she was very focused on achieving a result - the best grades, good behavior, outstanding knowledge. This suited her and even more, it was a necessary trait for someone like the father of the chief, Marisbury Animupshere, but Roman himself never wanted to see her like this - especially when the reason for this was not the girl's desire, but her thought that she "should", like it was something she had to do and had to prove herself to someone. However, he always lacked... Something to tell her that. More precisely, of course, he had the intelligence and kindness to mention it in conversation with the girl, but each time she easily worked through all his worries with cold logic and arguments to which he could not reply to and was forced to retreat. He simply lacked the ability to argue and push his opinion, even when he had no objective reasons not to do so. Usually, he simply said something, after which, if his opponent had any counter arguments, he simply apologized and left, afraid of the opportunity to start a dispute or even conflict with someone, after which he spent days and even weeks thinking about the unfinished argument, coming with new and possible ways of responding to the opponent's points, after which he began to hope that the last disagreement would arise again. However, even if he nevertheless managed to reiterate his carefully thought-out arguments - usually the opponent simply rejected them, even if the opponent did not have any way to challenge them, and Roman would retreat again. It was precisely because of this peculiarity of his personality that Romani, although he had already tried for several years to argue with Mashu, each time he was forced to retreat.

However, just yesterday, Romani was surprised to see that instead of the usual way Mashu spent her time, that is to spend all her time in training or studying, Mashu enjoyed croissants prepared by Archer. Of course, she enjoyed them during a break between two trainings, between training with Cu Chulain, who agreed to teach her something about runes and a training session with Arthuria, however she also was talking with the Servant, while enjoying croissants and tea, and did not try to eat through all her available food as quickly as possible in order to go to the next lesson faster. Moreover, as Roman, who found out all this information from Archer, he also learned that she started doing it quite regularly in the last few days, and Archer himself saw at least once how Mashu also tried to talk with Medusa about the books she read. It wasn't going really well... Because Medusa only replied all her inquiries mostly only with polite simple phrases, but she tried nevertheless. And never before did Mashu tried to discuss books with anyone, although she repeatedly had opportunities for this.

And if a lot of terrible things happened in the Singularity that changes the boss, then Mashu changed a little while later, after the Singularity itself - and this change had a reason.

Ainz Ooal Gown.

When he appeared as he really was on the doorstep of Chaldea - Roman did not know what to expect from him. He was suspicious and, to be honest, they still did not know what to expect from their strange ally. Even more, the only thing they could find out for certain is the information from Medusa, which only confused them more, because Medusa only confirmed that Ainz did not feel like a Greek god. It still didn't exclude Hades completely from the list of possible candidates, as Medusa could not fully vouch for his identity, because she had never met Hades in her life, but it's more likely that he wasn't one of them. However, in this case it only made all the existing information about him even more complex.

Even so, when he appeared in Chaldea, they were not in a position to neglect any help, especially considering that Ainz accompanied Mashu and Olga-Marie, who he had saved only a few minutes earlier. They were forced to accept his help - however, before anyone could express their ideas about what they needed to do in order to learn more information about Ainz - first, there was a change of opinion by the chief, then Mashu. It was not worth even talking about Hassan Serenity, from the very beginning she was completely on the side of Ainz and nothing more. In other words, in just a week, he was able to get, if not loyalty, at least a certain amount of credibility from half of Chaldea - and this was not caused by certain actions or promises, because of which he could be suspected of manipulating people. No, he rightly deserved such an attitude towards him - even Roman himself was grateful to him for the fact that he could still talk with Mashu, while Romani himself lacked in spirit all the time. However, this was frightening, unnerving Roman. In just one week, he found an approach to an obstinate girl, whom Roman could not convince for several years, and to another obstinate girl, who was not interested in any opinions except from her deputy for the same years. It was commendable, highly commendable, but only made Roman speculate more about who Ainz really was - and what goals did he pursue?

Of course, he said that he was only trying to return the debt, but to whom and why? Roman was a man who usually would have thought about something like that and would react by just shrugging his shoulders and saying "well, if everything is not against it, then I don't see a reason for objecting," however, the passivity of his actions did not mean that he did not think about acting independently. And right now, after the death of mankind, the appearance of Ainz looked suspicious enough to make him think seriously.

Did he pursue any other goals? Did he have any secret desires? Or did he really planned just to return his old debt to someone?

Walking around once more in the room full of wires, trying to assess the scale of damage, Romani eventually nodded to himself and headed in the control room in order to inform the chief about the damage and to switch to a different power supply circuit for Chaldea.

Coming out of the basement, Romani sighed, then stretched and headed for the stairs, but halfway to the office, as soon as he stepped onto the metal steps, he was hailed.

"Doctor Roman!" - the voice was unfamiliar to Roman, so he hesitated a bit before turning to the speaker, remembering who he could meet under these conditions. As far as Roman himself remembered - after the announcement that a reyshifting procedure was to take place in the next few hours - almost all of Chaldea's personnels chose to leave the room closest to it, so he did not expect to meet anyone under these conditions.

Looking around, Romani easily noticed the person moving towards him - but Roman himself was completely sure that he had never seen this man before - at least because he obviously would never have forgotten that appearance. The man that appeared before his eyes looked so perfect that it was impossible to describe it with any word other than "masterpiece". Although it was impossible to point out any particular feature in his appearance as "beautiful", everything together, everything from the skin tone to facial features was ideally combined in him, as if an unknown master tried to reproduce a certain perfect reflection of a person in his creation.

"Doctor Roman" - the man approaching him nodded to Romani, - "Am I not disturbing you?"

Romani was completely sure that if he had ever seen such a person, he would definitely have remembered it, so that the answer to the question of whom he is seeing in front of him at the moment did not take long to figure out.

"Ainz," the man smiled at the approaching mage, who replaced his real body, "So I see you have already changed the body?"

"Yes," Ainz nodded to him in response, but to Roman's gaze, he didn't look as happy as he should have been, "Exactly."

Romani was not one of those people who could simply ask the question "did something happen?", even when he knew that something clearly had happened, his uncertainty about his own right to interfere in someone else's privacy was just that great. But after his thoughts about Ainz he just couldn't leave him alone.

"Something happened?" - He asked, after which, thinking for a second, suggested, - "Something related to the Singularity?"

"No, no, nothing like that!" - however, it was enough for Ainz to hear the question to instantly wave his hands, - "Everything is good... Even, perhaps, I would say that it is too good..."

After these words, the necromancer fell silent and acted a little confused, to which Romani was obliged to react.

"I see..." but he didn't know at all how he was supposed to reactt, so he simply uttered a meaningless phrase into the void. For an instant an awkward silence was established before Romani realized that unlike many people in the past, Ainz did not intend to take the initiative in the dialogue for himself, which is why Romani himself was forced to show uncharacteristic initiative for him, - " Than, what exactly is troubling you?"

Fortunately, Ainz did not need more encouragement, so he instantly replied.

"Here!" - right there, as if presenting the evidence of a crime, the guy pointed to himself, - "I am talking about this!"

At first, Roman looked at the cheek, which Ainz pointed to, but not finding anything strange with it, he turned his eyes to the guy, - "What do you mean?"

"This body!" - immediately Ainz said almost accusingly, but at the same time - complaining, - "It is too beautiful!"

'Huh?' - is the response that Romani felt inside.

"What?" - he asked a little later, having decided that he could not understand clearly what was said the first time.

"I am saying that this body is too beautiful!" - it seemed as if all this time Ainz was just waiting for the right time to complain to someone, - "I asked Da Vinci in the past to create something plain and ordinary body for me, but having come to her today I received it! For some reason, Da Vinci decided that I needed something beautiful, but without excesses - she even praised me for demanding something so unusual and complex from her, like "beauty in the absence of beauty," but she just totally misunderstood me!"

Looking at the unexpected verbal reaction of the mage Romani blinked uncertainly several times, after which he felt his lips stretch into a smile against his will.

"This is no reason to smile at!" - however, Ainz, only noticing the smile on Roman's lips, instantly responded with a frown, - "I just wanted a normal body, no frills, but I got a beautiful porcelain doll! Serenity did not give me a break before, but now I have become even more beautiful! I'm quite afraid for my own well-being."

Actually, Ainz's words about a normal body touched some strings in Romani's soul, but whatever camaraderie to Ainz he could feel was instantly overpowered and drowned out by Romani's schadenfreude from the depths of his mind.

Unable to hold back, Romani laughed.

Although, of course, the situation itself wasn't really funny, but only a few seconds ago he reflected on the possible secret plans of Ainz and his influence on the people ofChaldea as something serious or sinister. This disconnect with reality, where Ainz complained about ordinary human misunderstanding and how he didn't want to stand out, was in fact so different from the image of Ainz in Romani's head that he could not resist it and laughed.

"Doctor Roman!" - Ainz indignantly complain frowning, but instead of a bossy shout or a threatening look, it was more like the frowning look of a guy who had just been laughed at by his friends, as if Ainz was this guy, frowning, saying "it's not funny, that's enough, stop it". From this inconsistency with picture of Ainz's in Romani's head, he laughed louder, which caused Ainz's return frown on the doctor.

"I beg your pardon," Romani hiccupped after a dozen seconds, when, at the end, he calmed down and, with a clearly lightened soul, looked again at Ainz in a new way, "Da Vinci was always... Was somewhat special in her understanding of other people."

"I noticed this," in response, Ainz only sighed, and then ran his hand through his hair, ruffling them, "Being a genius is good, but problems with common sense... Sometimes I even enjoy the fact that I am so far from being a genius."

'Far from being a genius?' - at this remark Romani suddenly froze, - 'Is he really?'

Of course, not all Servants were geniuses, not even all magis were, however, among those who achieved rank A in magic, there were in fact no one who could be called of possessing "of average intelligence". Comprehension of magecraft assumed possession of a certain level of intelligence and ingenuity, at least to understand the principles of magecraft, so that having heard the words of Ainz, Romani shook his head.

"Don't you?" - not that Romani wanted to argue, but the curious detail he heard still made the guy take the initiative, - "How did you then reach the heights of magic?"

"The heights of magic, hmm?" - in response to this, Ainz stopped almost instantly, after which he looked at Roman a little frowningly, - "How should I say this... I spent a lot of time in training... Constant, repetitive training, honing the magic that I know."

"That's how?" - Romani raised an eyebrow in surprise. Of course, there was not only one or two Servants that reached incredible heights of mastery through persistent practice and meditation, but he did not want to hear that from a magi - and even more so, necromancers - who developed their mastery thanks to constant repetitive training. Although, he admits, he didn't get to hear about the necromancers who reached the top, except for a few divine spirits, too...

"Yes," but Ainz himself only nodded at this, "I admit, if someone like Ulbert were in my place, he would have been a much more powerful mage than me... Or someone like Punnito would probably be much smarter..."

"Ulbert, Punnito" - Romani instantly noted to himself the names dropped by Ainz.

"You shouldn't worry about it, Ainz," but Romani still tried to protest the guy, suddenly finding himself defending his strengths, "You did still inspire others, like the chief or Mashu, it's worth a lot…"

"Yes?" - however, it seemed as if Ainz had heard about it for the first time in his life, - "That's how... But, I think that I did not succeed really..."

'Didn't succeed?' - at this moment Romani wondered - 'What does this mean?'

After talking with Ainz , the chief was able to overcome her long standing habit of not participating in the operation of Chaldea, and he himself gave the advice to Mashu what Romani himself wanted to convey to her for several years.

'Does he think of this as a failure?' - Romani looked thoughtfully at Ainz, after which he looked away - 'But what did he want to achieve by talking then?'

However, Ainz did not answer this unspoken question, instead he looked up, as if hesitating to look Roman in the eyes.

"Admittedly, I'm not very good at talking to people at all," Romani choked on these words. Who is "not very good at talking to people?!" The person who convinced Olga-Marie to forget about Lev and begin to lead the Chaldea in only one conversation? What, then, is "good at talking" by his standards?!

However, Ainz, having perceived Roman's shocked silence as a sign of his agreement, continued, "Besides, I'm not very used to being the boss. Frankly, in the past, our management was based on a slightly different principle..."

At this Romani just shook his head. Was he a king? Maybe he meant that he was a king and was not used to being a "boss" who is not a monarch, but only one of the field commanders?

"So if I make mistakes, I would really like someone to tell me about them," at this moment Ainz sighed, "True... I do not think this is a good idea to ask people like this directly."

It really was true - although, perhaps, Ainz didn't seem so terrible in person, he was still a necromancer of rank A, it would be very difficult for people to get used to him and stop being afraid of him for the things he did in his life.

Although, he admits, after talking with Ainz, Roman no longer see Ainz as someone who could have created atrocities sufficient to rise to rank A in necromancy.

"Why don't you ask Serenity then?" - At this point, Romani looked at Ainz, to which he replied with a frown.

"Perhaps I would need to check the words of Serenity most of all," Ainz shook his head at that, as if saying 'this girl is a bad news', "I'm not very experienced in dealing with people, but even I can easily determine when someone should not be trusted completely."

Thinking about it, Romani nodded to himself. Serenity was obviously very devoted to her Master, but he really didn't have to trust her, she could not disagree with Ainz - perhaps she was even too devoted to her Master for her and his own good. Even if the likelihood of this is small — it was there nonetheless, so Ainz would prefer to avoid it altogether.

After these words, both Ainz and Romani fell silent before the necromancer realized.

"Ah, I beg your pardon, Romani, did you need to go somewhere? Did I distract you?" - the necromancer instantly worried, to which Romani shook his head.

"No, it's okay, actually," after thinking for a second about the chief and how she was obviously preparing to bring a storm of indignation at him because of his long absence in his place, Romani thought a little, then nodded, - "I think we can talk a little more..."

* * *

"... and since then I never drank alcohol again," after these words, Romani sighed and pressed his hands to his face, as if trying to hide all his shame and embarrassment behind them, "Marisbury's dressing down could never be washed, and that the stapler wasn't ever found again."

At this, Ainz himself only smiled, after which he shook his head, as if an experienced old man, listening to the adventures of young people, who for a long time were him in the past. Although, in a sense, this was also the case for Ainz, who participated in large party's just a couple of times when he was very young, fifteen years ago.

"For everyone, perhaps, there exist their own shameful stories from the past," Ainz sighed at that. If you think about it, he did create Pandora's Actor...

'No!' - in horror, suddenly Ainz clutched at his head, feeling how abruptly he calms down at the same second due to the action of his abilities, - 'After all, if I created Pandora's Actor and now Nazarick is real, then he... I created a monster !'

"Ainz?" - however, having managed to see the inner turmoil of the necromancer, Romani looked at him worriedly, - "What is it? You turned pale."

"Nothing special," but Ainz only dismissed it and laughed uncertainly.

Romani responded with an appreciating glance, then nodded, "Well, if you think so."

"DOCTOR FUCK YOU ROMAN!" - a resounding voice from the end of the corridor, however, interrupted further discussion, - "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE! IT WAS ALREADY AN HOUR THAT I SPENT WAITING FOR YOU?! DO YOU REALLY UNDERSTAND, HOW MUCH YOU ARE FUCKING THIS ALL UP?!"

Moving from the side of the corridor, the chief looked menacingly, like an enraged Valkyrie, despite the fact that she was barely as tall as Roman himself. However, a glance at her made the lazy doctor suddenly feel the inevitable retribution, placed over him like a Damocles sword.

"Oh, hi chief!" - however, Ainz, it seemed, was not at all disturbed by the appearance of the girl, only glancing at her, after which he waved at her several times, - "It is good to see you here."

"Who the hell are you?" - however, the chief did not share his joyous mood, instantly identifying Ainz as a hindrance after a quick look.

"What?" - the guy blinked several times, after which, realizing that at the moment he was occupying a different body, nodded, -" I beg your pardon chief. I'm Ainz, I just changed body."

"Ainz?" - after this word the chief stopped, as if reluctantly braking the train of revenge, and then repeated loudly again, - "Ainz?"

"Ainz?!" - Finally, the information reached the girl's mind, forcing her steps to stop at half step. As if at the click of a switch, all the hatred and vengefulness of the chief disappeared at that very second. Although, as Roman himself could see - it did not disappear, because there was plenty of hatred in her eyes cast on Roman, Olga-Marie simply chose to hide her hatred in front of Ainz's eyes, - "Do you need Roman?"

"Mmmm..." After these words, Ainz turned his gaze to Roman, as if asking him if he should allow the chief to talk to him. Seeing Roman's pleading gaze in response, Ainz nodded, "Yes, in a few more minutes."

"O-h... O-k-a-y..." the girl said slowly and with pressure, after which, sending another angry look to Romani, "I'll talk to him later."

After which, she slowly walked away.

As soon as the girl disappeared around the bend, Roman was able to slowly exhale.

"Thank you so much, Ainz!" - on these words Romani nodded several times, - "It seems that you just saved me from a big hassle!"

"It's nothing, I am ready to help," - Ainz just waved away these words. Romani himself only looked at Ainz again.

"Yes, speaking of why I came to find you from the beginning," in the end, as if there's a reason - and maybe really there is having recollected it only now, Ainz remembered something - "Why I came here from the beginning... in a few hours we will have to go to the Singularity - and I just wanted to know if everything is well and if I could help with anything..."

In response, Romani thought for a second, after which he smiled.

"No," - the guy smiled, - "You already helped us all enough."

"Okay... I think..." in response, Ainz just nodded a couple of times. He himself did not understand how he could help someone when he didn't do anything, but just in case he nevertheless agreed with Roman.

"Okay, in that case," eventually, finding the time most appropriate for ending the conversation, Romani nodded, "I will go, or the chief will come again for my soul and this time, I'm afraid, even you cannot save me from her anger."

"Okay," Ainz could only nod again.

Romani's back disappeared behind the doors leading to the stairs, just a second later Ainz felt the familiar pressure on his arm.

"Serenity?" - Ainz glanced at the girl who appeared from nowhere, - "Is something wrong?"

"I thought that only women are my opponents..." Serenity just shook her head at this, "I made a huge mistake... A huge one..."

"Serenity?" - Ainz only turned to the girl after that, but instead of answering, he received only a frowning glance in response.

"I will not give up anyway," was the answer of the girl, determined to continue her fight, "I will not give up and wait for my turn, after the chief, Mashu and Romani."

"Well," - in the end, the guy did not know what to say in response and just nodded as before, - "If you say so..."

Serenity nodded no less seriously.

"Forty-Eighth Candidate, your presence is required in the main center of the Chaldea" - rang through the speakers a moment later.

"It looks like it's our time to reyshift," Ainz concluded the obvious, after which he sighed, preparing for the next one. "Good. In this case, let's go. We are going to the new Singularity."

* * *

Magic Explorer - is an extremely rare, unique class with variable unlock conditions for various players and with variable bonuses depending both on the class unlock path and on the previously acquired specialization of the player. It is reliably known there are at least five different variations of abilities given by the class for different players, but only about two players using this class: Kiss_Ur_Schwein_org and /\0I(0 /\0Z/\I(I. It is also not known for certain how this class and requirements are obtained in the form of a level and other classes, which is why many consider this class "just randomly popping up for some people." Whether this is true or not is unknown, however, given the well-known love of the developers for "unexpected approaches to solving problems", it is actually quite possible

* * *

Hey there, this is the last one Servant\Character interlude until the time being. France is ahead!

Also, if anyone interested - at the **Pat reon \rure** you can find the new earlier chapters, where France has already began!


	14. Chapter 14

Ainz, along with Serenity, was the last ones to arrive at the reyshifting hall, they are joining with the full assembly of his already fully prepared Servants at the entrance of the hall. Not all of those Servants saw his new body before this meeting - but, unlike Roman or the Chief, everyone present was connected with Ainz by a quite tangible magical connection, which is why most of those present didn't pay any particular attention to Ainz - and as for Medusa, given that her eyes were completely hidden behind a tight cloth, she probably didn't even notice any change at all. In other words, of all those present only Mashu reacted to the new appearance of Ainz.

"Senpai," the girl blinked, as if trying to ascertain what she is seeing in front of her, "You... Have changed."

To these words, Ainz only sighed and muttered a name in such a tone as if it explained everything, "Da Vinci..."

'She is undoubtedly a genius, but still... She completely misunderstood me' - Ainz shook his head at that, as if trying to dismiss his thoughts - 'It's good that she's the only one who understood my words wrongly...'

At this moment Mashu hiccupped, and then looked at Ainz again more attentively.

"What seems to be the problem, special operative?" - a moment later, a voice from the speakers made distracted Ainz from these thoughts.

"Chief?" - Ainz turned his gaze away from the Servants to stare upon the high window of the observation post, hanging over the hall and at the two figures that's behind the glass.

"Of course! Who else, but me, the mighty Chief of Chaldea, could be here?" - with the chief's tone these words sounded almost complacent and almost arrogant.

"But I would rather prefer someone who could actually help, like Roman..." Mashu quietly murmured to herself when she heard the voice of the chief, but instantly slapped herself on the mouth, "Chief, and the person next to you then..."

"Mashu, it's me," came the faded voice of Roman, clearly still tormented by the previous talk with the chief that was reprimanding him for a past half an hour, did not express anything except endless grief and fatigue, "The Chief wanted me to..."

"It does not matter!" - but before Romani could say more, Olga placed the microphone closer to her, directly opposite to Roman, it seemed that the girl felt just fine, - "All that matters is that I will serve on the HQ on this mission. And Roman will come in handy so that I would not be bored!"

"Chief, I beg you, please, have mercy..." - at this moment Ainz felt extremely sorry for the guy, so he shook his head and interfered.

"Please, chief," - having recalled all the faces of Ainz's acquaintances that didn't please their boss for some reason, Satoru tried to ease the fate of his colleague a little, - "Try not to criticize him too much..."

For a moment there was silence in the control room, before, as if after a couple of seconds of reflection, chief said seriously in reply, "Well, I will try to..."

"So, your mission..." - in the end, nevertheless having come to a definite conclusion, Marie began a briefing. However, before she had time to say anything definite, a loud cough, that attracted the attention of everyone present, was heard.

"Oh, yes, one more thing..." after these words, Olga-Marie sighed so hard that Ainz could practically see how she put her hand to her face, "Come in!"

"Ta-dah!" - and with a loud cry, which, it would seem, could be heard even through the reinforced glass and a few meters of concrete, and not just through the speakers, Ainz could hear Da Vinci's voice, - "And here I am!"

Da Vinci's tone was such that Ainz could swear that he could see for a moment how she stood in the pose of a mahou-shoujo. Judging by the chief, who gave another exasperated sigh, this assumption was not too far from the truth.

"The great genius Da Vinci is at your service," Da Vinci then fell silent after these words, as if she had just realized something, "Although I will not carry out any services, of course. Unless, of course, you have something interesting to afford in exchange, be it a payment or the task itself is interesting."

"But..." but Ainz was embarrassed for a second, "You already met with everyone, haven't you?"

"Yes," the girl was not bothered by these words at all, "However, an introduction that wasn't carried out properly is not considered to be cool !"

"Ah, it is so..." - was the only thing Ainz was able to utter, - "I understand."

He did not.

"In any case," - but Da Vinci did not pay attention to it, - "I am a Servant, but you can not count on help from me in battle. I am bound hand and foot in Chaldea. Perhaps, in the future, if Ainz succeeds in summoning another version of me... No, it does not matter. In any case - Da Vinci has showed her magnificence - Da Vinci can leave!"

With these words, Ainz was able to hear the girl turn around and walk away from the room, closing the door behind her.

Silence reigned for a couple of seconds before Archer turned slowly towards Hassan, standing nearby.

"And is this really the great Leonardo Da Vinci?" - to these words Archer only shook his head in incomprehension.

"With great power comes great insanity," is the only answer from the man wrapped in a black cloak.

"Khm-khm!" - however, in the end, Olga-Marie was able to control herself and continue her explanation, - "Briefing, yes... So, Singularities! Strictly speaking, we do not know what it is, or how it affects our reality, or what you will find in it. We also do not know for certain how to destroy it and why they appeared at all. The only thing we know for sure is that humanity was destroyed and these Singularities appeared suddenly, either because of or as the cause of it we don't know. We also know that the Singularities themselves are something like a pocket parallel world that obeys its own logic and laws, but we cannot determine anything more than that. All I can hope for is your ingenuity in these conditions... What is it, Roman?!"

"Chief?" - as if having gained the ability to speak, the guy himself carefully said, - "In fact, I have one theory..."

"Speak," the girl gave the order in a commanding tone, forcing the guy to obey.

"This is not even an assumption, this is only a theory..." Romani hesitated, feeling uncomfortable next to the boss that at any moment could lash out on him, "I just thought about what happened at the last Singularity and I think that I probably know what took place..."

"Just speak already!" - In confirmation of his words, Olga instantly lashed out at the guy.

"Yes!" - he immediately responded, - "In general, the assumption is that the Singularity in Fuyuki was caused by the Holy Grail War... Or rather, the War that was incorrectly invoked or corrupted, that is, by the influence of the Holy Grail, and was resolved when the War was over and the previous owner and the vessel of it died. In other words - what if the Singularities are caused by the presence of the Holy Grail? Or even a few similar ones? Then gaining control over them - or their destruction - will lead to the resolution of the problem and maybe close the Singularity..."

After these words, Olga-Marie spoke after a while.

"Roman, this is..." she thought, "Absolute nonsense, founded on nothing but simple coincidence."

"But!" - the girl immediately followed, - "We have absolutely no other theories, so in these conditions, Ainz, you can use this theory like any other. The result is all that means in the end. Because now we are the heroes on whom the fate of all humanity depends on."

To these words, Ainz reacted quite ambiguously. 'Although we are really fighting for the sake of all mankind, to say that the result is all that means in the end... Isn't it the words of the villains?' - this is exactly what Ainz thought for a second. Although, of course, he was not one to argue about heroes and villains, given that even in the salvation of mankind, he saw only personal gain, but this did not hide the conflict in the words of Olga-Marie either.

"In any case," - in the end, still, without allowing Ainz to come to a definite conclusion on this issue, the girl summed up the briefing, - "From the resulting Singularities, we chose the one that seems the most stable, so it would be suitable for testing the theories we have right now. In these conditions, your goal is to investigate the Singularity, try to find as much information as possible about it, after which, no matter how you do it, resolve the problem that has arisen in it. All clear?"

"Sure, chief!" - at this Ainz only nodded, although Olga could not see him at the moment, - "Is that all?"

"Yes," Olga-Marie replied in the affirmative, and then shook her head, "And the last thing... Contacting you in the Singularity will not be easy - so if at some point in time the link with the headquarters disappears, I give you every right to act on behalf of Chaldea in any way to achieve your ultimate goal."

'Yep, this is a villain's speech' - all that Ainz could do was shake his head.

"So, the Grand Order has begun!," the girl announced loudly at the same time as the countdown of the reyshifting procedure flashed it's numbers on the screen, "The goal is to save humanity!"

A second later, Ainz felt a light, almost timid touch of Chaldea's magic, but instead of the resulting teleportation, he remained in place.

Almost instinctively he understood what the problem was - and, not it's not exactly a problem, instead a feature of his Servant ability.

According to the rules of Yggdrasil, there were only two things for the player that could protect him from the effects of World Class Items - this was; the possession of some special, extremely rare classes and the possession of a different WCI. WCI provided protection from the effects of other WCI - these were the rules of Yggdrasil that Ainz learned years ago. Even the most powerful WCI of all, the Twenty, were no exception to this rule. The only exception at the time of the game was things like Ouroboros and Five Elements Overcoming, which affected the whole world through a direct request to the developers, that used their own programmers to remake the game according to the user's wishes. In such conditions, it was impossible to change the game for everyone except for some players with special classes or other WCI, because of which they were also exposed to the effect of the WCI - although they often received gifts from the company as compensation.

In any case, if Ainz was really able to correct that Chaldea was a World Class Item, it was only logical that Ainz, who owned not only a WCI independently, but who had all the WCI of Ainz Ooal Gown at his disposal, would be out of reach of Chaldea's effect. However, even so, there was still one way for Ainz to be exposed to the WCI powers. It is to wish it to affect himself on his own volition.

Touching the power of Chaldea, Ainz instantly felt his body being transferred to another world.

* * *

This time, the teleportation of Ainz did not bring him any strange sensations - it was like a simple teleportation. Just at one moment he was inChaldea - and at another moment he was already standing in the middle of a small clearing surrounded by foliage and small trees.

For a second, Ainz even thought that he was back in Yggdrasil before realizing that the greenness around him was not the result of the work of programmers.

'If you think about it...' - for a moment the guy thought, - 'Once upon a time there were really many plants on Earth...'

"It looks like we are in the past," the voice of the Caster echoed from behind Ainz, thus making him turn back, "Hey, Rider? We are not in your era by chance?"

"It doesn't look like this," was the short and concise response from Medusa, which turned her gaze to the greenery surrounding them. Although, of course, "turned her gaze" was an oxymoron, because the girl's eyes were hidden behind her mask,- "The Mana in the air is too weak."

'I wonder how she even orientates herself in space?' Ainz thought for a second.

"Then who has any idea of where we are?" - after waiting a second and making sure that there's not a new observation from Medusa, Cu Chulain turned to the others, - "Where are we and when are we?"

"Just one second!" - Mashu instantly responded to this, and then reached for her outfit, - "We are in..."

"HOLY SHIT!" - her words, however, were interrupted by a cry. Ainz glanced at Cu Chulain instantly, but he was not the cause of the exclamation, to the necromancer's surprise. However, after Archer's cry Cu Chulain looked up at the sky too and swore.

At this, Ainz himself looked up, after which he blinked once in incomprehension.

"Mashu?" - He turned to the girl, - "That thing... Is there anything like that in the historical records?"

Although Ainz was not so knowledgeable about history, he was absolutely sure that if such a thing existed in reality, he would have at least heard about it from someone like Tabula.

"N-not sure," the girl got a little lost, as soon as she looked up.

"Don't utter such nonsense," the voice of Arthuria, who was standing next to Ainz, made Ainz look at the girl, "This is undoubtly an anomaly, but... I don't even have an assumption of what that could be."

At this point, Ainz felt something hug his left hand — and it didn't take long for the necromancer to guess who was doing it.

"Serenity?" - He turned to the girl.

"Master," she answered him, turning her gaze to Ainz. "That thing is dangerous."

"Do you know something about it?" - Ainz considered the idea, but instead Serenity just shook her head.

"No," the girl answered, "But that is... Something extremely dangerous, and... I'm sure about it."

"Lord Mage," the last to speak was Hassan, "Continuing the mission under conditions of such ignorance is extremely dangerous. It may be necessary to retreat and prepare in the light of the new information..."

"Look who's scared" - however, Cu Chulain, who has recovered from the initial shock, has already calmed himself and even tried to find solace in an argument with another Servant.

"The death of any Servant is temporary and unimportant in the grand scheme of things, but the death of the Master means the end of everything," however, the simplest jokes from Caster did not make the Assassin react.

"Besides, we still didn't learn anything new," in a second Archer took his chance to answer "Nothing, except that the anomalies in human history turned out to be abnormal."

Not wanting to listen to the squabbles between the Servants, Ainz looked up at the sky again.

What was in the sky was like a kind of eclipse, or as if a black hole unexpectedly opened in the sky, but did not cover or absorb all the light from the Sun, which made it seem like a black hole with a fiery crown and is radiating light into the space around it. A strange thing hung at a great height, which is why it was difficult to assess its true scale - but it was visible even while hanging so high above the clouds... So it was not impossible to imagine the scale of this anomaly.

For a second, even Ainz thought that the thing hanging in the clouds was unreal. In Yggdrasil, some monsters could reach the size of a castle or a living mountain, but on several instances players had to deal with creatures of much, much larger size — some World Enemies were a good example of it. For example, the World Eater. When he appeared in the real world, his torso towered over the oceans and mountains, rising from the lowest sea depths and going above the clouds. However, it was impossible to recreate a creature of such magnitude - at least, the developers of Yggdrasil was not able to do this, which is why the incredibly huge creature was simply a simple model, reinforced with textures stretched on the far wall of the created location, separated from the players fighting it by an invisible wall. The attacks of the players in this case was separated into separate hit boxes, the damage from which was subsequently projected onto certain places of the model, and the attacks of the World Eater itself fell on opponents from points outside the battle location. In other words, an incredibly huge creature like the World Eater was created by simple manipulations, but even so, it continued to look like a giant monster at an inaccessible distance at the horizon, which only added to its size. In the same way, the strange anomaly that hung in the sky looked like the World Eater, as something extremely large, but at a completely inaccessible distance, which made it impossible to get closer and measure its size.

'Although, compared to the World Eater, this anomaly looks modest...' - Ainz shook his head. Even in its first manifestation in reality, the World Eater could easily cover up the whole sky and Sun completely, not to mention the subsequent phases of the battle with him, when he became bigger and stronger - 'Although, of course, it is foolish to compare these two things. This is reality, while the World Eater is an imaginary enemy, artificially created to be like something incredibly huge...'

"Enough!" - in the end, Ainz and the Servants were brought out from their arguments by a shout from Saber, - "Your pointless arguments can wait! Our mission does not change - we must find the cause of the anomaly and destroy it!"

Hearing the girl, the three guys who had argued about the anomaly before they were forced to stop their squabble, which let Mashu to finally speak out on her own.

"Judging by the information from Chaldea," - as a result she was able to pronounce, - "We are now in France, in 1431."

'France, hm?' - Ainz just shook his head at that. He had once heard that before being destroyed in the Third World War, France was a very beautiful country with a rich culture - 'However, the fifteenth century... So, I went back more than seven hundred years into the past?'

"Six hundred years into the past ..." looking at the anomaly that hung in the sky, Archer shook his head.

'Six hundred? But why more than a hundred years difference?'- Ainz shook his head - 'Or... Oh, yes, I judged it by the dates of my old world, the twenty-second century. It seems to be called "inertness of thinking" or something like that? It seems Tabula talked about something like that once...'

"What an absurdity, the King of Britain on guard for the existence of a country like France," despite the fact that the content of such words clearly resembled a joke - nothing in Arthuria's tone indicated this, "Fate has a sense of humor."

"I always dreamed of visiting France!" - however, Cu Chulain seemed not to be upset about what had happened, - "A little later than I would have liked, the celtic tribes had already disappeared from the territory of Gaul, but the spirit of druidism still lives on these lands."

"Fifteenth Century..." Serenity turned out to say those words, "Is the Hundred Years War going on in France right now?"

Ainz just shook his head at the information. In his life, he was not interested in history and never received any higher education, which is why his knowledge in this aspect was minimal, so he could not confirm or deny the girl's information.

'Although, many said that the events of the "Fall of the Valkyrie" addon were like some kind of war between England and France... Maybe it's this one?' Ainz looked up at the sky thoughtfully.

"That's right," but Mashu, who confirmed the words of Serenity, turned to Ainz, "This is the time of the Hundred Years War... However, around these years, there was a ceasefire between England and France. Surely, the skirmishes still continued somewhere, but large-scale battles did not occur during this period."

"So, we don't have to be afraid of major military clashes," Medusa logically concluded. "Good."

For a second Ainz even felt something akin to a bad feeling about this sentence, but it disappeared before he could figure out it's reason.

"In that case, Lord Mage," finally, the male Assassin was the one to ask Ainz about their next step, "What is our plan?"

The gazes of all those present immediately focused on Ainz, making him feel that he suddenly wanted to run away from the pressure. He never had to be a boss, so he was not quite sure how he should act in such a situation when he had no clear goal or task.

"Well, then..." - after a couple of seconds, Ainz still managed to come to certain conclusions, - "The first thing we need is information. We need to find those who could own this information, then acquire it - we should not act thoughtlessly in these conditions."

'In the end information is good,' Ainz nodded a couple of times. In Yggdrasil, information was the most important existing resource, whether it was in a battle or a quest, because of which Ainz fully understood how valuable it really was - 'In addition, while we search for information - I can determine what we should do after that...'

"Hey there!" - however, once again, the opportunity to finish his thoughts was not given to Ainz. A rough male shout lifted him from his thoughts, - "Who are you?!"

"Soldiers of France," it was not simply an answer, but an instant remark from Archer, who looked at the people approaching them. There were not very many of them, a little more than a dozen, but all of them were dressed in the appropriate chain mails and carried various weapons, such as swords, maces, spears and the like, appropriate to their time and situation. The one leading them, who shouted at the group of the Servants, was additionally dressed in a blue coat of arms with three golden fleur-de-lis embroidered on it. At least, if Ainz knew what "coat of arms" and "fleur-de-lis" looked like, or that they are called that way - he would clearly notice this fact.

Also important was the fact that the one approaching them was on a horse, while the rest of the soldiers marching behind him were on foot.

"A Patrol of the French forces," Hassan remarked, after which he turned his head slightly toward Ainz, "What is your orders?"

For a second, Ainz began to doubt himself. Despite the fact that Ainz was absolutely clear what he needed to do — namely, capture the soldiers approaching him and get the necessary information — there were many problems associated with this. Perhaps the patrol would be too strong. Although those who approached did not look decent even for the tenth level, and the Servants were considered to be among the strongest creatures in the world, this did not mean that this information would still be true in the Singularity. It is also possible that the disappearance of the patrol will be noticed, because of which, even if they manage to win, they would not be able to easily go to the nearest city unnoticed if an alarm is raised.

'In this case, it would be best to try to establish a peaceful dialogue,' Ainz concluded, but before approaching the mage, the rider stopped in a half-step. Looking at his face - Ainz was able to instantly determine that the knight's gaze was directed slightly to the side. Shifting his gaze - the necromancer found only Arthuria, who was not far away.

"WITCH!" - Ainz did not even have time to start talking, before the rider raised his horse, - "WITCH! DRAGON WITCH!"

"Seeing someone else being called a witch," Medusa, who was watching, shook her head only slightly, "Is a new experience."

"DRAGON WITCH!" - It was easy for Ainz to discern the fear that instantly appeared on the faces of the soldiers, as soon as they saw Arthuria in her black armor, - "RETREAT! RETREAT!"

For a second, Ainz thought about using "Mass Hold Species", but a second later he remembered that the body created by Da Vinci was not designed for magic above a certain level, which is why he decided to do otherwise.

"Hassan?" - He turned to the Assassin who was standing next to him, - "Can you secretly track where the soldiers will retreat, and then inform us?"

"It won't be a problem, Lord Mage," the guy nodded instantly, after which Ainz saw Hassan becoming a little transparent. For a second the necromancer thought about something, then dismissed the thought - Assassin had just obviously used invisibility or some other stealth ability, but Ainz could still see him. However, the mage himself does not understand why it happened - whether it was due to the fact that Ainz was the Master of Assassin, or the fact that he had "Arcane Vision", a special ability of many high-level magicians, which nullified many stealth abilities, except for some unique skills of specialized builds. This Ainz did not know.

"OUT OF MY WAY! GET OUT OF MY WAY!" - instantly spurring his horse, the knight rushed away, immediately going past the soldiers.

"It's an unpleasant look," Arthuria merely shook her head at this, "The commander of the soldiers leaving them to save his own... Simply distasteful"

Hassan instantly rushed forward after the running knight, leaving the other soldiers far behind, while the soldiers, barely able to take a few steps, finally realized the unsightly truth.

"Soldiers! There is no other choice - we must fight!" - having come to the conclusion that they would not be able to run away, the stranded warriors eventually turned around to face the Servants who were still just standing around, after which they tried to prepare their weapons in the direction of the supposed enemy as readily as possible.

"At least the soldiers themselves can understand when they should stand and fight," Cu Chulain shook his head, "Even if they are in such a disadvantageous position."

"Should they fight in such a case?" - Medusa turned to Caster at this comment , - "If they understand that they will inevitably lose - is it not easier to accept your fate then?"

"Sounds too pessimistic of a thought for someone who is fighting for the salvation of mankind!" - was the response by Caster, after which he glanced at Arthuria, who was standing next to him, a little inquiring, - "But what's this about the Dragon Witch? Were you really present here during the Hundred Years War?"

"Of course not," the answer from Arthuria was negative, "But, both"dragon"and"witch"... They can both be applied to me."

"Come on then, henchmen of the Dragon Witch! Come if you are not afraid to die!" - despite the fact that even Ainz, a man who had never trained to be a warrior, could see the trembling knees and knocking teeth of the soldiers - they still tried to act brave before the face of, in fact, imminent death.

However, Ainz's mind was not at the mercy of emotions and empathy, therefore, having come to the conclusion that Hassan would be able to pass on all the necessary information to him, Ainz gave an order.

"We cannot leave the people who saw us alone if we are going to act covertly," Ainz glanced at Serenity, "Serenity, could you please..."

"NO! MASTER, PLEASE!" - against her will, accidentally Mashu didn't call him as a senpai - this time the girl unconsciously strayed from such treatment, - "Please, do not!"

"Hmm?" - Ainz only showed Serenity about the need to stop, - "Mashu?"

"Senpai, please!" - Mashu just looked at Ainz intensely, - "Please, senpai! Do not kill them!"

For a second, Ainz thought to ask Mashu something like "why?", but he instantly caught himself, thinking that the question "why not kill these people?" would sound extremely strange for a hero and savior of mankind.

'And I thought of Olga-Marie as a villain...' - Ainz sighed. How quickly one's thoughts change, one only has to find himself in a different or difficult situation!

"Well," - in the end, after a couple of seconds, Ainz still nodded, - "In that case... Can you just knock them out?"

"O-of course!" - the tears had not yet formed in the corners of the girl's eyes, as she happily nodded to Ainz,- "No problem!"

'I never thought that I would see someone so kind be glad that she would need to beat several adult armed men to unconsciousness,' Ainz shook his head at the moment when Mashu picked up her shield to attack.

"Come on, Witch's henchman! We will not go down without a fight!" - contrary to their cries however, the soldiers took a step back when Mashu rushed to them.

"They are very brave," Cu Chulain sighed as a result, after which he leaned on his staff.

"They have no choice. They realize how greatly inferior they are in this fight, so they are trying to drown their fears with empty bravado," - Archer shook his head, - "Such is the nature of man."

"Sorry, Serenity," - in the end, all the same, Ainz turned to Assassin, - "In the end it turned out your services were not needed."

"It's nothing, Master," - the girl smiled at this moment, - "I exist to serve you. Use me as you please."

"Khm," for a moment, embarrassment took hold of Ainz, before the suppression of emotions kick in.

'Most likely, she simply does not understand what she is saying.' - Ainz shook his head - 'Problems of an innocent youth.'

For some reason, at this moment, Serenity, which unsuccessfully tried to attract the attention of her Master for a week, became a little sad.

Mashu dealt with the soldiers quickly - Ainz could not even try to determine the level of their foes, so insignificant their ability was - after which she returned a moment later.

"Senpai?" - this time the girl, in spite of the fact that she had just had to send a lot of people into oblivion, perhaps causing more than one fracture in the process, was joyful - from the simple fact that at least she did not have to kill anyone, - "Now what?"

Having received a signal from Hassan at this moment, the man nodded, "We are moving forward, not far from here."

After that, looking around, finding the Servants and waving a hand to them, the guy moved ahead.

* * *

"He's not as kind as he tries to appear," Archer remarked first, carefully watching as Ainz slowly began to move away.

"He's kind," but instead he was objected by Medusa, "However, there are enough dark sides in every kind person."

"He didn't even hesitate fora second about murder," Archer did not agree, "This is not a kind man's behavior."

"It all depends on who can be even considered kind," Medusa sighed and looked away.

"He is a necromancer of such a rank that he can at least be compared with the magi from the Age of Gods," suddenly Cu Chulain intervened in the conversation. This time he did not smile, "Kind, good or not, it's impossible to achieve such a level without sacrificing many things. Just don't forget about it."

Archer and Medusa glanced at Cu Chulain at that moment, then, with a little thought, nodded.

"Whatever he is and whoever he is, he is still our Master," however, Arthuria, who appeared behind the backs of the Servants, sighed, as if she had to oversee her colleagues as an educator who controls every step of dull children, "So I can't understand why are you just standing here. Move along!"

* * *

Existence Outside the Domain - is the only known class skill of the Foreigner class. A special skill, denoting the nature of the existing Servant as something beyond the rules and boundaries designated for other Servants. While surprises, violations and exceptions to the rules may exist in all classes and still have no special designations - it is this skill that is responsible for creatures that exist on fundamentally different principles, simply incompatible with the rules and principles of the universe. In other words, this skill is responsible for the extent to which Servant can "play by their own rules".

* * *

**Yup, it's still me. And as people in comments already _might_ have noticed - English is not my first language, so if any brave soul will be so kind and willing to help me with making this text look like something more or less literate and readable - I would be truly glad.**

**But if you are not afraid of my wierd writing and want to have an earlier access to new chapters - there is a pat reon\ rure, I would be truly glad for any support.**


	15. Chapter 15

Ainz arrived at the small fort only a little bit later than Hassan, but before the rider, who was rushing forward at the moment with all the strength available to him and the horse under his saddle. This happened due to the fact that after taking a few steps forward, Ainz used the spell "_Mass Flight_", after which he was able to easily overtake the galloping knight and arrive at the place where Hassan was at the moment, and then look at the destination.

Hassan's unequivocal discovery was a fort — or rather a full-fledged stone fortress, but nothing in the form that appeared before Ainz would fit this formidable name. The fortress that appeared before the magi's eyes was closer to the ruins than to a mighty stronghold - the walls of the fort were already partially crumbled, and vegetations rose along the stone below, because of which the fortress seemed more like an abandoned skeleton of a former stronghold than a true castle.

"Was there a battle here?" Mashu was also able to notice the ruined appearance of the fortress, and instantly spoke out about it, "But in France there were no sieges at this time..."

"No" Archer, who appeared next to Ainz, just shook his head at the thoughts of the girl "Take a closer look, there are no scorch marks on the walls, nowhere is a single broken staircase or frozen resin. This was clearly not a siege... At least, not a siege from the english army."

"But what happened here then?" - after these words, Mashu turned her gaze to the slightly leaning gates of the fortress.

Ainz, in his turn, was completely unsure of the answer to this question. He had seen various sieges and battles. However, in this particular case it served as more of a complicating factor, since he could easily name at least several dozen possible battle scenarios which would not have left behind any of the marks listed by Archer. As an example, an attack by a single giant monster, or a siege by a group of high-level psychics who used telekinesis to destroy the walls or fly over them. Because of how instantaneously the theoretization began in the his mind, Ainz was forced to shake his head. Some experts with certain magical skills could look at the logs of a particular location in order to find out exactly what happened there in the past. But, unfortunately, Ainz himself was not one of those.

In any case, having looked at the mass of the towering ruined castle, the necromancer realized that Hassan clearly wanted to say something to him.

"Yes?" looking at the Assassin, the magi nodded, asking him about his unspoken thoughts "Anything else?"

To this, Hassan nodded in response "The fortress is full of wounded and tired people. Soldiers, armed, almost all on the verge of exhaustion, were sent in patrols around the perimeter."

Ainz only nodded at this - if the fortress is full of wounded and sentries are set out around the perimeter, it means that there is a reason for this behavior - some enemy whose attack left many wounded in the fortress.

"As I thought, if someone raised the alarm, then a peaceful conversation with the soldiers would become impossible" - Ainz unequivocally nodded to this - "In this case, you should never raise an alarm"

Ainz glanced slightly to the side, from where he himself, along with the Servants, had come just a minute ago. The rider galloping at full speed was barely visible on the horizon - but the moment when he becomes visible from the height of the observation tower was only a matter of a few minutes, after which the knight will tell, that he met the Dragon Witch not far from the fortress. After this, any peaceful contact with the French troops will become at least extremely difficult, if not completely impossible. In that case, Ainz's decision was as simple and unambiguous as possible.

Raising his hand, he almost commanded Hassan to get rid of the interfering element and the approaching rider at the same time, but Ainz instantly noticed Mashu looking at him, after which his instructions were stuck in his throat.

From an objective point of view, there was no reason why Mashu's opinion should have meant anything to him - as a fighting unit she wasn't anything worthy, and he knew her only a little more than a week. In other words, Ainz did not see any good reason for refusing a simpler and more understandable plan for a guaranteed solution of the problem of undesirable witnesses. But…

Blinking, he turned his eyes to Hassan, who was standing next to him, and then to Serenity, Arthuria, and the other Servants - it seemed as if everyone was busy with their own business, but Ainz was sure that each of them was watching him at the moment.

'Good' - in the end, Ainz still managed to form a logical conclusion for his empathy - 'Until I study the psychology of all my Servants, it's best to completely avoid all morally ambiguous decisions.'

"Archer," the magi finally concluded, "Can you get the rider out of here?"

"No problem," Archer only nodded, after which a bow appeared in his hands after a moment. Ainz himself turned away from the Servant and looked at the fortress again.

"In any case, we need information" - to this Ainz nodded several times, "It is necessary to meet with these people, however..."

After this thought, the magi turned his eyes to Arthuria, who was standing nearby, and shook his head. No matter who the "Dragon Witch" was and how Arthuria was involved in this, with another reaction like the one that happened just ten minutes ago, Ainz could not hope to have any dialogue. Because of that, he clearly had to meet people without Arthuria. Moreover, given that the fortress was full of wounded people and sent patrols around - any suspicious behavior of Ainz could disrupt a possible dialogue. Of course, if all the soldiers of France were no stronger than the previous patrol, then for Ainz, it would not have been difficult to seize the entire fortress on his own, but then even if he could get the captured people to speak, he would most likely have gotten nothing but lies, and would have no way to verify what was said by other people - because of that, he had to look as unsuspicious as possible while talking to the soldiers.

Looking at Hassan again, Ainz shook his head - a tall figure wrapped in a black cloak with a white mask that looked like a skull definitely raised questions.

"Hassan?" - He turned to the man instantly, - "Can you take off your mask so as not to attract attention?"

For a moment, the Assassin fell silent before shaking his head a little, "No, I'm sorry, Lord Mage. I'm sorry, but this is not possible."

Ainz was thinking of asking the Assassin something like "why," but he stopped halfway down. Should he ask it? Of course, people wearing a mask will always look suspicious, but if this is due to his personal circumstances or religious faith, then such a question can be regarded as offensive...

The assassin, apparently also instantly realizing what his master was thinking, nodded.

"Nothing scary, Master," - as if talking about some insignificant trifles, Hassan said, - "It's just that there is nothing under this mask - I cut my face a long time ago with a knife."

At this point, Ainz choked on air.

For a moment, questions like "how" and "why" arose in his head again, but he did not dare to ask anything, but only nodded, - "I see."

What Ainz heard was incomprehensible, but he didn't want to know the peculiarities of the Assassin's current state.

"Well," Ainz said to himself, after which he looked around. Because Hassan did not lower his voice, the details of his current state could be heard heard by everyone around him - none of them showed any particular reaction to what was said. Neither Arthuria, nor Archer, who at that moment fired a blunted arrow at the moving rider, and followed it with a second one at his horse, no one seemed to react at all to what had happened, as if such a thing was absolutely normal. The only person whose face reflected something like shock was Mashu - which confirmed to Ainz that what he had heard was not a hallucination.

Of course, Ainz did not experience shock, unfortunately, in his past life he saw many things related to poverty and cruelty - and even if he experienced a really strong emotion, his emotions would be instantly suppressed by his Skills. However, even if such things happened all the time, they were rather an exception for Ainz, they were acts of savagery, absolutely not the ordinary occurrence that Hassan's action seemed to be for the rest of the Servants.

'It's not normal for me, and Mashu considers it abnormal as well, but for the other Servants, this is not something strange or scary,' the magi shook his head. 'Besides, when I decided to kill those soldiers, only Mashu objected...'

This time, even more attentively, Ainz glanced at the Servants around him. Perhaps he should have not have considered Olga-Marie the only "villain"?

"A clear hit," as Archer said this, he lowered his bow, after which Ainz saw the rider fall off with the horse in the distance.

"Okay," the magi sighed as a result, and then stopped thinking about him. In this case, Arthuria and Hassan definitely were out of question...

Ainz looked again - this time at Medusa, who, sensing this, turned her face to him. The masked man will definitely look suspicious, but someone in blindfolds will probably look even stranger - besides, Ainz did not want to ask Medusa if she could remove her blindfold - perhaps because he did not want to hear from her something as disturbing as "I cut my face with a knife."

"In that case," eventually, Ainz concluded, "Arthuria, Medusa, Hassan and Archer remain here — it would be better to conduct reconnaissance, but the main thing is not to get caught by the rest of the patrols. In the meantime I, Cu Chulainn, Mashu, and Serenity will try to sneak into the fortress.

No one had any objections to the stated plan, so a moment later, the four remaining Servants moved away, while Ainz, taking a step, stopped, after which he thrust his hand into the black portal that opened before him.

"Here," having said this, Ainz pulled out one shoulder bag first, then the second, third and fourth, "Put it on."

Serenity followed the instructions instantly and without talking, but both Cu Chulainn and Mashu just stopped in front of Ainz.

"Senpai?" - the girl looked at Ainz inquiringly, - "What is that?"

"In the current conditions of the patrols and a certain "Dragon Witch" sneaking around, the appearance of any unknown person will turn out to be suspicious, and may provoke mistrust on part of the soldiers. At best, they may refuse to talk with us - at worst, they will take us for enemies and attack. Suddenly appearing in such a place without arousing suspicion requires a backstory and a disguise." Ainz nodded at that, then put his bag over his shoulder. It was one of many useless things that was stored in his inventory. Ainz was a collector and a miser, and he preferred not to use even the simplest consumables, if he could do without them. But even so - something so useless was stored in his inventory not because he wanted to preserve it, but because he has not found any other use for it. Dozens of garbage items "_Big Bag_" were not even enchanted, and therefore had no value for him - moreover, they continued to lie in his inventory only because he did not find any way to sell them before - and he never believed, that they will be useful to him in such conditions.

Finally, being satisfied with the response, Mashu put on her bag, after which, with a martyr's sigh, Cu Chulainn followed her example.

"To force me, the greatest hero of Ireland, the embodiment of Celtic druid wisdom, to carry luggage" Cu Chulainn sighed loudly at this, "What vulgarity!"

Ainz, however, missed Caster's words, "I will do the talking, don't talk and do what I say. Okay?"

Serenity instantly nodded at what was said, as if it were the only possible behavior, after which, Mashu nodded and, with reluctance, Cu Chulain followed her example.

"I hope that you will not force me to do something even more shameful than carry luggage" the guy sighed, at which Ainz just sent him a look and moved on.

They did not have to go for long, but a dozen minutes under the scorching sun, despite the fact that Ainz himself, like the other Servants, was not afraid of sunstroke, still annoyed the guy. If he had taken advantage of _Flight_ spell, he could have gotten there in just a minute - not to mention _Teleportation_, but such an action would have been too suspicious and would clearly have caused much trouble in the event of a collision with French soldiers.

Literally in a few minutes, the observer at one of the dilapidated towers noticed the four figures approaching, after which a languid romp began at the gate, so that when Ainz approached the soldiers, a large man, wearing armor and a cape similar to the one worn by head patrol of french soldiers, appeared on the walls.

"Hold!" - after Ainz got within about a hundred meters of the gate, a man barked loudly, making the foreigner stop. At the same time Ainz noted how they were carefully observed by four archers standing on the walls, - "Who are you and where do you come from? What brings you here?"

Sighing, Ainz summoned all his acting skills and experience as a salaryman, after which he took a step forward.

"We are just a wandering merchants from afar!" - Ainz began the story, after which, in order to prove his words, he shook his bag hanging on his shoulder, - "Please, kind people! Our wagon was attacked by the forces of the Dragon Witch, we barely managed to escape!"

"Dragon Witch?! Here?!" - The knight who spoke took a step back, after which Ainz noticed how the soldiers around him began to whisper instantly, and fear began to appear on their faces.

"The Dragon Witch frightens them..." Cu Chulainn noted offhand, to which Ainz nodded. Depending on how much the soldiers reacted to the mention of the "Dragon Witch," his further behavior could change a lot.

"Who exactly attacked you?!" the commander attentively stared at Ainz. Most likely Ainz's information was necessary for him in order to prepare his troops for a possible attack.

"It was at night, we couldn't see them for sure," Ainz used the most safe lie in these conditions, "But there were not very many of them, people - armed soldiers in strange clothes that I have never seen before."

Since the knight he had met earlier had thought Ainz himself and the company of his Servants for the possible witches' minions, it was possible to guess how they should look like for Ainz to make his lies believable.

"That's how..." - the knight thought. Ainz saw the warriors gradually lower their guard and several soldiers surrounding him lowered the bows in their hands, looking at Ainz and company - but this was only the first possible pitfall. If Ainz himself was at the knight's place, he would definitely have noticed that the four arrivals were not soiled or injured, which could have happened during the night fight, or would have required additional information about the attack to make sure that he was not a spy from the unknown Dragon Witch, but apparently the commander either did not anticipate such a possibility, or for some reason found Ainz not suitable for this. Also, he probably would have paid attention to the strange clothes of the arrivals - even if Mashu was wearing suitable armor, and Cu Chulainn was in a relatively realistic cape, he himself, like Serenity, was wearing somewhat improper clothes, not suitable for the current situation.

"Where are you from, trader?" - apparently, in the end, noticing it all the same, but already relaxed enough, the knight asked just in case, "What do you trade here?"

"I'm from Spain, I'm a fur dealer," - Ainz used one of the prepared versions, - "After we were attacked at night, the fur had to be thrown away - that's all that I managed to drag off."

Ainz pointed to Cu Chulainn who was standing next to him, which not only explained the more than inadequate state of his fur mantle, but also added additional truth to his words, forcing the commander to finally relax.

"Then what's in the bags?" - Ainz saw that these words were no longer needed by the commander, that he almost commanded his men to open the gates, but here the second part of this conversation played the role.

"Everything that was at hand," Ainz replied to this as uninterestedly as possible, "A little money, food, medicine— everything we might need."

At that moment, the commander stopped a little, after which he ordered to open the gate - Ainz grinned internally.

'Bull's eye' - he nodded to himself, moving to the slowly opening gate. If the fortress was full of exhausted and injured people, in this case food and medicine would be much more valuable than money - even if the commander had any suspicions about Ainz, then he would have to let them in to at least get the contents of his bags. The most important thing in this case was that Ainz really didn't lie - he had both food and various kinds of medicines ready - potions, reagents, scrolls, meat, dishes, spices - almost everything that one could wish for in these conditions and even more. Moreover, using what was stored in the bags Ainz could exchange this for information from the commander. Considering that even the bags in the hands of the Servants were not empty - Ains was in the most advantageous position. Although there was no practical value in the bags themselves, since the players had endless inventory that allowed them to carry all things, many players used bags to sort things inside their inventory into groups. Once upon a time, when Ainz himself was just starting to play Yggdrasil, he used bags in a similar way, but after a relatively short time he stopped doing that, leaving several bags full of low-level junk in his inventory - which was useful to Ainz now.

The commander, who appeared behind the opened gates, smiled at Ainz, after which, all he had to do was open the door completely, take a step out, and extend his hand to Ainz, forcing him to shake it back.

"In such a harsh time, all we can hope for is help from our neighbors," the knight shook his head, after which he glanced at the people accompanying Ainz, "And these are..."

"These are our guard and guide" Ainz nodded at Mashu and Cu Chulainn, after which he turned his gaze to Serenity, "And this is my wife. Unfortunately - she does not speak French."

Representing Serenity as the wife of Ainz was the simplest solution - only her clothes and Ainz's clothes were knocked out of the medieval realities surrounding Ainz, so it would be easiest for him to explain their clothes as something expensive from overseas, suitable for the status of a merchant and his wife, so as not to produce redundant and overly complex explanations.

However, having heard something like this - Serenity froze in half-step, after which she could move only after Ainz passed by her while lightly touching her shoulder, forcing the girl to move inside.

"All right," the commander was finally satisfied with this explanation, and turning around, pointed to a half-ruined fortress with a broad gesture "At this difficult moment, let me show you a little bit of a real French hospitality."

* * *

"Looking around?" - the voice that appeared behind Archer made him flinch, but Archer suppressed his reflexive desire to turn to him instantly, preparing for the blow. Instead, the Servant calmly finished his observation, after which he slowly turned to the Assassin. The black figure behind him could have been at least half a meter taller if Hassan had decided to straighten himself completely, however, because the Assassin in black tatters continued to hunch - he looked even shorter than Archer. But in the end he did not seem short - due to the fact that he continued to hunch he only looked even more threatening than in normal conditions - like a wild beast, ready to jump.

"Assassin.." Archer noted his presence. Although Archer himself was a Servant with outstanding abilities to detect enemies, Hassan had a high rank of Presence Concealment, which made it difficult to notice his approach, even for the most vigilant Servants. In addition, Archer himself was distracted just a few seconds ago.

After that, Assassin took a step towards Archer, as if in order to look at what he was watching just a second ago, - "A squad of skeletons is on the move, several kilometers to the east, several dozen of them. They are moving towards the fortress of French soldiers."

"Okay," Archer only nodded in response, "You must inform the Master."

Reaching for the connection of the Master and the Servant, Archer, however, heared Hassan's voice "I already informed him."

Expecting something like "and destroyed the skeletons," Archer glanced at Assassin, but he stopped, ending his thought.

"You destroyed them?" in the end, Archer asked the question after several seconds of silence.

"No," Hassan just shook his head at this, "The skeletons continue to move toward the castle and will reach it within ten to fifteen minutes."

After that, Archer probably had to ask Assassin something like "why you didn't destroy them," but the assumption appeared in his head much earlier, which is why Archer silently looked at his Master in the distance.

"Yes," Hassan nodded affirmatively, "They will attack the fort, and then Lord Mage will help the soldiers fight off the skeletons in order to gain their trust and learn the necessary information."

Hearing what Assassin said, Archer turned his gaze from the fort to the east, to see rows of skeletons walking in the distance, slowly approaching the fortress.

"You could have killed them much earlier if you noticed them from afar" Hassan sighed, and then, like Archer, turned his gaze to the fortress, "If you only had not been focused on spying on the Master."

From the very beginning it was clear that Assassin saw right through Archer's actions, but as soon as he said this out loud, the unspoken claim turned into an almost direct accusation.

"Yes," Archer did not hide this fact, "Yes, I watched him. But if you wanted to inform the Master about this - you would have told him a long time ago - after which you would have slaughtered me according to his instructions."

"Is it so?" - Assassin did not show any surprise or joke to these words, as if he really didn't understand Archer's point of view, - "Lord Mage isn't like this - at least he wouldn't order your execution without a reasons much more serious than your desire to watch him. If you think that he may fear your betrayal, then this is unlikely. If you have no other choice, then even the worst option becomes the best - you would not betray him only because his behavior and personality might seem suspicious to you."

In response to these words, Archer glanced at Hassan with an unspoken question, "You talk about me with confidence."

"We came across once," Hassan nodded a couple of times at that, and then, glancing at Archer, turned his eyes, "But it doesn't matter. I had time to watch you in this world."

The thought slipped through Archer's head before he realized what the Assassin meant, "Did you spy on me?"

"I spied on all," however, the words of Hassan were not overshadowed by repentance or something similar, it was like a completely unequivocal fact was stated, "However, I see no reason for your displeasure. You have just done this in relation to the Master on your own, neglecting the order given to conduct reconnaissance. Disobeying the orders of the Master is disobeying one's own nature."

Archer did not respond to what was said, as if he did not want to maintain a dialogue.

"I will go on reconnaissance," he eventually moved away from the Assassin's location, pursuing solely the goal of being as far as possible from Hassan, after which, having walked just a few steps, turned into an invisible form.

The Assassin, remaining on the hill for a dozen seconds, eventually shook his head disapprovingly.

"I was not familiar with him closely then, but now he feels quite differently," Hassan sighed, "Maybe after the War... Or is it completely different?"

The games with the Throne of Heroes were always difficult - the Servants, who were called again and again, changed and adjusted in incredible ways with every summon, depending on the conditions, the Master, time and even on chance, because of that, the called Servant was usually a completely different person, unlike his previous call, but even so, Hassan did not expect such behavior from Archer.

"Those who do not obey the hierarchy... A huge problem" - as a result, having come to a definite conclusion, the Servant turned into an invisible form - "However, Lord Mage... What does he plan to do with Archer?"

The behavior of the Lord of the Mage did not concern Hassan - he was a summoned Servant, and therefore obeyed the orders of his Master. Moreover, he considered many things to be justified under the current conditions - the Master's desire to spare the attacking soldiers or the rider, from the Assassin's point of view, was not the most effective line of behavior available to him, which is why Hassan's condemnation of Archer was more about foolishness than morality in current conditions - with the rescue of mankind in mind, only the result was important for Ainz, and not at all the morality of his actions, which is why should Archer have been planning to oppose Ainz's orders - Hassan's goal was to prevent this. Specifically, suspecting something similar, Assassin spent the past week watching the Servants who surrounded Ainz. At the very beginning, the idea of using Serenity to help him occurred to him, but Hassan himself understood that it was not possible to control Serenity - at least not for anyone other than Lord Mage. Her actions could be emotional - and therefore lead to greater consequences than even the actions of those opposing Ainz - because of that, Hassan took this responsibility alone.

"However, I cannot make a decision on my own" - in the end, having come to a conclusion, Hassan reached out to his connection with the Master.

"Lord Mage?" - a second later, when the connection between them was established, Hassan said mentally, - "This is not very important, but I think that you should know something..."

* * *

After listening to what was said, Ainz was only able to answer Hassan "Well, I understand," after which, he ended the conversation with Assassin, leaving no new instructions for him.

'Haaaah' - Ainz just managed to squeeze out of himself a moment later, when the feeling of a mental connection with the Servant disappeared, - 'As I thought, I've made a very bad boss'

Frankly, Ainz himself never encountered such a thing as "a team that does not accept a new boss," but he had heard about it from his acquaintances many times when their boss was replaced. The old team of employees usually reacted very badly to the change of management and often began to observe the new boss before making their final decision about the new boss. Of course, Ainz himself heard that such things usually happened in older teams who worked together and bonded over a long period of time, however, probably in new teams an inexperienced boss, especially if the rest of the workers were already experienced professionals, was the subject of observation of workers trying to determine how much they feel about him too.

'So, Archer is watching me...' - recalling the face of the gloomy guy in the red coat Ainz shook his head - 'It's good that it's only him... Although, no, why only him? Maybe someone else will be watching me... Or even everyone!'

From the thought that Ainz had to be not just a normal boss, but a boss who was followed closely by much more experienced subordinates, he felt dizzy, so that he almost missed the question addressed to him by the commander sitting opposite him.

"I'll be brief," deciding not to go around the topic for too long, as soon as the knight and Ainz and his companions arrived at something that could be called a donjon, the commander proceeded to discuss, "You saw yourself, many of my people were injured and any food is on the account, so we would like to purchase all the contents of your bags."

Remembering the rows of people lying at the entrance to the hospital not so far from the donjon, Ainz nodded affirmatively, after which, straining all his acting skills, he spoke.

"I understand this," Ainz nodded in response, portraying understanding and even some note of sadness on his face. "However, you also understand that these things are also necessary for ourselves — we cannot simply give them to you."

"Yeah, I thought something like that," the commander just shook his head, "Then how much are you willing to sell to us?"

"Commander, do I look so stupid enough to demand gold from you now?" - at this Ainz just snorted. For Ainz himself, gold was useless just as much as bags filled with low-level junk that he was ready to sell, but for the average merchant food, water and medicine in this conditions were much more expensive than all the world's diamonds - he had no use for the gold, should he starve to death.

"No," the commander was eventually forced to admit, after which he sighed, "But you also understand that our people suffer."

"I understand that," Ainz just nodded in response, "So I can share some of my supplies in exchange for something equally important."

"Like what?" - after these words, the knight probably thought about weapons - since by sight of those present only Mashu was armed with at least something, even if with a huge shield, however, Ainz hastened to dispel his doubts.

"Information," Ainz smiled, "The most important thing for any merchant is information.

The knight hesitated literally a second before nodding to Ainz, "Good. What kind of information?"

"About the incident," Ainz eventually began the conversation, "When I visited France last time, nothing like the Dragon Witch had happened yet."

It was a rather risky phrase if the Dragon Witch existed for a long time, but judging by the way the soldiers panicked, all he had to do was to mention the appearance of Dragon Witch minions at close range - he could always just say, that he meant the appearance of the Dragon Witch here, near the route, but fortunately, this was not required.

"She was not here" the man grinned. "Just a few days ago... Or weeks? Frankly, I already lost track of time - but not so long ago it was still quiet. Then... They burned the Dragon Witch..."

"Burned?" - on this Ainz thought for a second. If she was burned, did it mean that she was reborn after? Or that she survived this somehow?

"Yes, they burned her," the man shook his head for that, "I was then, fighting for France... She died - those British burned her. We were furious, we were ready to tear our enemies apart! Our commander howled day and night - I thought that he would go mad - if he hadn't already. He was her friend, and even something more, her closest aid. But she returned after just a couple of days. Her eyes were a little brighter, her skin was a little paler, but it was the girl who led us into the battle for France. I thought I was crazy - but it was her, no doubt. However, she returned already as the Dragon Witch, and not the Holy One, that raised us to the battle."

"Holy One?" - At this moment Mashu intervened in the conversation, forcing the commander to cast a disapproving glance at her, "So, you mean it was..."

"Of course! It was Jeanne d'Arc, whom else can I talk about?!" - the man burst out, hitting the table - after which he paused for a second, restoring his lost mental balance, - "Jeanne D'Arc and Gilles De Ré, two of those who led us into battle then. Jeanne was captured by the damned British and burned as a witch - we were then furious, but now we are wondering - were they far more observant than us? She returned only three days later - however, it was not the saint, under the flag of which I fought - it was the "Dragon Witch"! The British retreated long ago, but France is almost lost - her monsters walk the lands, cities are destroyed and worn out people barely cling to life, the King... Charles VII was burned at the stake - this witch burned him herself. The soldiers are broken, France is dying..."

'Destruction of France' - suddenly Ainz felt Mashu say the words in his head thanks to the connection - 'That's it! Violation of the Grand Order - the history of mankind! France was the cradle of human rights and freedoms, revolutions, the bourgeoisie - its destruction would cause not only changes in history, but also the death of many ideas of progress in general. This is what gave birth to the Singularity.'

Ainz himself was not aware of what was said, so he trusted Mashu in her judgment of the situation, since in essence it did not change anything for Ainz, as well as for his action plan.

"Okay..." Ains finally nodded a couple of times. In some ways, however, the emerging Singularity clearly was tied to the new, revived Jeanne d'Arc. Of course, Ainz only briefly heard about her from Tabula, but surely it was some famous historical person, - "And what about... In the sky?"

"What is in the sky?" - the guy opposite to Ainz did not fully understand the question, - "It looks like it always looked. If the sky had also changed, then everything would be even worse than now - although it seems that it can't get any worse for us now."

The idea of a strange hovering anomaly in the sky arose in Ainz's head, however, exchanging glances with Mashu, the necromancer did not raise this topic - if the people living here considered such a thing in the sky to be normal.

After that, Ainz also wanted to ask one more, final question, but was interrupted by a howl that had risen in the distance.

"Those bastards!" - the commander was not taken aback and instantly jumped from his seat and moved out of the donjon, - "This is an attack of the Witch's forces!"

Ainz nodded attentively at these words, after which he glanced at Mashu and Cu Chulainn standing next to her. "If we can help with something, just say so."

"Help?" - the commander stopped in a half-step, after which, turning around, he looked at Ainz, and then at those surrounding him, - "What can you do? You are not even armed."

"I and my guide know a little bit of magic," by saying this, Ainz did not risk anything, since the existence of "magic" was absolutely normal in a world where the "Dragon Witch" and the resurrection from the dead existed, "And Mashu is really very strong..."

At this, the commander only skeptically looked around the audience, and then, fixing his eyes on the bags, he nodded, "Good. If you can knock at least a couple out, this is already a good thing."

"Okay," Ainz nodded to that. Although he forbade the Servants to use in front of other people most of their abilities - for saving people, as well as earning credibility, they had a trivial task.

* * *

Looking from the walls how Mashu, even trying to limit himself as much as possible, smashed the approaching skeletons with ease, Ainz continued to lazily send the "_Fireball_" time after time, periodically letting himself wait a few minutes while Cu Chulainn supported his actions with his spells - the most simple ones - that, however, continued to reduce the ranks of the advancing attackers with each use.

However, after the next lazy spell, thrown down, a sudden inner feeling distracted Ainz from the lazy farce. The feeling was a bit similar to what Ainz himself was experiencing when trying to connect with one of his Servants for communication, forcibly distracting the guy from his actions. It caused him to ignore what was happening and touch the sensation - but a voice in his head put everything in its place.

'Chaldea on the line!' - Olga-Marie's vigorous and almost joyful voice contrasted perfectly with the reality surrounding Ainz. 'Finally, Roman realized how this thing works! Roman, what am I paying you money for?!'

'Chief, this is an anomaly! Any attempts to contact Ainz were simply interrupted — as if such a person simply did not exist!' - Roman's voice, in response, made Ainz sigh. Most likely, the reason for Chaldea's unsuccessful attempts to contact Ainz was Ainz himself - or rather, the ring he was wearing, that he wore to conceal his presence - because it had an extremely strong skill of suppressing divination and clairvoyance magic - because of that, Ainz was extremely difficult to use detect or search magic on. And even if someone could try to cast a spell on Ainz, he would only activate the multiple abilities of Ainz himself — because of that, the caster trying to spy on Ainz would suffer instead of learning something about the magi.

'It doesn't make any difference!' - however, the chief instantly dismissed Roman's thoughts, after which she returned to addressing Ainz - 'In any case, operative! We scanned everything that we could reach - a Servant was found next to you!'

'Servant?' - Ainz responded to this instantly. If a Servant was found near Ainz, then he needed to take all measures to detect him - and prepare to neutralize him. It would be nice if this Servant was as friendly as Cu Chulainn in their first meeting, but he had to prepare for the worst outcome.

'Yes, a Servant!' - instantly Olga-Marie rejected the altercation with Roman - 'He did not move during the last half hour and the signal from him is very weak, but this is definitely Servant! Just a few steps away from you - in the donjon!'

At this Ainz instantly froze for a second - was the Servant here?! All this time, right under his nose, and he didn't know about it?!

'Understood' - however, Ainz's emotions were instantly suppressed when they reached a certain point, so because of that, he replied to the information expressed to him absolutely calmly - 'Anything else?'

'I can not say for sure, Roman broke something again and nothing is clear!' - the girl immediately responded with an accusation.

'Chief, have mercy, this is an anomaly! I just don't understand how such a perfect surveillance system fails to work!' - Roman literally begged before Olga-Marie, forcing her to snort indignantly.

'This is definitely due to my protection from observation...' - concluded Ainz, after which he sighed softly. Roman was pitiful, but if Ainz had admitted that it was because his own actions that they were having such problems in order to make the surveillance system work — and that he could not remove his ring now — he would definitely have called the anger of the chief. However, he could not remove the ring for such a simple reason under the current conditions of an unknown enemy, his enemies could try to find out anything about him - thanks to that not only a prepared counterattack, but also protection against observation were necessary for Ainz at any time.

'Sorry, Roman' - Ainz mentally sighed at his colleague, after which he ended communication.

'Serenity' - he immediately turned to Assassin.

'Yes, my husband?' He immediately received an answer, which made him almost freeze in place. Questions like "why are you addressing me like that, although no one is hearing us?" began to arise in his head, but he dismissed this question as it is unimportant at the moment.

'Try to become invisible and carefully scout the donjon in the camp,' he addressed the girl. 'Somewhere inside is a Servant. The signal is weak, but it can be a trap from a disguised Servant. If you find something suspicious, immediately retreat and report to me.'

'Will do, my husband' - Ainz thought how these words were uttered by the girl with some quite tangible pleasure.

"Well, your guys sure broke some legs!" - at the same time, Mashu's shield crushed the bones of the last skeleton, forcing the commander to clap his hands approvingly, clearly thinking about his joke, - "Yes, and you are not half bad! I confess that I don't really trust the magic at all - but you are above all praise!"

"Thank you," Ainz just smiled at that. Any of the Servants and Ainz himself could easily destroy all the skeletons within a tenth of the time it took for them, should they fight them more seriously, but as practice has shown - Ainz himself did the right thing by making them hide their abilities - because if the Servant was in the donjon, this meant that his Master was somewhere nearby.

"However, I wanted to ask something else," recalling the question that Ainz wanted to ask before the start of the battle, the mage nodded, "Concerning the Dragon Witch... Why is she called that?"

"Huh?" - on this question, the commander stopped a little, - "Because she is one hell of a Dragon Witch!"

An unpleasant sensation made Ainz's abdomen curl into a painful knot.

'Master...' - the last nail in the coffin of Ainz's confidence was the voice of Archer - 'We got a dragon…'

* * *

**Existence Outside the Domain:** _EX_

According to its name and definition, this skill means the existence on other physical and metaphysical principles than could be expected from a given Servant in a given universe, but a skill of rank EX means something truly Alien.

At this rank, the existence of Ainz is something like an "error" in reality, "an incorrectly substituted variable" or, to make an analogy, an "unrecoverable bug in code". Ainz is in himself a creature with several personalities - embodying a simple person, Suzuki Satoru, who could not get to the Throne of Heroes on his own, at the same time he is the embodiment of a whole archetypical "hero from another world" and Momonga, "the one who conquered the worlds and universes in pursuit of power", whose existence in the Throne of Heroes is also an exception among exceptions - but not because his personality is too weak and small to be in the Throne of Heroes, but rather the other way around.

The powers of this Skill are diverse and, with the exception of a few, this skill is in fact the fundamental principle for almost all other forces, Skills, Phantasms and Parameters of Ainz.

In any case, at this rank, in essence, Ainz exists in his own, special reality, functioning according to its own laws, whimsically intertwining with the laws of the universe surrounding him, both to Ainz's good and bad.

* * *

**It's me, I'm here. As you might have noticed - I found a beta. Can you see it? I hope you can.**

**In any case - betaing the whole thing from start may take awhile, but since the new chapters would be prioritized - this should not delay the new chapters significantly. At least I hope so.**  
**In any case - here is my Pat reon \rure with new and early chapters, now beta-ed. Just in case you belive in me and my stupid hobby.**


	16. Chapter 16

Dragons are bad news.

In different universes, games and books, multiple interpretations of different types of dragons existed - evil, kind, reasonable, bestial, living and extinct - but in all interpretations dragons always have outstanding power, beyond the lower races. Of course, various single exceptions, like "lower dragons" and "dragonian familiars," existed, but as a general axiom, dragons always remained a peculiar mark of the strength and power of heroes and monsters.

In Yggdrasil, it was the same - if not even more true. Although the game had hundreds of different races that had their own positive and negative sides, they were in an elegant and perverse balance between themselves - but only one race had positive sides that outweighed all the negative ones. Dragons

Nine of the strongest NPCs in the game, _World Enemies_, were dragons, nine more were dragon-like and almost all of the remaining ones had a certain number of dragon motifs in their abilities or designs, not to mention just strong NPCs and bosses, many of whom were dragons. In other words - the creators of Yggdrasil were very open in their preferences of dragons as the most powerful of the game's creatures - which taught players like Ainz one simple immutable truth.

Dragons are bad news.

If the dungeon's boss turns out to be a dragon, then one could expect a protracted battle with a powerful opponent with a dozen powerful special abilities. If the quest required a powerful artifact - it was probably guarded by a dragon. If the craft of a new recipe required rare materials - at least half of them will be referred to as "dragon steel" or "dragon diamond".

In other words - if a player of Yggdrasil heard about a dragon - he began to prepare for the worst.

Therefore, the first thought Ainz had, when he heard from Archer about the approach of a certain dragon, was the idea of throwing off his disguise, calling upon all his Servants and beginning a slow retreat, leaving the fortress to be torn apart by the enemy from where it would begin.

'Besides, a certain Servant in the donjon…' - Ainz frowned at this. Did the Master plan to catch Ainz in a pincer attack between the approaching dragon and the Servant - after which he destroy him? If he planned to do this, it meant that the unknown Master had the ability to control dragons — a particularly dangerous and powerful ability that less than a few hundred people in Yggdrasil had — "Is it worth it in this case to destroy the Servant and escape? Or will it be easier in this case to destroy all the people in the fortress, hoping that Master of the Servant will be among them?"

The thought about this flashed through Ainz's head - however, it was instantly crushed by cold logic.

'If the information that I destroyed the fortress spreads, then the likelihood of peacefully getting information will catastrophically fall…' - Ainz bit his lip. His suppression of emotions could destroy all the pros and cons of mood, panic or fear, but restless analysis of options that came from inside Ainz was not an emotion in the true sense of the word - because of that, it left Ainz building new theories over and over again, rejecting the old ones as they would finally take shape in his head.

Is it possible that the approaching dragon was created by the Dragon Witch? Very likely - however, this did not exclude the possibility that the Servant planned to attack Ainz at the moment when he was distracted by the battle with the dragon. Could the Servant himself be the Dragon Witch?

'My husband…' - the voice of Serenity in Ainz's head made him strain, expecting a new surprise, 'I found the Servant, however... I believe that you should look at her.'

At this Ainz frowned again. If Serenity found the Servant and wanted to show it to Ainz, did that mean that she considered the Servant incapable of harming Ainz? And what did he need to do now, when a dragon was approaching the fortress?

'Archer' - he turned mentally to the observer - 'When will the dragon arrive at the fortress?'

"Judging by the speed and distance - fifteen minutes" - Archer's answer made Ainz sigh. He needed to work out a plan as quickly as possible — however, he still had time to look personally at the Servant that Serenity wanted to show him.

Looking around, Ainz took a few steps into the shadow of the wall, where the commandant of the fortress had departed a bit earlier, after which he used the spell.

"_Greater Invisibility_" - although such a spell was not the strongest of this kind among the Ainz spells, since it left some signs of the existence and actions of the caster - more powerful abilities were beyond the limits of the magic his current body could safely use.

The spell worked instantly, erasing Ainz from reality. The sounds he emitted also instantly disappeared, as did the traces left by him, but a slight tremor of the earth at each step of Ainz, a small magic background and wind movements could alert the attentive observer to the fact that Ainz still was here.

Moving through the camp, Ainz repeatedly avoided wandering soldiers, idle from a victory that he easily got and unaware of the approaching new monster, after which he made his way to the donjon and found himself inside where he could feel Serenity's location.

Stepping inside a small, half-ruined tower, Ainz dispelled the spell, and then looking around, he went downstairs - to the basement.

"My husband," that was the way Ainz was greeted by a girl in a second when he appeared on the doorway of one of the utility rooms, to which Ainz answered with a nod.

"Serenity?" - looking at the girl Ainz turned his gaze to, apparently, the one who was the Servant that Roman and Olga-Marie could notice - "Is that what you wanted to show me?"

Serenity nodded at this, forcing Ainz to look more attentively at the figure who was unconsciously lying on a pile of fallen dusty bags and boxes.

The absence of light did not prevent Ainz from seeing, given that he was an undead, so he was able to easily make out that the Servant was a girl — her long, wheat-colored hair was braided into a thick braid at half her height. Although her eyes were closed - for some reason Ainz was sure that they themselves were the colors of the midday clear sky.

The girl was dressed in armor - but not like Arthuria, who was chained in knight armor - rather, her armor was lighter and more free to move in, the color of brushed steel. Next to the girl, put to the wall, rested a spear.

"No" - Ainz instantly corrected himself, looking at it- "This is not a spear"

What was attached to the wall was a banner that now hung lifelessly under the effect of gravity, whose sharp top made it look like a spear, but it was impossible to see what was painted on the banner.

A few more times looking at the girl with a quick glance, Ainz turned to Serenity and looked at her questioningly.

"My husband, you had to look at her to decide her fate," with these words, Serenity turned her gaze on the girl, "Under the current conditions, she is defenseless and does not pose a danger, so perhaps we should capture her and conduct an interrogation".

Ainz nodded at this — it obviously made sense — after which, he looked at the girl again. It did not look like she was an adversary - at least at the moment. However, just in case, Ainz opened his inventory, after which he took out one of the first daggers he came across and reached out with his hand to the girl's throat. When the rhythm of the girl's breathing did not change, even when the blade touched the Servant's neck, Ainz, just in case, pressed the steel slightly, forcing the girl to wriggle in a dream from touching, after which, barely avoiding a cut, he put it back into the inventory.

"She sleeps too carelessly for a possible adversary," concluded the mage. In itself, this did not mean that the girl was not exactly an opponent, as she could have been just a very unskilled killer, but it still significantly reduced the likelihood, - "Good."

However, the girl who felt the touch to her neck, began to slowly toss and turn, after which, after a dozen seconds, slowly opened her eyes.

"Huh?" - she slightly confusedly concentrated her gaze first on Ainz, then on Serenity, who was standing next to him, and reacted to the awakening of the girl with the appearance of a small throwing knife in her hand, - "Where am I?"

"Hmm?" - Ainz frowned at this. Did the girl in front of him now not know where she was - or did she try to confuse Ainz? But if she tried to confuse Ainz, then what did she want to get from him? Did she know about the approaching dragon at all or not?

Serenity, having carefully observed the reaction of Ainz and came to a definite conclusion for herself, did not begin to change her posture, continuing to drill the girl with her eyes, holding a pair of blades at the ready.

If Ainz were in place of the girl who was sitting now in front of the Assassin, then in such conditions, he would clearly feel discomfort, but without having received an unequivocal answer - the girl seemingly calmly assessed the situation, and only then stretched, as if she had just woken up from a long sleep.

Not having finally reached the final conclusion regarding the Servant, Ainz nevertheless decided to start a dialogue, - "Who are you?"

There were several direct and completely not false answers to this question, each of which carried a different content of truth and a desire to tell the truth about itself. If the girl reported now that she is a dozing soldier, Ainz would note that she did not want to report her status as a Servant and at the same time could not see the Servant in Ainz or Serenity. If she had reported that she was a Servant, then the likelihood that the incident was a trap designed for Ainz would have been reduced. However, the Servant went even further.

"Jeanne d'Arc," - the girl smiled at this question, after which she blinked several times, - "But I understand... I guess you should be surprised now, because I died just a little more than a week ago…"

After these words, Jeanne unexpectedly stopped and became silent, but continued to silently say something to herself, moving her lips, and then looked at Ainz - this time she looked confused - "But, I can't understand where I am now... And why was I called?

Thoughts of this Jeanne as of the Dragon Witch in Ainz's head could not cope at the same time as the current scene opened before him.

'Does this mean that the girl in front of me is not Jeanne?' - Ainz glanced incredulously at this - 'And does she know that a dragon is approaching the fortress?'

'Master' - Archer's voice was like a pain in the teeth - 'The dragon is approaching - besides, a group of skeletons are noticed in a few dozen minutes of walking.'

'Problems follow one another' - on this Ainz sighed. Frankly, he never really had to command before - he rarely acted as a raid leader, and as a guild leader, he acted rather as a symbolic and nominal figure, while all issues were decided by a collective vote. He never sought to command - and, to confess, he now began to clearly understand why - 'In the first hour of my command, problems are falling one after the other. Maybe I'm just not good enough to be a commander?'

Thinking about this, Ainz shook his head, but no such thought could distract him from his duties.

"Jeanne," Ainz glanced at the girl sitting under his gaze on old bags and showing no desire to reach for her weapon, "Do you know what is happening at the moment in France?"

The girl closed her eyes for a second, after which, opening them, she nodded slowly and uncertainly.

"I'm not completely sure," the girl said a little stumbling, "However, it seems that there's another Jeanne d'Arc in France who called on the monsters and burned the king... However, I don't have complete information - perhaps because my summon was carried out incorrectly. I cannot determine exactly what caused such events and I lack some information about the current situation in the world, but I still managed to get some information using the Grail."

After these words, the girl looked at Ainz, forcing him to frown. Jeanne reported too much information about herself, in fact, for their first meeting. Was she not afraid that Ainz could simply find out information from her, and then kill her?

Serenity might have thought about something like that, but most likely she just did not think - from the very beginning of the dialogue the girl did not change her posture and, it seemed, never even stirred, continuing to follow the Holy One's movement with her blades in her hands, preparing to cut her throat any time, should Ainz just wish it.

Of course, if Ainz was an ordinary person, he would feel a little uncomfortable with the girl's similar devotion, but in the current conditions, when problems began to immediately accumulate on top of each other, and with the disappearance of some fundamental human principles of psychology, everything that Ainz experienced looking at the girl, ready to cut the Holy One's throat open at his command was relief and some gratitude.

Looking at the Assassin, in turn, Jeanne also nodded, but instead of being offended by such distrust or showing fear, as any other person would have done, she continued to speak.

"Under normal conditions, I should have been called up as Ruler," the girl shook her head for that, "But due to the strange conditions of my current call, I lost most of my abilities — I have no Command Seals and I cannot see your True Names. In addition, my parameters also suffered and decreased by one rank. Even more…"

The girl ran over her hip, as if to make sure that something was missing, - "St. Catherine's Sword also disappeared, which is why I lost my last trump card."

After these words, the girl looked at the nearby stand for the first time in the entire conversation, "So, I have only one Noble Phantasm right now..."

"Why are you telling me about this?" - about this, Ainz only slightly wonderingly asked a question. Ainz did not even plan to ask the girl about her combat abilities, because he understood that such a question would look suspicious under current conditions - if not outright hostile. Should he be in the shoes of a girl, he would try to find that thin enough line between trust and distrust, talk about some of his strength and try to give as few hints as possible to those abilities that could be considered his trump cards.

Even more, he did just that when he was in Chaldea — he only said that he was "a mage who is not inferior to an average Servant and with large mana reserves", hiding information both about his real strength and about his Phantasm's - or the most dangerous abilities. And it's not that he thought Chaldea itself was dangerous or that he was going to betray it - he just understood that regardless of whether they were allies or not - his abilities remained his trump card and at the same time a weak point. He was not ready to trust this knowledge to even someone like Chief or Roman.

The only people to whom he could trust all the information about himself were his friends from Ainz Ooal Gown, because he truly believed in their friendship and reliability, but no one except them.

"Hmm?" - the girl just looked at Ainz in a slightly uncomprehending way. "Why shouldn't I?"

Ainz looked at the girl as if he were looking at a child who did not understand the truisms "If I were your opponent, now I could use your ignorance of the current situation and tell you something that would be beneficial to me. Or knowing about your loss of a part of your abilities, I could attack you without fear of retaliation."

To this, Ainz was expecting an answer like "but why did you decide that I am telling you the truth?" or something like that, which would have made little sense in the current situation, but the girl in front of him, who still hasn't taken her the only weapon just shrugged, "I don't think you will."

At this, Ainz just stared at Jeanne with a blank look.

"What?" - thinking that he misheard, Ainz blinked a couple of times.

"I don't think you would do that," the girl just blinked back, as if she didn't understand Ainz's reaction in turn, "You don't look like an opponent or a bad person."

At this Ainz stopped, then closed his eyes.

"It does not make sense!" he wanted to scream for a second, but the suppression of emotions left only the core of this thought, "This is wrong."

'Maybe I was mistaken and she really is a very high-class assassin who organized the trap?' - only such an idea could fit in the head of the magi. However, looking around and finding nothing suspicious, having not yet experienced the attacks of an invisible enemy and not engaging himself in battle, Ainz was forced to admit that the likelihood of this was negligible.

"My husband," Serenity, who turned to Ainz, brought him out of his thoughts, "I apologize, but should you not deal with other problems?"

"Yes," stepping out of his thoughts, Ainz nodded. The problem of the approaching dragon and the pile of skeletons marching towards the fortress was still unresolved and, whatever the meeting with Jeanne — or the Servant, who pretended to be her — meant, it was not like the girl was planning to attack Ainz.

"In that case, I believe that you understand that you should not meet with people at the fort right now," Ainz finally arrived at an interim conclusion, after which he turned his gaze to the girl. She frowned slightly at the hint of her — not her - reputation — after which she nodded, understandingly, "All right. In that case - I will ask you to wait a while until we decide what actions we will need to take in the future."

Despite the fact that he himself, having heard something like that, would definitely have strained and wondered what "actions" a person who knows all his strengths and secrets would think - Jeanne just nodded, as if understanding and accepting what Ainz said faithfully, after getting a little more comfortable on the dusty bags. It seemed that the captive - in all sense but a name - was not at all concerned about her position.

"Serenity," - turning around, Ainz whispered to the girl through the connection, - "Do not let her get out of the castle or get in the eyes of anyone."

"Of course, my husband" - this is what Serenity replied without even a moving an inch. Ainz gave her answer a dignified nod, then walked away from the dungeon.

The fact that Serenity should not know about his impending problems with the approaching dragon was something that Ainz failed to notice.

* * *

When the back of her Master - "husband!" - the girl indignantly reminded herself - disappeared behind the closed door - Serenity turned her eyes to Jeanne, who continued to sit quietly in her seat, after which she firmly grabbed the blades in her hands.

Jeanne did not react cautiously or with aggression - although, perhaps, in the opinion of Serenity, she should have, but only tried to smile at the opposite girl.

"The two of you are very mistrustful," the Holy One tried to start some kind of dialogue, but to this Serenity only continued to follow the girl's movements, not disturbed enough to answer the unspoken Servant's question.

Jeanne continued to remain silent for another ten seconds, waiting for a response from an inhospitable girl, but without achieving any reaction, she tried again, "I know you may find my behavior strange, but I am not an enemy. I may not know somethings about the current situation... No, I don't even know why I was called - but I don't want to fight you. All I want is to find the cause of what happened, that "resurrected" Jeanne d'Arc, and then put an end to the destruction of France."

Hearing this, Serenity did not budge.

She did not care about the reason for which this Jeanne was called into this world — as well as the reason why another Jeanne was resurrected. She was also not concerned by the goals she pursued in this world or what she planned to do in the future. She didn't care if she was an enemy or an ally. At least for the moment. All that worried her at the moment - the words of her Master - and her husband, even if a pretense - and his decision. The way Serenity was supposed to act was determined by the words of Ainz, and the rest of the facts about Jeanne — her goals, causes and morality — should have already influenced these words. If Ainz had commanded Serenity to cut Jeanne's throat, even if she were an ally, even the Holy One, she would have done it, even if a second ago Jeanne and Ainz would have sworn eternal loyalty to each other. Now her order was clear - to follow the girl and not let her get out of the donjon. And it was precisely this order that she was going to execute - Ainz did not say anything about the conversation with the supervised, so in this case Serenity was free to interpret this situation on her own. And her interpretation was such that Jeanne was a beautiful girl who unexpectedly found herself next to Ainz. And even though she didn't like any people, the beautiful girls who unexpectedly found themselves next to Ainz were at the top of her list of unloved people.

Therefore, the girl continued silently to supervise Jeanne, who, after waiting a few more seconds for an answer, still sighed and reached for her weapon leaning against the wall.

"Stop," eventually, Serenity commanded at the moment when Jeanne reached for her banner.

"So you are not mute!" - however, Jeanne, it seemed, was not upset at all - on the contrary, having pulled her hand away from the half-banner half-spear, the girl smiled, and then looked at Serenity with a satisfied look, - "However, I say, I am not your enemy! Don't you believe me?"

Serenity thought for a second, weighing all the pros and cons, after which she was forced to admit that if she continued to ignore the girl, she would most likely gradually begin to build up her provocations and continue loosening the Assassin's nerves, so she had little choice.

"This is not related to my beliefs," if we talk about personal feelings, Serenity did not consider Jeanne to be an enemy. Or she saw in front of her the most disastrously bad enemy in history, - " But my order is to follow you, and I will execute it."

Any person in the place of Jeanne would be hurt by such an attitude, but the Holy One only smiled in response and sighed, "Good. So you respect the orders of this person?"

"Ainz Ooal Gown," the girl Serenity instantly corrected, unexpectedly stung by the impersonal "this man", "His name is Ainz."

"Okay," Jeanne nodded at that, "Ainz. Is he your husband?"

Serenity suddenly coughed, confused at these words. Of course, she herself called him her husband just a minute ago, but when she spoke of him as her husband, she understood that she was doing nothing more than simple - but so pleasant - self-deception. Hearing someone talking about her marriage to Ainz was...both embarrassing and enjoyable. And the girl could not even make out which feeling was more prominent.

"Not at all," finally, coughing, Serenity objected to Jeanne, "He is my Master."

Although under normal conditions of the Holy Grail War, such a phrase would not be something strange and out of the ordinary, the fact that at the moment Jeanne was not called upon during the War - just as the fact that Serenity did not object to Jeanne's supposition about their close relations - made the girl suddenly blush with the words of Assassin and turn away, - "How bold!"

But Serenity herself did not hear these words, having lost her thoughts for a second, after which, after thinking a little, the girl looked at Jeanne with a cold look again. The girl just smiled in response, once again, as if she was not at all concerned about the scrutiny.

'At least she knows how to choose the right words,' Serenity confessed to herself.

"A... Then, when he became your... Your "master"..." - with these words the girl faltered and blushed deeply, - "How... Was it?"

"Hmm?" - at this Serenity looked at the reddened Holy One with a slight lack of understanding, - " As it always happens. He asked me - I agreed…"

At this moment, Serenity remembered how Ainz patted her head then, and then smiled an unexpectedly dreamy smile that someone could hardly have expected from her, given her previous willingness to cut the Holy One's throat with one order, - "Although admit, when he caressed me... I still remember this. I may not even have enough of this. Maybe if he could stroke me now…"

"Such blasphemy!" - Jeanne was glowing like a candle, from the tip of the ears to the heels, after which she looked away in the opposite direction and frowned. However, literally after a dozen seconds, although the blush from the girl's cheeks never faded, the Holy One slowly turned her head to Serenity, after which, looking at the wall next to her, as if not even looking at her captor, she slowly and quietly asked,- "Did ... Anything else happen then?"

* * *

Ainz left the donjon without hiding - he did not need to use invisibility anymore now that he found the only Servant who could be really dangerous for him.

Now he was more concerned with other problems.

"Is the dragon still approaching?" Ainz instantly contacted Archer when he just left the tower.

"Soon the guards will see him," was the answer. Ainz himself raised his head, and then looked a little - and indeed, in the distance on the horizon, he could see a small black dot, slowly approaching his location. Now he could hardly see it in the distance, but in reality it would only take a couple of minutes before any guard noticed the creature's approach.

"Can you see him from your spot?" If Archer could see any of the individual features of the dragon, then Ainz could probably determine what kind of dragon was heading for the fort now, but Archer sent only a negative response.

"Too far, too high and too fast moving" - this was the answer, that Archer gave to him, before he, after a little bit of thought, still tried to provide the little information he could find out, - "Not very large, main body is about five meters, tail is five more. The wings are about ten from one end to the other. "

"Not very big," Ainz noted in the end. Although, of course, in reality, a creature almost ten meters long and with an equally large wingspan would seem huge - for Yggdrasil, ten meters was not the largest possible size, some huge dragons or titans could reach four or five dozen meters, not including special opponents so large that they made up a formal "location" - like for example a battle in the belly of "_The Lord of Gluttony_", one of the _World Enemies_. Also, by the way, a dragon.

The problem was that the small size did not always mean the dragon's weakness - of course, there were low-level dragons in Yggdrasil, which usually were much smaller than their relatives, but some powerful and high-level dragons also preferred to retain their smaller appearance.

Ainz frowned - now his power was much less than if he could use of all his abilities as a level one-hundred player, but even if he were in full force, he would prefer not to encounter an unknown dragon under unknown conditions. Even more, if he had equated all his Servants to level one-hundred players and used the help of Jeanne - he still would not have been unequivocally sure of his victory. He knew many powerful dragon bosses who could fight a dozen hundred-level players without any particular problems. Therefore, the most logical option in this case was to retreat. But…

"All to me" - in the end, he still gave the order on his connection Ainz to all his Servants, except for two Assassins, judging that the two murderers who were specialized in fighting against people would not show themselves well in a battle with a huge fire-breathing beast, after which he turned his attention to the two remaining ones, "Hassan, look into the approaching skeletons. Serenity - watch over Jeanne. If she does something, let me know immediately and try to grab her. If it doesn't work - kill her."

After receiving a confirmation from all his Servants in response, Ainz stopped for a second. His body was much weaker than the real body of a Servant and could not withstand high-level spells - even with a large number of buffs cast on him, and he was not ready to meet an unknown dragon absolutely unprepared and unarmed.

"_Protection against Natural Weapons_", - his mutterings were heard, as the several of the most important buffs in these conditions took their place, - "_Blessing of Magic Caster_", "_Freedom_", "_The Body of Effulgent Beryl_", "_Greater Protection against Fire_".

The five most important spells in the current conditions were imposed on Ainz - this time he was not at all concerned about the reaction of the people around him to his actions, after which he heard a scream from one of the sentinels.

"Dragon!" - shout made people freeze for a second, - "Dragon! Dragon! DRAGON!"

The last, loudest repetition of the word made all the soldiers in the castle instantly drop everything, whatever they were doing at the moment - and begin their panicked run.

"The Dragon! The Dragon!" - was heard here and there. A second later, next to Ainz, Cu Chulainn only confirmed his words.

"They will likely trample each other," Ainz had to agree to these words - the panic that rose after the cries of the approaching dragon made a lot of calm soldiers abandon their positions and run away like mad beasts, pushing each other and stepping on one another, like a crazy herd, - "And nothing will remain. An interesting way to prevent the dragon from killing soldiers is to trample them to death by themselves."

"Master!" - in contrast to the very cold-blooded, if not indifferent Cu Chulainn, Mashu, who arrived just a minute later, was agitated, - "Is the dragon really moving towards us?!"

At this Ainz only nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off the gradually growing point of the winged lizard in the sky. Tracing the direction of Ainz's gaze and finding a gradual approaching enemy on her own, the girl gasped, then grabbed her shield more firmly.

"Mashu," Ainz instantly began, "Get ready to immediately use your Phantasm to block his breath. When dragons come close to the ground, they usually attack with their breath weapons first without landing. Cu - your goal is to prevent him from rising into the air - he is the most powerful, when in the air. Archer will try to blind him by shooting at the eyes, Medusa will get his attention, and Arthuria and I will do the damage."

However, even in the current conditions, Ainz was unhappy with his hastily drawn up plan. What if the lizard was smart enough to ignore Medusa? what if it was strong enough to break through the Mashu's shield? what if it was protected from long-range attacks? Or from immobilization?

Ainz bit his lip - Dragons were the most broken and most powerful opponent that should never have been underestimated - so that Ainz himself, looking at the approaching point in the sky, prepared for the worst.

* * *

The huge, majestic beast could rightly be called the King of the Sky.

His huge wings left a shadow on the ground that could hide a dozen people. His mouth could tear a bull in half. His claws could break steel like a sheet of paper. His scales could reflect a blade.

His majestic flight forced people to scatter away from one of its kind. Trained soldiers fled in terror. If the lizard were intelligent, he would look at the soldiers who were running around below, he would be satisfied - like a hunter would be, looking at the hare prepared for the new hunt.

Having pricked his claws, he chose his next victim like a gourmet looking at dishes on a buffet - trying new flavors.

Clad in steel and barefoot, wounded and healthy, those that fled from him - and those that with a shudder tried to stand against him with a blade in their hands. These he left for dessert.

However, at some point, the eyes of the King of Sky caught one of the people. No, three people. They kept themselves apart - while the rest of the small cockroaches ran, like a torn anthill, these continued to stand in their places. They looked at the approach of the King of Heaven, not as frightened prey, but as hunters.

If the beast were intelligent, he would undoubtedly say that he liked this look.

Each of the three was not like the other two - or all the other fleeing soldiers. Each one smelled of something special... Strength.

The one that smelled the weakest was ahead - but even she was not weak. Weaker than the other two, of course, but far from weak.

The one that stood at the very end was even stronger - but the most dangerous was the one who stood in the middle. He smelled of death. Not as from a corpse - but as from a century old crypt, where generations rested. As from the earth, soaked in the death of entire eras.

If the King were intelligent, he would gladly have laughed with an angry and blustering laugh, inviting three worthy opponents to fight him.

But the King of Sky was not intelligent, and therefore, at the sight of the three creatures standing against him, he raised his head in order to roar...

With the slight sound of the bottle being opened, it was as if the cork had flown out of champagne, the lizard's head separated from the body, and then in one continuous movement it exploded with a bloody firework of lumps and bone fragments, as if a battering ram had crashed into the head at full speed, after which the lizard's body crashed, jerking several times, then it suddenly fell and went limp.

Everything happened so quickly that the body of the beast went limp before the soldiers even managed to scream about the appearance of the creature.

Not far from the body, Ainz slowly lowered his hand, with which he had just created a spell, and then reached for his ear. Communication with the desired Servant formed instantly.

"Archer," Ainz said slowly and distinctly over the link. Just in case this connection was heard at the moment by all the Servants of Ainz, - "I will say this once and only once."

Ainz was so furious that the suppression of his emotions was activated three times before he was able to speak quietly and calmly again.

All his experience...

All his plans...

All the nerves...

Ainz exhaled, after which he loudly barked at the connection in such a way that all the Servants immediately covered their ears - "WYVERNS ARE NOT DRAGONS!"

* * *

**Existence Outside the Domain**: _EX_ (Case)

Since this skill is fundamental to most of the abilities and skills of Ainz, it is easier to say what qualities he does not possess.

First of all, the positive effects of this skill are given by the fact that it allows the existence of the very personality of such a hero as Momonga - although what used to exist first, a skill or a hero - is an extremely difficult question to learn.

In fact, it is this skill that is responsible for transforming the game character "Momonga" into the hero "Momonga". A peculiar "Legend" of the character was the information about him that was known not only to the players, but also thanks to the information of the game character himself. In other words, the "quest log" of a Momonga character is the closest thing to such a thing as the "legend" of an ordinary hero, and it is this skill that is responsible for the fact that these two concepts are correlated with each other. Thus, for any other hero that looks at Momonga and wishes to see his "legend", what will appear before him will be essentially a list of quests completed by Momonga, connected by a single narrative thread. Minor quests such as "harvesting ten squirrel tails" will be omitted, while major storyline events, such as the battle with the "_World Eater_", can gain artistic expansion and deviation to turn an ordinary, albeit complicated quest to clear one of the powerful game's bosses into a truly epic tale about defeating a creature that destroyed the **Root of All Worlds**.

On the reverse side, if Ainz wishes to look at the hero's quest log, for example, Heracles, this ability will turn the story of Twelve Labors into a list of standard and doable tasks with a list of goals, a reward, and even those who issued this quest.

The same skill works comprehensively - although the mages' thaumaturgy cannot be classified using the Yggdrasil magic tiers, it is this skill that is responsible for assigning a specific rank to certain spells of magi, or vice versa, turns the spells used by Momonga into the High Thaumaturgy or Greater Ritual. This skill works almost comprehensively and there are only three unique skills - and one Noble Phantasm - of Momonga, that has nothing to do with this skill, although the relationship of several abilities, skills and Phantasms with Momonga may be a little more complicated than a simple description of "they are an integral part of this skill."

Also, although it is extremely rare, there are a few unique cases that can interact directly with Momonga, Ainz or Satoru Suzuki, bypassing this skill - but they still exist. However, no Servant possesses such an ability - neither does any God, Beast, or Magician. Although this skill is not unambiguously "stronger" than the abilities of the above, unlike them, it is a "fundamental principle of existence", which cannot be violated by virtually any force other than a force similar to this one.

* * *

**And here I am. Remember this all "this should not delay the new chapters significantly" and all that?..**

**Do I really need to tell what exactly was wrong with this statement?**

**No, my beta is a godsend, but he stepped into his exams and it resultetd in 3 weeks delay. I mean, I also had exams, but there are now problems with new chapters - I planned on uploading two chapters on my birthday, but oh well, some things are just don't work like we want them to.**

**Um, yeah, so... My beta would finish his exams in about two weeks, give or take few days, so until then a 3 new chapters (till that day it maybe 4 or even 5, if there would be a surge of productivity tied to my boredom) would wait their time.**

**Oh, yes, my pat reon \rure still a thing and now it have a new chapter! It's once in 3 weeks event, so don't miss it!**


	17. Chapter 17

"Wyverns are not dragons!" сoncluded Ainz once more, more calmly when the suppression of emotions cut off his outrage completely.

"Master!" - despite the fact that Archer obviously wanted to object to Ainz, his tone was more panicked than opposing - "But wyverns are one of the subspecies of dragons!"

With these words, Ainz almost bursted out in fire, but a moment later the suppression of emotions left him calm again, allowing him to carefully reflect on what was said.

"Okay," he finally said, "Okay..."

Dragons were among the - if not the most - powerful adversaries and allies in Yggdrasil, while the wyverns, being a separate type of creature, usually reached no higher than the fortieth level. Of course, there were a few exceptions and high-level lizards, reaching the eightieth level, however, on average, they were opponents who were not worth even a superfluous look from a player of the hundredth level. In addition, the wyverns were not dragons, because special anti-dragon abilities did not work against them, however, it was necessary to recognize that there existed at least some similarity to dragons in appearance, which could be confused by an inexperienced player...

'Wrong' - however, Ainz shook his head, then reminded himself - 'It's a completely different world ...Yggdrasil Wyverns can be very different from wyverns here- perhaps in this world they are one of the subspecies of dragons - and if these wyverns turned out to be other, more powerful creatures than I knew from Yggdrasil, while I keep comparing them with those wyverns that I knew from the game, then I could suffer a lot ...'

"I beg your pardon" - in the end, Ainz came to a definite conclusion and said in a maintained connection - "I reacted too sharply. Please, the next time if the wyvern approaches, warn me in this way, and not with words about a dragon. "

"Okay...," Archer said to that, forcing Ainz to breathe in. Neither his real skeletal body, nor his current fake body demanded such actions from him, however, this was one of the signs that Ainz had once needed to breathe — another sign of his not completely gone humanity — like the emotional explosion that had happened just now.

'Why did I do this?' - Ainz just shook his head at these thoughts. Even if he knew about the approach of a wyvern, he would still need to prepare for a battle with an enemy of an unknown force, and therefore assume the worst. Of course, in this case, the final battle plan would be a bit different, but the changes themselves would be quite minor - and in any case he should not have responded in this way to Archer's words.

'I am really not suited for being a boss …' The memory of a white-haired girl, who at the moment was probably tearing the hair off the head of an unfortunate doctor, made Ainz sigh.

"Being around such people is clearly a bad influence on my qualities as a person and as a boss ..." - the lich shook his head, after which he finally emerged from his thoughts.

The lizard body ceased to twitch a long time ago, and those who were bolder already managed to not only verify the death of the creature, and, just in case, poke it with their spears from a safe distance. Almost all the soldiers looked at the body of the beast with a mixture of interest and horror - however, they did not spare Ainz any of their attention, rewarding him with glances full of admiration, envy, fear and wonder.

Ainz needed only to take a couple steps to invoke fear around him. The soldiers around him jerked, as if nervously trying to escape from under his gaze. The only one who, it would seem, ignored such a pattern was the commander of the fortress, who, after observing the creature's death, instantly rushed to the mage.

"Little bit of magic, haha!" - the commandant, who rushed to Ainz, smiled at his fullest, but Ainz himself was not sure whether his smile was real or forced, - "Well, you sure broke some legs, of course!"

"Thank you," - not having come to a definite decision, Ainz thought it was for the best to accept what was said as praise, - "However, I suppose my wife remained in the tower... Would you allow me…"

"Oh yes, of course!" - after these words, the commander instantly took a step to the side, letting Ainz through, and then looked at his fellow travelers with a somewhat cautious look, "And ... your friends…"

"M ..." Ainz thought about that for a second. If he had said now that they had the same power — or, more truthfully, they were capable of more than something he had now demonstrated, then surely the soldiers would have been cautious to approach the two companions of Ainz, which would guarantee him the ability to easily leave the fortress and some degree of immunity inside it. But…

"No, I'm the only one who can do this," Ainz nodded to himself. Perhaps it would be best if a possible adversary underestimated Ainz's actions. In any case, in order to achieve a certain piety from the commandants there was enough glory of one Ainz, while the rest of the Servants had already shown that they were strong enough so that, at least, ordinary opponents would not be a threat to them. So, perhaps, to hide their real power was more profitable at the moment.

"Of course, Mr. Merchant," the man said Ainz's fake occupation with a smile, "If there were many people in the world who could kill a dragon with one spell, then in such a world it would be too scary to live!"

"It was not a dragon..." Ainz began, but after a little thought he nodded, "Absolutely. Hardly anyone except me could kill the dragon in one spell."

"Of course, Mr. Merchant!" - the commandant smiled at him even more broadly, so that Ainz noticed several sweat beads on his forehead, - "By the way, did your wife wait you there?.."

* * *

Jeanne met Ainz in a rather cheerful mood, but in the same closet in which Ainz left her.

"My husband," as the mage approached, Serenity bowed low, and then looked at her prisoner, "Everything is done according to your orders."

"Thank you, Serenity," - Ainz sighed at that, after which he patted the girl on the head in a parental way, forcing her to close her eyes and stretch her lips in a smile, muttering something like "Te-hehe" under her breath. Jeanne several times coughed and look away, showing off her glowing cheeks. Unfortunately, the confusion brought in by Archer did not give him the opportunity to finally come to a conclusion about how he needed to deal with the called Servant who called herself Jeanne.

"So, Jeanne," having patted Serenity's hair for a couple more seconds, Ainz looked at the girl and lowered his hand, making Serenity a little sad following the decision of her Master, "To be honest, I'm still not completely sure what we should do at the moment, so I would like to know - what are you planning to do now, after you find yourself... Here?"

"Hmm?" - at this the girl looked at Ainz a little uncomprehendingly, "My goal is to meet with the resurrected Jeanne d'Arc and make her answer for her atrocities. With the current call, I lost my opportunity to find the Servant, but the Grail provided me with the knowledge that Orleans was the new fortress of Jeanne - so I suppose I will immediately go to Orleans and fight her."

From this wording, Ainz choked on air, then coughed — and this happened even though Ainz did not need to breathe at all!

It is unlikely that the fortress of Jeanne - Orleans - was unprotected and empty, had neither shelter nor soldiers, but even if there was only one opponent in the whole fortress, Jeanne herself, this plan was still insane! In the current conditions, when the strength of Jeanne and her abilities, as well as her connection with the current Singularity and possible Grail, were unknown, but Jeanne herself... Hmm, the Jeanne that was before Ainz himself lost many of her abilities and skills, one of her Noble Phantasm and received a minus for all her parameters for the rank - to attack another, revived Jeanne and her fortress in Orleans was suicidal.

Of course, looking at the resolve and firm gaze of the girl who was sitting in front of Ainz now, someone could call her brave or strong-willed, but Ainz, looking into the girl's face, did not see anything but stupidity and almost the desire to die in the most useless way.

The suppression of emotions was activated once again, cutting off any emotional coloring, allowing Ainz to look at the girl more closely.

"Jeanne," he turned to her, "I understand exactly what you want to achieve, but now it is suicide to attack Orleans. Jeanne... The revived one in her fortress probably surrounded herself with considerable forces, you have no idea about her abilities in the current conditions…"

Ainz hoped that when she hears this, Jeanne would suddenly see his light and was preparing to take a look at how her mouth opened in horror and her pupils dilated, but instead he saw only a calm response nod.

"Yes," the girls answered him calmly, "I understand."

"Huh?" - in response, Ainz spoke loudly, after which he looked at the girl with a completely blank look.

"I understand that in the current conditions the chance of my victory is miniscule... But I'm still going to act," the girl looked at Ainz with conviction, after which, it would seem from the very fact that now she was looking with such a challenge in the man's face much older than her, became a little embarrassed and looked away, - "I can not allow this Jeanne to continue to dominate France, and she must answer for her sins... Whatever minimal possibility of my victory would be."

At this, Ainz looked with some misunderstanding, as if a child, who had just been told that Santa Claus does not exist. Of course, if he were a normal man, he would certainly have admired the girl's willingness to act in the name of a good cause and her willingness to die for the fulfillment of what she considers right - but after becoming a Servant, Ainz was deprived of all sense of empathy for the human race and therefore looking at the girl, the only thing he could say is...

"But you will die," Ainz blinked a couple of times uncomprehendingly, and then turned his eyes to Serenity standing nearby, as if seeking support from her, "You will die and you will not achieve anything, your death will be a waste."

"Most likely," however, Jeanne instead patted her neck, as if embarrassed by what was said. Not by the fact that she dies, but by the fact that her death will be useless - "But I can't just sit and watch what she does with France. Even more - she is, after all, in a sense, me... And therefore I feel myself responsible for all the actions that she has already done - or she will still do."

Ainz blinked at it several times, then opened his mouth to protest the girl, but opened and closed his mouth several times and stopped talking. All his arguments were somehow connected with the fact that Jeanne would die in battle without achieving any result, so if she was not disturbed by these two important points, then Ainz could not object to her on the merits.

"Ah, ahem ..." the guy coughed, not understanding what exactly he should have said in that case, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," but this time Jeanne just shook her head, "I have to do it. Even if the probability of victory is negligible - I still have to do it."

Ainz stared at the girl at that, then blinked several times. Was she like Touch Me in her quest? Of course, in a sense, yes, but ...

Touch Me was a man with a broad soul. If he saw the weak — he would help, if he saw someone who got into difficulties — he would help, if he saw injustice - he would help. If he had seen a gang of five attack a defenseless girl, he would stand up for her. Even if it was a gang of ten, even twenty people! He was trained, full of implants and improvements, had a weapon and a certain reputation - he could beat three, five, even ten - to frighten the rest - if the chance of this event was low - he would help anyone in the need. However, looking at a man who is falling into the abyss - he would not jump after him, hoping that he would suddenly grow wings behind his back. He would not commit suicide in an attempt to do the impossible. What Jeanne herself planned to do at the moment.

"Khm ..." Ainz fell silent on this for a couple of seconds, to which Serenity looked at her Master with doubt and question, "I see."

Ainz was completely at a loss- he didn't know neither how he should have responded to these words and plans of the girl, nor how he should have acted at the moment.

"Clear," the mage said again, as if trying to convince himself that the incident was normal, "In that case, the actions are clear."

Ainz sighed, then turned his eyes to the girl.

"In any case, meeting with the resurrected Jeanne is necessary not only for you, but also for us," Ainz nodded. Perhaps he was better informed about the reason why he was here at all and how he was involved in this situation at the moment, but seeing that Jeanne did not show interest in the actions of Ainz - he decided not to inform the girl of excessive information - "Therefore, in this matter, we are allies. However, a direct attack on Orleans is suicide - we need to prepare, conduct reconnaissance, gather information and more allies before we can challenge the Dragon Witch. Therefore, I propose an alliance on the condition that we are not going to Orleans at the moment, but will spend time searching for allies and intelligence."

After listening to the proposal Ainz, she slowly nodded. Of course, Ainz himself was not fully convinced that the Singularity had called for other Servants besides Jeanne, but even if they could find nothing other than ten ordinary people and use them for reconnaissance, that was good enough for Ainz.

"Okay," the girl smiled at Ainz. "In that case, we are allies."

"Of course," Ainz nodded, and then extended his hand to the girl, "Contract?"

"Huh?" - however, instead of the expected agreement, the girl hesitated for a second, - "I, hm…"

Jeanne cast her gaze somewhere, but Ainz, following in his wake, found only Serenity, who was staring intently at Jeanne.

'Hm, does she still execute my order?' - Ainz shook his head - 'Such diligence deserves praise.'

Probably the right way to praise in the current conditions would be money or rest, but the young Serenity reminded Ainz too much of child or a kitten, because of that he practically stretched out his hand and patted the back of the girl's head, making her smile with her eyes only. At first, he ran his hand through the girl's hair once, after that a second, and a third time, and only a minute later did he notice himself continuing to stroke the girl like a cat and was able to exert a little effort to break away from his occupation. As for Serenity, she only needed to feel how Ainz raised his hand from her head to instantly stretch after it, and when the mage still stopped stroking the girl, she looked at him with a look of a child ready to cry, from whom the most delicious candy was taken away from right under her nose.

"Khm," only this cough made Ainz remember that Jeanne was in the room with them at the same time and look at her, "You are extremely close to each other!"

At that, Ainz blinked and looked at Serenity. "This is natural. I'm still her Master. It may be strange, but sometimes I just have the urge to stroke Serenity, you know, like a pet…"

"SPARE ME THE DETAILS!" - on this, reddened Jeanne just covered her ears with her hands, forcing Ainz to shrug. Strange creatures, these Servants.

* * *

Arthuria observed how Mashu appeared first from the gates of the fortress, then Cu Chulainn and only after that her Master - Ainz himself. However, although she was warned about the appearance of a new ally in the form of Jeanne d'Arc, the fourth figure did not follow the three people who appeared.

However, this feature, although it was noticed by Arthuria was left without her attention, therefore, having waited until Ainz moved to the required distance from the fort, the girl approached according to the orders of the Master without any reaction.

However, as soon as she approached, Ainz broke the spell, allowing the invisibility to slip from Jeanne, giving Arthuria a close look at Jeanne.

"Huh?" - the first reaction of the Holy One on the appearance of Arthuria herself, however, was bewilderment fraught with apprehension - but before Ainz or anyone else had time to intervene - Jeanne herself shook her head slightly, chasing away thoughts from herself, then stretched her hand "Jeanne d'Arc."

Looking at the hand extended to her, Arthuria nodded and confidently pressed her back, - "Arthuria Pendragon."

"Arthuria?" - for a moment, Jeanne thought, after which her face brightened, - "The legendary King Arthur himself! But I thought King Arthur was a man…"

"I thought that Jeanne d'Arc was the savior of France," Jeanne gasped at these words, and then, looking at Arthuria a little intimidated, she laughed awkwardly and hurried away from her eyes.

Jeanne moved away from her somewhere towards the Master, after which Arthuria nodded to herself and turned around...

To instantly swing her blade to the side.

In response to this, she heard only a curse, uttered in Cu Chulainn's voice, after which, turning on the spot, she was saw the body of Caster laying on the ground.

"Are you always so nervous?" - Caster was curious, not rising from the ground, - "Or is it a special occasion today?"

The girl did not deign to reply to these words, simply returned the blade to the sheath and turned it away.

"You're still so unfriendly," said the Celt, after which he began to slowly rise from the ground.

"I felt your approach," the girl finally decided to explain her actions, "And acted instinctively."

"And as I see, you are not used to reflecting on instincts," Cu Chulainn muttered to himself, then scratched his head and sighed, "Honestly, I could say that you are still sulking at your last loss, but even if I knew you only for a week, it seems to me that you are not the kind of person who would be offended by anyone simply because he turned out to be better than you in something."

On this, Arthuria was silent for a second and Cu Chulainn listened attentively - perhaps he still managed to hurt the pride of a knight in a body of a girl? But no, keeping silent for a few moments, the girl shook her head negatively. "What happened then has nothing to do with my current state."

"Maybe," Cu Chulainn shrugged at that. The Servants called by the Throne of Heroes each time were completely new personalities - except for a couple of rare exceptions that even Cu Chulainn himself could not call remember- therefore, it was easy to assume this was the case even in the case of the second meeting of two Servants that fought each other in one of the past Holy Grail Wars. It was especially important that Arthuria died in that War, so for her those memories were no more than a distant dream - while for Cu Chulainn it was a fact that happened to his current self.

Thinking a little, Cu Chulainn asked a new question.

"The Master fits well with the girls," in confirmation of these words, Caster nodded in the direction of Ainz, who at the moment conversing Jeanne, explaining something to her at the same time as Mashu, and at the same time occasionally kept up with the discussion on ruffling Serenity .

"Perhaps," the girl answered laconically, then she looked at Cu Chulainn, "Is that all?"

"What! Are you still angry!" - to this, Cu Chulainn only laughed, - "We are now all friends and allies, doing one thing, fighting on the same side! You can chat with a man!"

"I can," the girl answered laconically, after which she looked the guy from head to toe, "But I don't want to."

"Meanie," concluded Cu Chulainn and stretched on the spot, "Have you always been so unsmiling?"

Such behavior of Cu Chulainn only annoyed Arthuria more, forcing her to take a close look at the mage.

"I don't think we've ever met," Arthuria shook her head, "But somehow I'm sure you don't have to say so much. Child of light, you are the owner of a magic spear and the famous killer of monsters, in your legend there are no feats associated with persuasion. So why are you talking so much?"

"This is the biggest phrase that you said to anyone for the whole week and all of it is about me!" - On this, Cu Chulainn broke into a smile, however, having noticed how the irritated Arthuria turned away from him, he hurried to correct himself, - "Honestly, I am really not so sociable... In normal conditions. However, my current body is not exactly me."

If Arthuria was interested in such words, then the girl didn't show anything, so Cu Chulainn, after a pause, was forced to continue, - "Cu Chulainn as a mythological hero knew how to cast spells- and very well, don't misunderstand me! But still his legend tells of him as a Lancer, not a Caster - so instead of the real Cu Chulainn I am a team hero of Celtic Druidism, created at the heart with the real Cu Chulainn. In other words, in me there are not only the features of the present Cu Chulainn, but also the features prescribed by the people of the Celts and the Druids - wisdom, talkativeness, desire to have fun, desire for feats and craziness…"

"Although the last three may have something in common with my real personality," the guy patted his neck, and then smiled at woman. She, however, didn't turn around to him, continuing to observe Ainz who was nearby.

"Oh, okay," finally he was forced to admit his defeat -at least to himself-, after which he turned around, - "I'll go see the Master."

However, as soon as he took a few steps away from the girl, he suddenly heard a quiet voice behind him.

"Two for one, this is an unfair battle," Arthuria spoke softly and Cu Chulainn was sure that at that moment she had not even changed her facial expression, "In any one-on-one battle I would not lose."

For a moment, Caster, having heard this, stopped, then grinned.

"Then we are somehow going to see if you are as good as you say," grunted the guy under his breath and whistling, then he headed away.

* * *

The explanations to Jeanne of the current situation in which she found herself, as well as the explanation to the Servants of their future plan, did not take long and literally ten minutes later Medusa moved after the main group of Servants. Of course, perhaps under normal conditions, the girl should not have moved far from the Master, whom she had to protect, or at least she would conduct reconnaissance, as one of the fastest Servants present — however, Archer coped well with the role of reconnaissance, tracking the perimeter around — especially now, after he was enlightened, in particular, to the names of his opponents - and her Master was clearly not so weak that the twenty meters distance between Medusa and Ainz meant something to him. Moreover, thanks to the movement through the use of "_Mass Fly_", the spell Ainz had cast, they moved too quickly for Medusa to be needed in the current conditions for anything.

Therefore, the Witch from the Formless Island only quietly watched the total mass of Servants moving forward. Well, watch in her own sense.

Although, perhaps, sometimes it was somewhat difficult to do without her own vision - it was not as scary as it might seem at first glance - she was still a Servant and her capabilities had excellent possibilities in terms of observing the people around her. Perhaps even someone could say that the girl had seen even more than other people. In a sense, it was so - however, most likely, it was connected not with the peculiarities of her perception, but with her attentive attitude towards the people around her.

The girl herself was not particularly concerned about the goals of her call, or her orders - at least for the time being. She was also not concerned about the battles awaiting her, her allies, or her opponents, and in general, she was very calm in her surroundings — she simply moved forward according to the instructions of her Master, implicitly noting the details surrounding her. Not in the volume of a fully-fledged collection of information, but rather at the level of a common understanding. Cu Chulainn is frivolous and loud. Arthuria - extremely collected. Serenity - devoted to the level of madness. Ainz...

Incomprehensible.

The girl continued to move forward — she didn't have a particular need to meet with Ainz or communicate with him — as there was no need to communicate with anyone at all. She just did what she was called for.

The more unexpected for her was the voice that rang in her head - "Medusa? Are you okay?"

At first, she was not even able to understand who exactly turned to her - however, referring to her connection, the girl found out with some surprise that she was in contact at the moment with none other than her Master.

"Fully," the girl replied calmly to Ainz. "Did I give cause for concern?"

"Mmm," the mage hesitated a bit, "Not really. It just seemed strange to me that you are so distanced from the other Servants. "

"Did I accidentally lag behind the group? "- the girl immediately rushed to check herself, but did not find what she was looking for, turned to Ainz -" It seems not, I still maintain the same distance as before. "

"This is not what I meant" - Ainz objected to the girl, after which, after a moment of silence, he collected his thoughts and said, "You do not communicate with any of the Servants and keep yourself apart. Is everything good?"

'Hah?' - the girl stopped for a second - 'Does he... worry about the fact that I have problems? That I can't fight?'

"Everything is goodl" - the girl hurried to object to him - "This will not affect my battles."

"Oh, hm, this is good" - Ainz hurried to convince the girl, after which, after a little more silence, he turned to her - "But this is not exactly what I meant. That is... can you communicate with the Servants? Have you had any conflicts? I hope no one bothered you?"

Medusa even stopped for a few seconds after such reflection, waiting for the thought to continue, before realizing what Ainza was worrying about.

'That is, he is talking …' - the girl tried to gather in her head a solid thought - 'If I'm ... Shy? Or had a fight with someone?'

Such a thought was stupid in its essence, but the girl could not interpret the word of Ainz in any other way.

"I ..." - the girl stopped, not knowing how exactly she should have answered - "I'm fine. I'm just not a very sociable person. "

Medusa felt even a little stupid, uttering such words, as if she were a schoolgirl who was asked by the teacher about why she does not communicate with her classmates.

"Yes?" - Ainz seemed to take an interest again - "Well, maybe ... just if you have problems, then..."

From these words, Medusa for a second stopped thinking. For some reason, a comparison came to her mind, as if a big adult was comforting her, a little girl, and said that if she suddenly had problems at school, he would definitely solve them. It was a stupid idea for Medusa, but at the same time - some kind of extremely sweet, because of that, instead of laughing at the thought, the girl felt a kind of an inner smile.

"Everything is fine, Master," the girl finally said in the end, "I am an adult woman and I can deal with similar problems if they arise. At the moment, I just don't really want to chat."

"O" - the Master was surprised at this thought, after which the girl literally could see how he awkwardly rubs the back of his head, as if an adult to whom the child, whom he used to see as a first-grader, suddenly said that he was finally promoted to join her friends list - "Hmm ... Yes, I beg your pardon. It's just ... I sometimes forget - you all look so young ... Hm, I apologize, again, I'm not talking about that! "

"It's okay, Master" - the girl finally sighed, and then felt the connection with the Master fade. Young, hmm ... Although, perhaps, for Ainz, even someone like her, the Witch, who had lived far more than a few hundred years, was young.

Frankly, Medusa still could not make up her mind about Ainz. Strong, scary, evil necromancer, not hesitating for even a second before killing someone. And at the same time, the dialogue that just took place with the girl was more like a father when trying to see his daughter join the company of new friends. Medusa simply could not understand who Ainz really was - a cruel and heartless necromancer, anxious about his Servants, or a troubled father who gained strength to match the magi of the Age Of Gods.

The girl shook her head several times, after which she remembered the list of brief characteristics made up by the people around her, after which she changed the definition which stood next to Ainz's name in her mind - now it says "absolutely incomprehensible".

* * *

"Your spell is really something!" - Jeanne already had time to rejoice for the umpteenth time. Under normal conditions, she was immune to magic — at least in her own words — but being called up now, when her protection against magic decreased simultaneously with her parameters, the girl received not only all the associated disadvantages, but also pluses — one of which was the ability to use the "_Mass Flight_", - "We will be able to arrive in Charite before sunset! It will be possible to spend the night in the "Three Goslings" - I once spent the night there! After Orleans is the best place in all of France!"

"Well, well," Ainz only nodded to the girl and then smiled at her in response.

"You are annoyed by this no less than me - aren't you?" - for a moment Mashu was startled when the voice of Serenity rang out over her ear, but she still managed to take control of herself.

"Serenity?" - Mashu looked over her shoulder at the Assassin, and then asked again, - "What are you talking about?"

"Jeanne," Serenity replied to this in a bit more of detail, "Her relationship with the Master. So familiar and close …"

"Hmm?" - Mashu didn't think about it at all until that moment, so she looked closer at Jeanne a little more attentively, but, not finding what Serenity had apparently expected she would find, she looked at the Servant in reply, - "I don't see anything special in her behavior around Master."

Serenity looked at Mashu perplexedly at these words, then blinked several times and, as if understanding something, she then closed her eyes and nodded several times affirmatively, "Ah, yes, it seems that only I can see the Master's actions through and through."

"Hmm?" - Mashu once again interestedly looked at Serenity, - "What are you talking about?"

"You have experienced it yourself, haven't you?" - A question to the question was the only answer from Serenity, - "When the Master speaks. When he moves. Even when he is just silent - in posture, in movements - there is something that makes you look at him - isn't it?"

Mashu just wanted to brush aside these words, but suddenly she could not. At the moment when she already wanted to refute the words of Serenity, something suddenly made her slow down a bit and recall the few moments when Mashu was left alone with Ainz.

The first meeting... The moment of transfer to the first Singularity, the Singularity F... Meeting in the training hall.

Masha remembered each of these meetings, after which she tried to remember what she felt during these meetings - and suddenly realized that in all these meetings, in some strange way, Ainz could - even if he spoke quite a little bit - charm her, touch something in the depths of her soul...

"Well, well," in the end, Mashu still tried to answer, "Senpai is really good at speaking and it is always nice to talk with him..."

With these words, Serenity, without changing her expression, looked at Mashu with such a suspicious look that she had to give in even more, "Well, he knows very well how to talk and is very pleasant to talk with... But even if it is, then what? Not that I was against senpai talking to people."

Serenity looked at Mashu again - but she did not correct anything that was said, forcing herself to look away.

"Exactly," she said to herself, "I'm the only person who sees the situation as it is."

"Mashu, you like Master," Serenity looked at Mashu after these words, when she saw how her cheeks were beginning to fill with a blush and her colleague opened her mouth in shock, decided to soften the blow a little bit, "Like a Master. Of course, as a person, like a senpai, a Master and a man you can talk with."

"Huh..." the girl suddenly stopped halfway to denial and embarrassment and, after thinking a little, nodded uncertainly, "Of course, yes. As a friend and senpai…"

"Yes, yes," Serenity hurried to reassure her, and then she turned her gaze to Ainz and Jeanne, who continued to tweet something in his ear, "In any case, you would not hate it if the Master stopped paying attention to you?"

"Huh?" - Mashu saw that somewhere in this matter there was a clear trick, but she nodded slowly, - "Yes."

"In this case, you understand that if the Master starts paying attention to other girls, like this Jeanne, then he will spend less time on you - and me?" - Serenity glanced at Mashu and, before she could argue with her, put out the whole idea, - "It will be worse for everyone if the Master starts paying attention to other girls - especially considering what monstrous power he has in any conversation…"

"Hm?" - the girl looked at Serenity in response, after which she looked at Ainz...

"No," - in the end, Mashu nevertheless decided to refuse Serenity's offer - "Senpai is just talking with Jeanne - and he has every right to talk with her... As a friend, yes."

"Hm," Serenity just glanced back at Mashu, then sighed, "Well, Mashu, but know that once you realize everything yourself — and when you will understand what I was offering now — and what you missed, the chance will be irretrievably lost."

In response to these words, Mashu only looked suspiciously at Serenity, but she had already moved away from the girl, leaving her alone with her shield in her hands. Having taken another glimpse at Ainz, the girl felt how her cheeks were reddening.

No, she, of course, liked senpai - but only in a friendly sense! As a senpai and a Master, he, too, was beyond all praise... And he also saved her in the past ...

The girl tightened her grip on her shield, then she felt the blush slowly rising up her cheeks.

She liked him, but not in the romantic way! Of course not!

A blush treacherously grabbed his cheeks and climbed over the ears.

In general, this situation was quite difficult...

* * *

"I already see the towers spiers!" - Jeanne smiled happily at the moment when she could see the far peaks of Charité on the horizon, but unlike Jeanne, as he approached the castle, Ainz only became more and more gloomy. As if to confirm Ainz's thoughts and feelings of gloom that were rising with each meter passed, Archer said "There are no soldiers on the walls and no flags are hanging."

As they approached, each of those present could see more and more clearly that the walls were damaged - burnt and torn to pieces. In many places, there were holes and bodies thrown here and there.

"What?" - but Jeanne, only seeing the signs of the battle, turned to the Servants accompanying her, - "Siege? British?!"

"No," Ainz himself shook his head at that, then pointed to a huge carcass that was sprinkled with foliage, which was lying next to the gate. Jeanne, having looked narrowly herself, gasped.

In the moat, torn and already partially rotted, lay a wyvern — somewhat bigger than the one killed by Ainz at the fort a little earlier this afternoon.

"The Dragon Witch," Archer stated, after which he glanced at Jeanne.

It was sad to see Jeanne - shock and disbelief simultaneously mixed on her face at the moment when she saw the city, destroyed by the attack of the forces of another, revived Jeanne.

"But... Really..." Jeanne glanced at her body in horror, "Did I really do it all..."

Of course, the Grail put the information that her revived Alter-Ego was rampant in the territory of France - but knowing was one thing, and seeing with her own eyes was completely different.

"The city!" - after this realization, unexpectedly, something inside Jeanne made her twitch, - "There must be survivors in the city!"

"Hold on!" -Ainz barely managed to shout - however, Jeanne, not listening to him at all, rushed forward - to behind the broken gate, where Ainz had sensed earlier what was waiting for her.

Charite was not the largest city, but when the forces of the Dragon Witch attacked the city - half of the French army died defending it.

Seventy thousand undead turned their attention to Jeanne.

* * *

**Charisma** \- is one of the very common personal skills that are primarily responsible for the ability to lead people. High Charisma does not mean the ability to command, rule or fight, but is solely responsible for the strength and attractiveness of the personality of the Servant, as well as defining the Servant as a person. Charisma does not have to signify the attractiveness of only a positive character - on the contrary, the most powerful and dangerous dictators often possessed outstanding personal charisma - it only means "the ability or skill of the Servant to present himself as a leader, that should be followed by people."

* * *

**Ok, and here I am yet again!**

**To the wandering one's - donjon is the name of "keep", the central and most fortified tower in the medieval fort\castle. I thought everyone knows that.**

**I have 3 (4) new chapters, but they are as disorganised and as broken-english quality, as was all chapters before I found a beta, so it would be really great, if someone could help me with editing - since this way nor me, nor you need to wait for - quite literally - weeks, before I could give it to you.**

**If no - well, either I can use bad english as before - or you can wait for... Maybe - two weeks? - before my beta would make it all work.**

**Also - there is a new chapter on Pat reon \rure - now beta-ed. And hey, it's almost 50$ monthly - maybe there is a reason in all of my doings?**


	18. Chapter 18

Not that there were no strong zombies in Yggdrasil - especially if you count as "zombie" not only mobs, which had some variants of the "zombie" race like "zombie swordsman" or "zombie archer", but also representatives of more powerful races that are "evolutions", such as "dullahans" or "unborn" - and even more so players - however, usually zombies were minor opponents, being below the twentieth level. For someone like a Servant, they were hardly a threat.

But seventy thousand is seventy thousand.

Each player, NPC or mob in Yggdrasil received their own list of many different abilities, and when a player they got to the one hundredth level, abilities like "_High Tier Physical Immunity_" were practically obligatory - so it doesn't matter how many hundreds or thousands of low-level enemies - if anyone could meet such a large army in the open spaces of the game - would attack him, he could, if he wanted to, continue to walk in such an environment, with opponents unsuccessfully attacking him until he gets bored of it - so, because of that, for Ainz, there was no danger of meeting even seventy thousand opponents — even if they attacked him together. However, for the Servants, the situation was completely different. Although Endurance - or HP - of Servants could be close to or even exceed that of a high-level player, abilities that completely blocked damage below a certain level were extremely rare and could claim the place of a high-ranking Noble Phantasm, which only a few, the most famous heroes, possessed, such as Achilles or Siegfried. Also, due to not possessing the "Physical Defence" parameter except from the wearable equipment, the overwhelming majority of Servants still suffered damage even from low-level opponents - if they, of course, had a little bit of magic inside them.

Jeanne could notice ten zombies, could defeat a hundred and, if she was called in her full strength, may be able destroy even a thousand. But not seventy times more.

"Bad" - Ainz concluded, when the eyes of hundreds and thousands of the undead rushed at Jeanne, it was necessary only to appear on the doorstep of the destroyed city. Credit where credit is due, the girl was not taken aback - she held her flag-weapon like a spear, and rushed forward, not paying attention to the fact that her opponents were the living dead. While she was once a simple peasant girl — in her life, she saw the blood, the battles, and the enemy — and that is why she could not lose herself at the sight of the dead who had risen from the graves, attacking her. However, in the current situation, simple decisiveness was not enough - the dead rushed forward at Jeanne like a stream, and Ainz himself could feel with his abilities that the entire city, which was literally full of living dead people, was now heading towards Jeanne - and the other Servants.

"If we were in the game, I would have scolded the girl for the fact that she aggro'd so many opponents at once." - Ainz shook his head - "But, unfortunately, this is not a game - and therefore scolding the girl will need to wait. I don't think she will accept my lamentations if she dies under a crowd of zombies. "

Zombies rushed at Jeanne - but she also, without stopping, rushed into the thick of the dead - wielding a banner like a spear, the girl quickly began to reduce the number of attackers - but Ainz understood that such success was a temporary phenomenon.

"Master?" - Arthuria's voice in his head made Ainz wince - "Should we help her?"

On the one hand, for Ainz himself it was not a problem to destroy seventy thousand opponents relying solely on his "High Tier Physical Immunity" - or some spells. The fact that they had just fallen into a similar situation and battle, and that they could have easily prevented the situation if Jeanne only listened to him, when he sensed zombies in the city. This made the magi sigh and go silent for a couple of seconds.

"Master?" - after waiting a few seconds, Arthuria again turned to Ainz for her connection.

Ainz sighed again, then nodded to himself - "Okay."

In any case, the battle with an army of many thousands of the dead is not so difficult, and Jeanne is irreplaceable at the moment, because of that, there was no real choice about whether Ainz should help the girl or not, so he contacted all Servants at the same time - "Help Jeanne, but do not be overzealous in this. As soon as you feel that you start to get tired or the pressure on you becomes excessive, retreat."

Waiting for the agreement of all his Servants, Ainz watched as they instantly rushed to the girl and sighed.

"The best way to destroy the undead is fire," Ainz said "Although, if they are so weak, then is there a difference what should be used against them?"

Thinking about this, Ainz shook his head - "No, it is possible that among the zombies there could be someone stronger ..."

Ainz sighed again, then stretched out his hand - "Well, then... _Napalm_"

* * *

A huge column of fire instantly swelled up at the spot indicated by the magi, devouring the dead like a hungry beast. The yellow-orange flame appeared as if from nowhere, and then ascended upward as if suddenly a volcano opened up under the feet of the advancing zombies, turning their bodies into red-hot steam. The huge fiery geyser instantly reached several tens of meters in height and expanded in width so that it could absorb the entire fortress central tower and instantly turn it into a hot gas with many thousands of degrees of heat. But even so, given that the brainless zombies were piling on a heap, pushing and trampling on each other, with just one spell Ainz destroyed several hundred zombies at once, like a punitive blow of God that struck the crowd.

The air was filled with the smell of burning meat and even brainless zombies howled, feeling the flesh of those who were unlucky to not die from the spell immediately, stick to the bones.

"Kha-kha!" Cu Chulainn loudly coughed, covering his mouth, - "Kha!"

The incinerated particles of the dead rose into the air like a translucent cloud. If the spell continued, it would surely disperse this fog, but instead the firestorm disappeared just as instantly as it appeared, leaving behind only a stone dripping like a hot wax and a huge bald patch in the army of the dead.

"Not overzealous, ha!" smiled Cu Chulainn, drawing a rune in the air with his finger, - "And the Master himself, apparently, is not going to follow his advice!"

Arthuria ignored what he had said, drawing her blade - however, she wasn't the only one moving toward the crowd of zombies at the moment, Hassan, who was advancing next to her, answered the man instead, - "We cannot know for sure. Perhaps for him such a spell is included in the notion of "not overzealous.""

"It would be cool," Cu Chulainn grinned at this, "But it is unlikely. Was it ... Tier B? No, even higher."

"I don't have enough data to answer you or object," Hassan just shook his head at that, forcing Cu Chulainn to look back.

"You speak like a robot," Cu Chulainn lazily remarked while casting a new spell at the enemy.

Arthuria shook her head slightly, after which she the two Servants talking with each other, without hearing an answer, and then she plunged her sword into a zombie, without stopping to warn Jeanne, who was standing in front of her.

"What?" - Jeanne was distracted by Arthuria's blade striking from behind her, which made the king of knights shake her head disapprovingly, because the Holy One got distracted from her opponent - "Arthuria?"

"Don't be distracted," the swordswoman remarked briefly, before she beheaded two of dead with one blow. Fortunately, Jeanne did not reject the help, nor did she commit other stupid acts and proceeded to destroy the dead after nodding to Arthuria.

"And your Master..." the girl turned to Arthuria, as soon as she cleared a bit of space around her.

Instantly, another huge column of fire sprang up in the center of the approaching zombies, engulfing a hundred of the attacking opponents.

"He doesn't sit behind our backs," Arthuria said, looking at the falling column, and then she rushed to the next enemy.

* * *

The dead resisted desperately, rolling wave after wave - after some time Archer stopped aiming at their heads, while both Assassins moved from lonely isolated opponents to careless attacks on enemies. Caster felt for the first time in a long time how his mana had an end, Arthuria stopped using her Manaburst and even Medusa was breathing heavily. Although two Servants suffered the most. Mashu was covered with a shallow scratch almost from head to toe, because of which blood flowed along her body in paths, mixing with sweat, while Jeanne managed to stay on her feet solely because she had her weapon to lean on. The only one who continued to stand on his feet as if nothing had happened was Ainz. Even more - while all the Servants had exhausted themselves, Ainz looked as if he had just finished doing an easy and enjoyable job. Looking at him, Mashu could not understand - how did he do it? She herself didn't understand magic, but judging by what Cu Chulainn said— and she could believe what he said — senpai had just used powerful magic comparable to that of the Age of the Gods — not one and not ten times - and any mage would have broken after that, even a Servant would be depleted, trying to catch his breath - like what Caster was doing now, despite the fact that he used spells far less impressive than senpai - while Ainz was discussing something with Jeanne.

"Of course, the title of the Divine Spirit is not just for show," she shook her head, but nearly fell at a time when she jerked too hard, barely having time to grab her shield.

Senpai continued to talk with Jeanne, but Mashu saw how with each word the Holy One became more and more sad and her shoulders went down - although it was difficult to say exactly why this was happening - because of regret or exhaustion.

Of course, observing this did not make Mashu happy - she simply could not like the look of how someone who had repented of her wrongdoing received this punishment. Especially unpleasant memories of reprimands from the chief, who loved to thrash everyone for each fictional sin committed by an employee, made Mashu wince. However, memories of the short conversation with Serenity a little earlier forced the girl to look at the situation a little differently.

"If senpai would stop talking with Jeanne..." - the girl thought, but immediately catching herself at this unworthy thought, she stopped her train of thought - "No, no, what I think! Talking with Serenity is definitely bad for me!"

After negotiating with the girl about something and leaving her obviously upset and barely crying, Ainz returned, after greeting the Servant with a completely inappropriate phrase, "Good news, everyone. All the attackers were destroyed, and the remaining zombies are too far to pay attention to us now."

"Remaining?" - Cu Chulainn raised his head, - "What do you mean?"

"He is right," - Archer, also reluctantly looked up from the wall said, - "Within a few kilometers there are still many zombies."

"Forty thousand, to be more precise," senpai said it so calmly, as if it were a trivial problem, but Mashu felt how her heart fell all the way into her heels. Forty thousand?!

"You gotta be kidding me!" - Cu Chulainn muttered, seemingly to himself, but loud enough so that everyone around him could hear and, with some regret, Mashu was forced to agree with what was said.

Forty thousand?! How many were there in this city at all?!

"We destroyed about thirty thousand," as if reading her thoughts, senpai spoke out loud, "Of course, theoretically we could try to destroy the remnants, but it would take the last remnants of energy from all those present. You would also have to use Noble Phantasms.

"Noble Phantasm on a bunch of undead?" - Cu Chulainn was, as usual, the loudest in the objection to what was said, however, Mashu herself could swear that all those present adhered to such thoughts.

"The poison does not affect the dead. Problematic," shielder heard from Serenity, who was standing nearby, and then turned her eyes to Ainz, expecting to hear from her senpai another answer to this problem. Such an answer was what followed.

"I can use a spell that hides you from the sight of the zombies," Ainz said this calmly, after which he turned his gaze to all those present and finally stopped it at Jeanne, who eventually approached the Servants, still keeping her head down - "However, this spell will subside if you attack. So you have to refrain from doing so - and put up with the being near zombies."

Despite the fact that Mashu, like the rest of the Servants, instantly nodded to Ainz as a sign of their consent - he especially focused his attention on the girl who was standing next to him - on Jeanne - to which she, slightly wrinkled and finally cringing, quietly murmured, "Yes, I understand."

After waiting a little more until the Holy One said so while not averting her gaze, Ainz sighed and nodded, "Good. At least you understood me."

After stretching his hand forward after these words, Ainz muttered something under his breath and Mashu felt the wave of magic touching her. In contrast to Ainz's usual magic or his presence, this spell did not give up the usual smell of death or power, but for a moment Mashu felt as if all feelings had been torn out of her and her mind was covered in ice. For a second, the world seemed completely insensitive and senseless to the girl - but after a moment, this feeling disappeared, leaving the girl only a pulling feeling of the absence of something important and significant.

"This spell can hold on as long as I support it, until it is dispelled or until you provoke the undead," Ainz looked perfectly calm, "But I still do not advise you to move too far away from me."

Everyone present nodded again, and after examining the Servant, Ainz nodded to himself, "Good. There is still a lot of undead ahead, but in your current condition it is imperative to find a place to rest and possibly stay night in. Stay behind me."

* * *

When the undead appeared in front of the girl's eyes once again, Jeanne squeezed her tired hands and caught the standard more comfortably, but after a second, remembering Ainz moving beside her, relaxed her grip a little, continuing to examine the undead with a close look.

As Ainz said earlier - even when Jeanne approached the zombies and they were able to see - or otherwise feel - her, none of them paid attention to her actions or movements. However, even so, looking at how calmly her new ally approaches the crowds of the living dead, the girl felt uneasy. Looking at the moving magi, she could not understand exactly how she should have responded to his actions and what exactly she should have done herself. Nonetheless, she still uncertainly moved after him.

As she approached the corpses, her body became more and more constrained — all her instincts as a warrior — even if they were insignificant — literally shouted to her that she had to grab her weapon and attack moving opponents before they did the same to her - but she continued to restrain herself and slowly walk towards the walking column of the dead.

Ainz, who was leading the way, eventually, having entered the general stream, just started to go forward, completely ignoring how mangled corpses of soldiers and ordinary citizens continued to walk around him, as if he were moving in an ordinary urban crowd. Jeanne felt uncomfortable with such a reaction, but she nevertheless followed after Ainz, trying to keep as far away as possible from the creatures walking next to her. Ainz, however, was not at all disturbed by such a picture, as if for him the sight of hundreds of dead people, slowly and purposelessly wandering around the city, was familiar, like the sight of a busy urban crowd.

Ainz deftly tacked on from one to the other, avoiding a collision — however, this could not continue indefinitely and, bypassing another group of zombies, the mage unexpectedly crashed into a dead man. Jeanne prepared her weapon, expecting the worse- however, instead of any reaction, Ainz only stopped for a second, after which he picked up the zombie and, as if it were a mannequin, threw him away from himself, creating a little distance between them, to which the zombie did not react at all. After that he just moved away, continuing to hover on the pavement.

Observing this, Jeanne finally realized that she should not be so fearful and was able to move a little more freely after the mage. However, that didn't help her ignore the very feeling of the dead around her. All she had to do was to stumble upon a particularly ugly dead man who lacked a part of the head to have a bad day. but now, having calmed down a little, she was able to start watching her steps, but also the creatures around her.

Although the zombies could not hear and did not react at all to the sounds - none of the Servants had any conversations, continuing to make their way through the crowds of the dead. Although it was possible that movement using flight would be a faster way to travel, for some reason Ainz did not use this ability, which is why all the forward Servants periodically lost sight of each other, remaining one on one with a crowd of brainless creatures.

Jeanne continued to march forward, feeling, even without the touch of the dead, a cold grip tightened on her heart. Her gaze slid over the bodies of hundreds of dead and disfigured soldiers of France, who still wore pierced armor and carried fragments of swords in their hands — and completely ordinary people, men, women, dressed in shirts or dresses. Some of them looked like living - if it were not for glazed black eyes and white-gray skin with translucent blue veins - a particular zombie was so disfigured that it was impossible to even imagine why the it's body still continued to move.

A man caught the Jeanne's eye - he had a part of his head that was torn apart by the claws of another wyvern, and his left hand continued to hang limply on the not completely torn tendon.

"This is after all..." - Jeanne wanted to look away from the zombies, but could not do it, - "This is because... Of me? That me, the revived Jeanne..."

The zombie, who was clearly not disturbed by his condition, slowly continued to move forward - however, behind her, the girl saw another one. A boy who was barely at the age to become a squire - he had clearly only entered the second decade of his life, he was not even thirteen years old. However, Jeanne was able to see that his armor was still torn to pieces on his chest, which he put on himself before his death. Most likely, when there was a raid on the city, he was one of those who tried to slip on the battlefield - but the miracle did not happen. The huge, not bleeding hole in his chest seemed to be a sad reminder of the fate of everyone who would have decided to resist the will of the Dragon Witch.

"Please..." - Jeanne shut her eyes - "Stop it."

Walking among the mob of the dead was for Jeanne like a humiliating walk through the city with an unmerciful inquisitor. It was as if someone decided to hold her through the crowd of the dead, continuing to pronounce in her head "See? See? And only you are to blame! "

Jeanne did not think that Ainz specifically led her through this city in order to show her everything that "she" had done - the other "she" - but continuing to move through the crowds of undead Jeanne could not get rid of the thought that this movement through the ranks the death toll was her punishment — a punishment for the evil that lay within her, which could wake up and bring death to the lands that she had once vowed to protect.

"Who can be so evil as to do this to people?" - Jeanne squeezed her eyes, stumbled upon another soulless body of a dead child, wandering forward - "Who can be so heartless and merciless?"

The girl knew about war. She fought. She killed.

Not all those whom she killed during her life were unworthy - her hands ended the life of not only one or two glorious soldiers, who were guilty only of the fact that they fought on the other side. Her flag inspired the nobility in the sons of France - but the inspired soldiers carried with them only the continuation of the war - death, pain and destruction.

But this?

Not a single child, not a single surrendered soldier, not a single civilian was injured by her hand nor by the hand of her soldiers.

"But..." - the girl's mind responded with pain at this thought, but before she could find the cause of this pain, she decided it was better to stop that train of thoughts…

Or is she wrong?

Saint of Orlean. Holy Virgin of France. Big titles for one little girl that heard the voice of God and picked up the flag of France to inspire people to win.

While she was fighting on the front lines, behind her back, aristocrats and greedy generals used her appearance as a symbol, covering all their unworthy deeds with her name. Mad men did unthinkable things with her name on their lips, and the british soldiers prayed to avoid fighting her.

Was she guilty of that?

When on the last day she was carried to execution — she saw no reason for her death other than the British conspiracy — and prayed only that the Lord would accept her soul. But only now, looking at her past, looking into the eyes of the slowly wandering soldiers that she had killed - she wondered. Could she really be guilty of what she was burned at the stake for? So much death and so much chaos she brought...

At one time she fought for the good of France - without retreating or giving in, for the sake of the Lord and for the sake of all people. She saw only her own noble victories and a march on the occupied lands of her homeland - and never saw what was happening in the "liberated" lands that the dominion of the English crown had long recognized. But now, walking through the ruined city, looking at chaos, destruction, death - she wondered. What if she and this Jeanne were not so different?

Did the resurrected Jeanne hear the same voice of God as she herself had once? Did she only see her victorious march through the lands of the enemy? Did she consider herself a symbol of a noble war?

Thoughts about this made Jeanne lower her head, continuing to slowly walk forward. If it were not for her bright appearance, then she could have easily been confused for another zombie who was aimlessly moving forward. Her face expressed nothing, and light in her eyes that was once warm seemed to slowly fade away — and if it hadn't been for someone's hand that grabbed her suddenly by the shoulder and unceremoniously pulled her — she would probably continue to slowly walk in this crowd.

"What?" - turned the girl to look at who decided to pull her out of the stream of zombies - and found there the disgruntled face of a young guy in a red cloak, that continued to squeeze her clothes, - "Archer?"

"Look where you're going," he grunted, displeased, then turned and walked away.

Jeanne blinked several times, looking at the back of the retreating guy, before realizing that she was lost and had no idea where they needed to go now.

"Hold on!" - she rushed after the guy, but he, instead of stopping, continued to move forward. To his credit, it is worth saying that he slowed down a little, so that Jeanne was able to catch up with him after a while - "Thank you."

"No reason for that," he replied indifferently, without turning, and then proceeded to go forward, accelerating slightly, in order to get rid of Jeanne.

Jeanne, not wanting to be left alone with her thoughts, however, also accelerated when she reached the guy - however, she couldn't think of anything to start a dialogue, which is why the silence spreads between the two. The fact that during this silence Jeanne continued to look at Archer while keeping up with his pace only added to the embarrassment of this silence.

Jeanne was desperately looking for an opportunity to start a conversation with someone, so noticing the fact that they had been moving along an almost empty street for some time, the girl tried to start a dialogue - "There are fewer zombies around."

"Yeah," Archer muttered, not intending to keep up the dialogue.

"Do you know where we are going now?" - she tried again.

"No clue," Archer replied shortly again, but noting that Jeanne, after these words, immediately began to look for a new opportunity to continue the dialogue, he nevertheless had to explain himself in more detail, "The master said that he discovered something strange in that direction we are going there now. Then we will stay for the night."

"Uh-huh," the girl nodded and blinked several times, then looked around, trying to find any other topic of conversation. Archer, noticing this, exhaled irritably.

"Just accept it," he finally said, forcing Jeanne to look at him uncomprehendingly.

"What are you talking about?" - the girl looked at Archer uncomprehendingly, but he just waved away with irritation.

"About this," Archer waved aside, where a crowd of zombies had recently been, "Everything is written on your face."

"Huh?" - the girl suddenly felt uncomfortable with the fact that her personal experience was suddenly on the surface.

"Just accept it," Archer repeated as a result, and only then he finally deigned to look at Jeanne, "Shit happens. Take it and live on."

"What?" - the girl didn't know what she should do - to deny what was said, to take advice or try to calm her sense of shame that had flared up after someone so sharply and unceremoniously invaded her feelings. In the end, having come to the conclusion that she wanted none of this at the moment, the girl continued the conversation, - "But how?! How?! How can someone do such horrible things ?! How can someone kill their own people ?! How can this someone be…"

"How can this someone be me?" Archer finished the thought of the girl, after which, looking at how Jeanne finally was hurt by his comment, Archer sighed, - "Here is the wisdom of life. Shit happens and do not bother with it."

However, Jeanne, who was waiting for a supporting comment from her friend, just looked at him blankly - and offended.

"What did you want to hear from me?" - Archer just looked at her uncomprehendingly at this girl, - "Each person has his own dark side, something that we don't want to see even in ourselves. But sometimes this dark side comes to light. Sometimes it wins. And sometimes it does different shit that might make us feel sorry. But it does. And nothing can be done about it."

Jeanne blinked a few more times, trying to make sense of what Archer said to her - however no matter how she tried, she didn't see in his words wisdom or support, but only a tired truth.

"But why?" - could not realize the girl said.

"Because this is life — and life is not a fairy tale," Archer shrugged again and glanced attentively at Jeanne — although this time his gaze was not mocking, not tired or angry — but sad, as if he were an adult that was looking at a child who had just encountered his first real problem, and worried, realizing how much pain the child still had to come to know, - "Believe me. I know how it feels, to meet the worst in yourself. This story does not have the most pleasant ending."

After saying this, Archer moved forward, leaving Ruler alone.

And although Jeanne wanted to hear words of encouragement or some kind of wisdom - in the end, she was left alone - feeling more helpless and weaker than ever.

* * *

Ainz, having reached on the main square, stopped, finding with his eyes what he felt long ago.

"As I thought..." - Ainz shook his head - "This is a cluster of zombies"

What he found was not a particularly rare sight - especially in this city. It was a cluster of zombies crowded around several pillars in the form of huge groups. This was the main reason why the zombies around the square almost completely disappeared - they gathered in this place in several large groups, around several tall pillars. However, the interesting thing was not that the zombies gathered in several large groups, but what made them do that.

At the top of each of the poles were cages. Ordinary, although large, iron cages were attached on huge chains to their posts, because of which they continued to dangle at a height of five to seven meters above the crowd of zombies, who were stretching their arms towards them - but most important was what was in these cages.

"Living" - Ainz nodded to himself. There were people in the cages. Exhausted, hungry, they were so beaten that they were more like undead themselves than people - but they were definitely alive. And it was the crowd of undead who had gathered under them that was a confirmation of this fact.

"The people in the cages are still alive!" - Ainz heard the voice of Mashu, who appeared behind him, "We have to help them!"

Ainz did not disagree, he also believed that they should collect the information that these people probably had, therefore, putting his hand forward - he uttered a spell that instantly made the groups of zombies gathered under the cages stop trying to grab the cage to get to the living, and begin to slowly disperse.

Mashu rushed forward to get the people out of the cages, but Ainz himself was more interested in something else.

"Master," Hassan's whisper rang out above Ainz's ear, forcing him to look at the Assassin in his black robe, "The cages are full of dead men."

It really was so - the cages in which there were now only a few living people were really full of corpses - exhausted and drained people who died a little earlier.

In other words…

Those people that Mashu rushed to get out of the cages were not the first people to fall into these cages. And if they were not the first, it meant that they were not the last. So someone continued to throw people into these cages. So someone continued to visit this place.

"Take Serenity and walk through the city in stealth," Ainz whispered quietly to Hassan in response, "Judging by the fact that these people should have died soon, a new appearance of the owner of the cells should happen soon."

Hassan just nodded at that, after which he instantly disappeared into his invisible form.

Ainz, looking at how Mashu carefully began to get the first person out of the cage, just shook his head. This city reminded him too much of Yggdrasil - especially of some of its locations related to the undead, so that all just could not end well.

"Master," he heard Archer's words, as if to confirm his thoughts, "Wyverns are approaching us."

"Wyverns?" - on this Ainz sighed. The killed wyvern in the camp never left a data crystal behind it, and the heap of undead turned into only a handful of fragments - "Archer, I am not interested in them, just snipe them"

"Master," instead of nodding intelligently, Archer just glanced at Ainz carefully, "But there are many of them."

"How many?" - Ainz suddenly felt his stomach ache from a bad feeling.

To this, Archer, having fully confirmed Ainz's fears, sighed, "More than a thousand."

* * *

**Charisma**: _A ++ (C)_

Despite the fact that this rank is suitable for those who are leaders, Ainz himself is a notable exception to this rule.

At this rank, there is practically no person or group of people with whom Ainz will not be able to find a common language or in which he will not be able to seize power. Whether it is companionship, army command, government, or any other form of control, Ainz's influence is more like a permanent mental ability that slowly suppresses any mind to a certain level, where even an enemy who swore eternal vengeance once recognized him as his true king.

In other words - starting his way as a king - even commanding the whole world once will be possible at this level of charisma. Deification and the emergence of religion is also absolutely mandatory - anyone who looks at the true face of Ainz would consider him a god. However, even those who have personally seen the gods - and even the gods themselves - may consider him something more important in this case.

A Supreme Being.

A unique circumstance in this case, however, is the fact that Ainz is not a commander, nor a leader. He is not aware of this ability, nor does he seek to exercise his skills and, in the end, he has too low an opinion about his abilities in order to fully use this skill, suppressing it for, in fact, as many as three ranks, which is why when he tries to command an army or state, his rank will be equal only to rank C - which makes him an excellent commander and friend, but not sufficient to become really outstanding and adored hero. However, paradoxically, it requires him to be distracted and give way to his personality as a Servant in order for his rank to increase to the level that can cause religious ecstasy.

This skill is especially dangerous during prolonged contact with Ainz, since with prolonged contact Ainz will gradually weaken control over his personality - turning his beautiful, kind and faithful, but simple character into the divine Ainz Ooal Gown, the Greatest Of Forty One Supreme Beings.

* * *

**Yup, still me. Do you remember me still? Hope so.**

**In any case - here is the new chapter and all that, beta is working hard currently and so the amount of un-beta-ed chapters was reduced to 3, so in a time this will eventually end alltogether.**

**Well, nonetheless the good thing is that it seems, like beta can keep up with the whole betaing thing right now, so for now it seems like I can again write\translate a new chapters pretty stable.**

**But wait, it's not all the good news! My pat reon is now allows the 2 new chapters for a single dollar. 2 Chapters means 2 weeks of awaiting the thing you are reading right now. There can be no 2 weeks of waiting though - and I will have at least a little bit of money to show myself, that I'm not a truly talentless internet fool writing something in my spare time.**

**Okay, so pat reon \rure - 2 new chapters right now.**


	19. Chapter 19

As practice has shown - destroying thirty thousand zombies was possible for the Servants. Each Servant could destroy several thousand of the dead without the use of a Phantasm. However, the wyverns were still opponents of a higher class.

For Ainz, the wyvern will always remain an ordinary mob of the early levels - however, in the new world where he was now, the wyverns still remained one of the subspecies of dragons. Weak and unreasonable, but a real dragon. Any Servant could easily defeat one or two, but against ten, many Servants would be in a somewhat tough spot. If there were more than a hundred for each Servant, then even in their full-fledged strength few of them could destroy them all. Perhaps if Arthuria had successfully used her Excalibur, Medusa had used her main Phantasm and Cu Chulainn had used his second one, then any one of them could destroy a hundred wyverns. But none of them could destroy a whole thousand.

Apart from Ainz, of course, since he could not pay attention to all the attacks, and just dispose of them with his bare hands - but Ainz, even if he had the opportunity to destroy a thousand winged lizards, was clearly not happy.

"What a hassle ..." - the mage shook his head - "I need spells allowing me to cover an area of several kilometers... They are too high a rank for me to use it in the current body."

"Are you kidding me?" - Cu Chulainn swore while leaning on his staff. Ainz could have tried to restore his Servants' energy if he had opened access to his mana reserves, but even so it would not be enough to give them enough power to destroy a thousand wyverns, "We just got rid of all their problems - and here we are again!"

Ainz frowned - the situation did not look unequivocally bad, because none of the Servants were in immediate danger of death - but it still clearly did not look good. The previous long battle exhausted the Servants and the new battle clearly would not do them good.

In this case, Ainz had only one decision to make.

"We are retreating" he concluded, and, with a clear conscience, set off.

"Huh?" - having heard him, Jeanne turned to Ainz, - "What?"

"I said we will retreat," the lich shrugged calmly, "A battle with a thousand wyverns, no matter how weak they are, is not a necessity in the current conditions. So - we will retreat."

Jeanne blinked several times, as if not fully understanding what was said, as if the simple thought that someone could retreat from the battle was incredible to her.

"But..." the girl obviously wanted to argue with what was said, but she could not. What did she have to say? She did not like to fight. She did not want to fight. She had nothing to protect in this city that had already been destroyed by a horde of zombies. What could she say to a necromancer? That she could not retreat because she thought it was wrong? That she did think she should fight a horde of dragons?

"So, we are running away with our tails between our legs," - Cu Chulainn sighed, leaning on his staff, - "I can not say that I did not expect this or that I am glad about it, but there is no choice. A second battle is not something we can do right now."

"A retreat is as valid a military tactic as an attack," Arthuria shook her head at Cu Chulainn's words, "I don't see anything shameful about this."

"What a strange statement for the King of Knights," sighed Cu Chulainn, and then turned away, "Oh well. We saved a couple of people, checked the city, saw the cruelty of the resurrected Jeanne, and fought a little. I think this is a good result."

With this conclusion it was really difficult to argue, because of that, Jeanne took a step back, after which she looked down, - "Yes ... Apparently, yes."

"In that case, it's best to retreat now," Ainz nodded to himself and addressed the Assassins.

Jeanne, having observed Ainz, turned away from the mage and peered into the distant darkening sky as the night slowly approached, watching the points of the soaring lizards slowly growing larger in the distance.

She understood that it was right — she should not fight now. She did not want to fight at all - but to run without a battle, leaving behind her enemy seemed petty and shameful to her. As if she really took Archer's advice and allowed something bad in her life to happen. As if she simply resigned herself to the evil that had happened. It seemed like she had given up.

Turning her gaze to Archer, who was continuing to discuss something with Cu Chulainn standing next to him, Jeanne closed her eyes and turned away, glancing at the approaching hord of wyverns.

She refuses to recognize the enemy's victory. She will fight. She will fight - and she will win.

"_Teleportation_" Ainz's voice rang out and the girl instantly disappeared from the city.

* * *

It was not that Medusa was worried about the survival of the person who was thrown on the bed, but she was one of only two people who understood the magic of healing and therefore she had to watch over the exhausted body as it fluttered.

"Do you think he will survive?" - Cu Chulainn asked her, looking at how the exhausted man continued to twitch uneasily. Medusa possessed certain knowledge in terms of treatment - but not being called upon as Caster, her capabilities were significantly reduced in this regard, while the real Caster, Cu Chulainn, did not particularly understand healing, which is why the man they saved was in such a state at the moment. The Master, Ainz himself, stated that he was unable to help him, but Medusa suspected that he did not tell the whole truth. But why?

"Incomprehensible," she recalled the description she had given Ainz not so long ago and nodded to herself to confirm her thoughts, after which, recalling the question that Cu Chulainn had asked her, she answered, "I don't know."

"I hope so, or then the whole visit to Charité will be useless," Cu Chulainn sighed. The servants and Ainz managed to pull out three people from a square full of zombies, but two could not be rescued without the intervention of high-level treatment magic, which neither Cu Chulainn, Medusa, Jeanne, nor Ainz owned - or at least the latter said that he did not - they were doomed from the start. One was actually dead when Mashu managed to pull him out of his cage - and the second followed not long after. It seems that he was infected - but Medusa was not sure about that. If the object did not contain magic, then Medusa could not "see" it, and must rely on her other senses like touching it to feel it. This meant that she could not examine the man in front of her for mundane infections.

And If she removed the bandage...

'Anyone I would look at would be turned to stone' - the girl threw this thought away as quickly as it appeared in her head. She had never been bothered by the thought of her blindness for more than one hundred years - why did she think about it now?

The girl shook her head.

'Although, I confess, I wonder what my colleagues might look like...,' she nodded, then turned her eyes to Cu Chulainn. He looked at the girl and thought for a second.

"You know," he said eventually, "I never thought that you would be a master of healing. In the end, you are not a Caster and I do not remember the legendary Medusa ever doing this."

Cu Chulainn was not wrong - it was a little strange for Medusa to master healing, she was not even a mage after all. It was all about her sisters. Her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, were the ones who taught her this knowledge.

And the way she paid them back...

However, Medusa would not discuss something so personal with someone she wasn't very familiar with, so she only nodded slightly, "But I still have these skills."

There was an awkward pause before Cu Chulainn sighed, - "All the women with whom I talk either do not want to talk with me at all- or they want to, but only to tell me how great the Master is. How miserable I am!"

Irritably, Cu Chulainn headed to the exit, and left the tent. Medusa, remaining inside, shook her head and turned to the wounded man. No, she did not find Cu Chulainn unpleasant — there simply were different types of people. Some liked to talk with people, some did not, and some combined the first with the second, depending on the conditions. Medusa was rather of the second type - but, to admit, she had never met with people with whom she really would like to talk - or have anything to talk about - therefore she could not express her opinion on this point unequivocally. Perhaps if she had found some person to whom she would really become attached...

The vibrating in the tent's walls highlighted the arrival of a new individual. Medusa could not see his form to appreciate his appearance, but the slight cold that spread around the tent, and the subtle smell of old bones allowed her to instantly identify the person who entered.

"Master," the girl nodded to Ainz. Frankly, she would also like to know how her Master and the one whom people were able to confuse with Hades actually looked like.

"How is he?" - although the girl did not have eyesight and was definitely not a bat, she could see thanks to her magic, so that an index nod in the direction of the body on the bed showed her its location. Although in the current situation, she would have been able to understand the question without the ability to see at all.

"I don't know," Rider concluded concisely, "Cu Chulainn did everything he could - now we just have to wait."

"I see" Ainz nodded, then, looking at the tired man, and then turned to Medusa, "Thank you."

"This is not the result of my labors" Medusa just waved away his thanks "All spells were created by Cu Chulainn."

"Perhaps," Ainz did not argue, "However, without your knowledge, Cu Chulainn would not have succeeded - so thank you."

Medusa looked from the lying guy to Ainz, as far as possible, and then fell silent.

"You could have done it yourself," she concluded.

"I'm not a healer," Ainz only scratched his head in embarrassment, "Healing spells are not available to me. In addition, Jeanne also does not own them - she can only remove debu... Curses. Without your help, we would not have done it."

On this, Medusa was silent for a second, - "But you resurrected Olga-Marie. It is unlikely that you were able to resurrect her without possessing the minimum ability to heal."

Ainz coughed in embarrassment at this "I thought that everyone agreed that I didn't really resurrect her?"

"Not all," Medusa said calmly.

Of course, resurrection was impossible in any way - even divine powers and true magic could not perform such a miracle. But if Ainz was really equal to the Divine Spirit, if he really possessed the magic from the Age of Gods, if he was a necromancer, then Medusa was ready to assume the possibility that he could find some workaround around this prohibition.

"Khm," Ainz scratched his head again with embarrassment. This was his strange trait - too often for the Divine Spirit and the magi from the Age of Gods, he made such completely human, completely ordinary gestures. Few of even the lowest-ranking Servants could boast of such phenomenal humanity - in a sense, it was even ironic that the spirit most similar to humans was a powerful semi-divine necromancer. It seemed as strange as ... As... As her own story.

"Khm," as a result, Ainz still could not find a suitable answer and awkwardly tried to change the subject. "As you see, I could not even set up a properfortress on my own. Even assuming that I could theoretically heal a person on my own, it is clearly not possible in current conditions. You think too much of me."

The small camp in which the Servants are currently stationed was organized with the aid of a spell Ainz had cast, and what he made was basically a heap of tents. That,at best, could get E rank if he were evaluated from the point of view of the Skills of the Servants. However, creating a base of operations was not usually done through magic. These is a Skill responsible for the general ability to create one's own base. Creating even the smallest Laboratory of C rank could take several weeks and a dozen rituals, it would require a lot of time, effort, and the purchase of very real reagents, the cost of which could easily exceed the cost of a middle-class car. When Ainz spoke about not only creating a shelter with a spell, but about creating a full-fledged fortress using magic. it didn't look like an attempt to belittle himself, but an attempt to boast. And one must admit - quite a successful one.

"Master, if I knew you a little less, then I would rather decide that you are bragging," Medusa smiled, "You cannot be modest."

"Khm," looking at how awkwardly Ainz completely blurred himself from Medusa's words, she could not help herself and broke into a smile.

"Master, you underestimate yourself too much," the girl glanced at Ainz, and then turned to the man lying next to her, who had stopped tossing around on the bed. However, as Medusa herself could determine, he was still alive, so this was a completely positive sign. Looking at the patient, just in case, she put her hand on his forehead and noted the slow decline of the heat. Judging by the current state - in a few hours his restless thrashing will go into a peaceful sleep and he will wake up - albeit weak, but alive, and almost healthy.

"You too, Medusa," looking at this scene, Ainz could not do anything except for smiling at the girl "You too."

For a second, the Witch of the Formless Island wanted to protest against Ainz's statement, but could not find the right words, and when the first argument appeared in her head against her, she her head, but did not find her Master where he was.

"Hm?" she slightly twisted her head - although in her condition it was useless - after which she returned to the wounded man a little embarrassed, "He is still wrong. I have done almost nothing for this entire campaign."

However, despite such sad thoughts, for some reason, the Medusa's soul became a bit calmer.

The torn-off tent floors revealed a new Servant to the light - and this time the suffocating sweet smell and the lack of sound from the steps suggested to Medusa that the Servant coming was none other than Serenity.

"Ah, Serenity," Medusa smiled at the girl who appeared, but something in the atmosphere circling around her allowed her to determine that Serenity was not happy with the Witch's words "Is something wrong?"

Sighing once, Serenity said clearly, "You are in last place in this line - and do believe me, I strongly advise you not to go ahead."

Leaving Medusa in an equally bewildered state, Assassin retreated and continued to observe her Master.

* * *

Looking at the hordes of wyverns swirling far above the city, Ainz sighed. Wyverns were not an overwhelming opponent for him or for the Servants - as soon as they could fully regenerate all their mana, of course. However, in the current conditions the battle was useless - even dangerous. Ainz was not used to doing dangerous things, at least those dangerous things where he did not have the opportunity to easily correct his mistake. Of course, even if the wyverns destroyed all the Servants - he could call them again a little later - at least if it worked the way Ainz himself understood it - and the wyverns couldn't even scratch him - but if Jeanne was killed during the battle - and Ainz would not wish to resurrect her - then Jeanne would die completely, so retreating from the battle was the most logical and correct decision in the current conditions. However, Jeanne clearly did not look as if she was in agreement with Ainz - the girl not far away continued to look at the abandoned city, leaning on the shaft of her spear, and changing her expression from irritation to frown, to reverie and back.

"Did I do something wrong?" - Ainz thought for a second, trying to recall all his actions during the last day, but could not find something that could provoke Jeanne to be in such a mood - "These Servants are too strange of creatures..."

"Lord Mage," Hassan, who appeared behind Ainz, was noticed by him much earlier, so his voice over Ainz ear did not come as a surprise to the mage, "I conducted reconnaissance and did not find a single possible enemy within a radius of two kilometers."

"Okay," Ainz nodded. "Thank you, Hassan. You can rest."

"Thank you, Lord Mage," Hassan just dismissed this, "There is no need for that. Servants do not need sleep and my supply of strength and mana is restored at the same speed regardless of the conditions of my wakefulness. Talking or walking spends too little mana to have any noticeable effect on my recovery to full power."

"Khm," Ainz fell silent for a moment, a little bewildered by all the information that Assassin had given him, after which he tried uncertainly to object to the only thing he really understood, "But will it not hurt you? Despite the fact that you may not need to sleep, you may accumulate moral and emotional fatigue, you may not need to sleep, but this is not a reason to force yourself too much."

With these words, Hassan just turned in the direction of the Master - and, since his face was replaced by a white mask, like a skull, it was impossible to evaluate the emotion with which he looked at Ainz. Although any Servant could easily guess the essence of the Assassin reaction.

"I thank you for your kindness and attention, Lord Mage," - if Hassan had a face, he would certainly try to smile politely to Ainz, as if explaining some obvious aspect of his work to his enterprising, but not quite enlightened boss - "However, this is not necessary. I was trained to become an Assassin, so that I can survive several days of waking without loss of concentration and attention."

"Well," Ainz finally gave up, but the thought "this is not at all what I meant!" still remained spinning in his head. He simply did not want to force his subordinates to work overtime - especially in the current conditions, when he could not even compensate them for their work. "But still - do not be overly zealous. If you need a rest, be sure to tell me about it."

Hassan was silent for a moment, bewildered by this proposal, and then looked at Ainz "Yes. Of course, Lord Mage."

"Okay," after saying this, Ainz returned to contemplating Jeanne's mood, who continued to look at the distant city at the moment. Of course, the distance to which Ainz teleported the Servant was small - but from such a distance even Archer could not see the details of what was happening at the moment in the far Charite, so Ainz could not understand why she was trying to see something in the distant city.

However, after observing a few dozen seconds behind the girl, Ainz discovered that Hassan, who had appeared nearby, had not moved away from him. Turning to Assassin, he asked him a question, "Yes, yes, Hassan, is something bothering you?"

"Nothing special, Lord Mage" - However, the Assassin, despite the obviousness of his concern, still tried to dismiss the Master's assumption at first, after which, perhaps realizing how silly it sounded in current conditions, he admitted, "Lord Mage, our goals as Servants is to execute your orders without question, but I could do nothing but be interested in your order to conduct reconnaissance, despite the fact that this action is the prerogative of Archer. Do you not trust him?" at this Hassan looked at Ainz interested. If Ainz would have ordered Hassan to eliminate Archer, then Hassan needed to be prepared. His encounter with Archer happened once upon a time, many worlds ago, so he could not vouch for a thorough knowledge of the Servant's abilities, however, if what he knew about him nevertheless was applicable in this world, then Hassan understood that if he missed the opportunity to finish everything with the first blow, then Archer could become an uncomfortable opponent.

"Hmm?" Ainz emerged from his thoughts and thought about what Hassan said. Of course, Archer clearly doubted his abilities as a boss, but Ainz did not think that a simple distrust of the leadership could have caused him to sabotage the whole project.. the entire work of the team. At least Ainz hoped not. "No, nothing like that. Just some mob... Creatures have strong abilities to hide, which cannot be easily detected by observation, but which are significantly weakened when you approach them."

"I have never heard of such creatures, Lord Mage," Hassan answered honestly. This was not surprising - there were not so many creatures with similar abilities in Yggdrasil, however they were very ugly opponents, since almost all were archers with the ability to accumulate power for their shots for a long time - because of which, a surprise attack from a distance could wipe out even a group of players.

"They are not very common" Ainz finally nodded, confirming Hassan's words, "However, we need to be prepared for different possibilities."

"You are certainly right Lord Mage," Hassan instantly agreed, but Ainz felt as if he had not done anything, "Under current conditions, we cannot neglect protection, but ... Isn't your efforts excessive?"

"Hmm?" - Ainz glanced at Hassan, and, thinking for a second, seriously said "Hassan, the strength of the enemy is unknown. In this world, there can easily exist opponents much stronger than you, me, both of us, or all of the Servants combined. Neglecting the chance of colliding with such an adversary may cost us too much that we cannot ignore this possibility."

Hassan was silent for a moment, after which he glanced at Ainz again. Although it was impossible to say that Hassan looked at Ainz differently - without the opportunity to see his expression, all his emotions could be guessed only by his voice - however, if not for this fact, then anyone who looked at this scene could have sworn that Hassan looked at Ainz with a completely new look.

"This is…" Hassan stopped for a second "This is extremely rational."

"Probably," awkwardly, Ainz patted his neck, feeling a little embarrassed. Of course, he did not tell a direct lie, he really sent Hassan to investigate because he thought that he could possibly detect some hidden enemy, but instead of a well-thought strategy, it was a random impulsive act, performed according to the principle "Why not?" So, Ainz didn't have a clear, well-thought-out plan for defending or finding a hidden enemy, this idea was just born by chance in his head and Ainz used it.

"Lord Mage," Hassan thought for a second, "But does it mean that you trust Archer?"

On this question, Ainz did not have a definite answer. Did he trust him? Well, in fact, he was his subordinate, so without a certain level of trust their interaction was impossible - but it would certainly be strange if he said that he trusts an unknown subordinate of him, with whom he did not even work for a week.

"To a certain extent," Ainz tried to answer as neutrally as possible, forcing Hassan to nod. If Ainz really was so careful, but at the same time he trusted Archer, it was possible that he, Hassan, did not need to continue the surveillance of the Servant.

"However," on these words, Ainz was embarrassed. Talking about the man behind his back felt a bit wrong to him, as if he were one of these people at work, gossipers, who did nothing but talk behind others' backs, spending time on their constant breaks, because of which the productivity of the entire department fell "I don't think that I can state unequivocally at the moment, most likely, it may take time for a final decision."

Hassan nodded, understandingly, to Ainz, "Well, I understand."

Ainz sighed from the fact that he was able to get rid of such a discussion of his subordinate behind his back. Hassan glanced at Archer, then narrowed his eyes. Judging by what Ainz was telling him, he nevertheless had to look carefully at Archer.

* * *

Finally getting rid of Hassan and his smothering professional attitude, Ainz sighed freely. Yet Hassan was unnerving him - almost as much as Arthuria. However, if looking at Arthuria Ainz simply became somewhat uncomfortable with her cold appreciative glance and the crushing silent aura, then with Hassan the situation was even more incomprehensible. Hassan had no face, so it was impossible to determine his facial expression - he always remained collected, but not detachedly, like Arthuria, but as if a professional, evaluating a person from the position of a real expert, watching his every step and action. In other words - Ainz felt insecure next to him, just as a young worker could feel insecure if he was assigned the most responsible and professional colleague as an observer. Ainz simply feared that watching him, Hassan could identify all his weaknesses and irregularities, as a true professional.

"However, he told me that Archer doesn't trust me..." Ainz thoughtfully recalled the fact, after which he shifted his eyes to Archer, who was currently talking to Cu Chulainn "Does this mean that Hassan is on my side?"

The thought about this was pleasant to Ainz, but he could not unequivocally vouch for its correctness.

"What if..." a cold sweat smashed the guy through "He did this with Archer to see how I would react to such information?"

Despite the fact that Ainz's body was an ordinary puppet, Ainz felt his hands grow cold at that moment. That explained everything! Of course, why should a professional like Hassan even obey Ainz or report information about his colleagues to the equivalent of a new boss who has not yet proven his skills? It would be more logical for Hassan, together with Archer and other Servants, to try to test Ainz's skills and his ability to lead, even his ability to see people's attitude towards him.

From this thought, Ainz felt sick for a second and he looked away from Archer, after which he tried to find Jeanne, but could not. The girl left her place during the small dialogue with Assassin and now Ainz could not find her.

"Even Jeanne left me..." Ainz sighed "Although, of course, this is my fault. How could I not understand for so long that Hassan and Archer were working together..."

Ainz shook his head, after which, when he raised it up again, he felt a slight pulling feeling in his head. This feeling was familiar to him, and so, touching it lightly, Ainz heard a familiar, cheerful voice that rang in his head.

"Team in touch!" Olga-Marie's voice was vigorous, but not to say that he was pleased. "Roman, I congratulate you, you made this thing work!"

"Chief, please…" the voice on that side of the connection was so exhausted that Ainz vividly imagined how one of the zombies in Charité snuck into Chaldea and took the doctor's place there "I really don't know what the reason is…"

"Yeah, yeah, I heard it a million times already!" Olga-Marie dismissed Romani's words, after which she turned to Ainz "Romani cannot control this thing at all, he even couldn't contact you for all this time!"

"Yes..." Ainz unsurely supported the girl. On the one hand, he was the main reason why Chaldea could not communicate with the Singularity, because he suppressed all possibilities of observing him with his ring, but if the choice was between the anger of the chief and the sufferings of Roman, then there was no choice at all.

'Girls are terrifying…' Ainz said to himself under his breath.

"No difference!" finally the chief dismissed her own accusations, "So how are you, special operative?"

Ainz thought about these words. How should he answer this question?

"Not bad," Ainz replied after a couple seconds of thinking. In total, their affairs did not go badly. they did not suffer any defeats, and avoided serious battles that could result in any significant consequences, saved at least one person and at the moment avoided the forces of the Dragon Witch with all possible luck, so Ainz couldn't even complain about his own problem.

"That's good," concluded the chief, "What is the situation?"

Ainz glanced at the wyverns, which were circling in the distance, and then said neutrally, "The opponents are not so far, but they are not close to us."

"Did they not notice you?" On this the chief muttered thoughtfully "What kind of opponents?"

"Big group of wyverns," Ainz waved aside, and then looked into the distance, "But if you think about it, something still bothers me."

"Hmm?" Olga-Marie thoughtfully said "What is it?"

No, of course, the question was not about how many wyverns flying in medieval France would have been considered normal - it was definitely clear that a huge army of winged lizards was the result of the actions of the revived Jeanne d'Arc, but something in the actions of flying lizards did not let Ainz rest.

Looking at the huge horde of wyverns, Ainz thoughtfully observed how a restless swarm flowed from one side to the other - from their very appearance the wyverns never once descended to earth, continuing to fly over the city.

They didn't go down to the ground...

They didn't go down to the ground...

"Ainz?" Ainz, to his surprise, was surprised, not by the voice of Olga-Marie, but the voice of Roman "Are you all right?"

"Yes, fully" answered the magi, after which he thoughtfully said, "But do different monsters attack each other?"

In Yggdrasil, some monsters could attack other monsters, mostly those who had a bad relationship with each other. For example, mob angels always attacked mob demons, even if their initial encounter occurred on neutral territory. On this tactic, several raids were built, in which the players would aggro a large group of certain mobs, and then kite them, pulling them into a dungeon where other mobs they would attack lived, let the mobs clash and reap the rewards.

"Usually not," objected Roman "However, some special types can still fight each other. Undead, for example, never fights with other undead, but always fights with other types of monsters, non-undead."

"Hmm..." Ainz looked at the huge flying swarm of beasts. They should have attacked the undead living in the city for a long time, but still they only continued to fly over the city spiers. This could mean only one thing - someone forbade them to attack the undead living in the city. Someone controlled them.

But this did not mean anything. Since the appearance of the wyvern horde, it was absolutely logical and expected for them to be controlled by someone, be it the Dragon Witch or someone else.

However, it was not enough for Ainz himself to hear about this — he continued to observe the actions of the wyverns spinning in the air.

Even if the person controlling the wyvern waited to meet Ainz or someone else in the city and therefore sent a huge crowd of wyverns to fight him, then after the wyverns did not find their goal in the city the most logical solution would be to disperse the wyvern to search for their target. Of course, it is possible that the person controlling the wyvern could not give the order in the current conditions. For example, he could be too far away. But judging by the fact that the wyverns continued to circle above the city without attacking the undead, that was extremely unlikely.

Ainz frowned, he did not like this line of thought.

"What else happened? Is the information about the Holy Grail confirmed?" - Roman's voice distracted Ainz from reflection.

"There is no information about the Holy Grail yet, but we were able to meet another Servant" Ainz replied, "Jeanne d'Arc, in particular."

" Jeanne d'Arc? That Jeanne d'Arc?"- having heard this, Olga-Marie instantly caught fire and Ainz literally saw how the girl brazenly shoved Roman away from the microphone "Terrific!"

"Is that really so amazing?" On this note Ainz asked a question. Personally, she did not seem so incredible to him. No, of course, it was impossible to deny her charm, however, she did not show anything exceptional, neither as a Servant, nor as a personality.

"Of course!" Olga-Marie did not agree Ainz "She is a Ruler!"

Just in case, Ainz turned to his knowledge, but found nothing special in them.. about Rulers "And so what?"

For a moment, the chief was amazed at Ainz's misunderstanding, before she decided to explain to him "How do you not understand! Rulers are incredibly rare, this is the only class of Servants who do not want the Holy Grail! Rulers can be only the most ideal, bright and pure souls in which there can be no evil and no desire for anything worldly. In addition, the Rulers have many special abilities. They can act as arbitrators during any Holy Grail War and have great power over all Servants in the War. It is an incredible rarity to meet even one!"

"Rulers ... Power over the Servants ..." Ainz concentrated on this for a second before the metaphorical light bulb appeared above him "The revived Jeanne was called upon as a Ruler ,the same as the Jeanne with him, which means..."

"This is bait!" Ainz responded instantly and leaving only this phrase immediately disconnected from Chaldea. Revived Jeanne was called as Ruler and possessed the abilities of Ruler, which the real Jeanne lost, including finding other Servants as well!

Yes, Ainz was protected from any kind of observation, just like his Servants... But Jeanne herself was not!

The wyverns circling over the city should not have fought with Ainz, they served as a diversion of attention!

"Archer!" this sudden realization made Ainz cry out loud, but a moment later his condition was again forcibly normalized.

"Master" and quite on time, since Archer himself turned to Ainz at this moment "A huge and very fast wyvern moves in our direction. On its back, there are six people - six Servants."

However, what was important was what followed.

"Judging by the information that I have ..." Archer was silent for a second - "At the head of the Servants is the Dragon Witch."

* * *

**Charisma:** _A ++ (C) (Case)_

This skill is primarily responsible for two things. The first is the ability to inspire people, and the second is the ability to please people. This skill is not responsible for the ability to command or direct, but it makes it possible to smooth the corners of management difficulties in a certain way, people follow the instructions of a person when they like him more often, just as an unbending fighting spirit can be stronger than any well-thought tactic.

As an individual, Ainz himself, or rather, in this case, Satoru Suzuki, has rank C. He is inspiring, loyal, honest, kind and merciful enough that very large groups of people agree to recognize him as their leader, officially or not, he has no problems with establishing contact with the majority of people, and it can perfectly work as an official or seller. This skill at rank C is one of three skills born from the very soul of Satoru Suzuki, and is in no way connected with the Existence Outside the Domain, so no justification is required for this skill.

However, the incredibly high rank of A ++ is a reflection of Ainz Ooal Gown's Charisma. Ainz Ooal Gown is a Supreme Being that could unite forty other Supreme Beings standing above the gods, sometimes diametrically opposed to each other, such as Touch Me and Ulbert Alain Odle, force them to recognize him as their supreme ruler, and unite said forty scattered incredibly powerful monsters into a single solid battle core that could resist thousands of other enemies, superior to the gods, for some time; even subjugate one of the Nine Worlds, and eventually, become the sole and fully divine ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarik, a place so vast and legendary that it itself can be considered a separate world, full of the most powerful creatures comparable to the Evils of Humanity. In other words, Ainz Ooal Gown is a creature with Charisma so high that he was able to curb a huge pantheon of disparate deities, create a single army of them, force them to recognize him as their king, and then fought a war with thousands of other creatures that transcend divinity as a phenomenon, and then crush a whole world under his heel. Ainz in this section looks like, perhaps the most dangerous, legendary and charismatic ruler in the world. The only reason why the rank of Charisma is not EX is two facts.

The first is the fact that Ainz was not the original leader of the Forty-One, but seized power after Touch Me.

The second is the fact that the reign of the whole world for Ainz Ooal Gown was short-lived - and as a result, Ainz Ooal Gown was forced to retreat into the walls of Nazariсk, where he existed from then on.

However, even despite such mistakes, Ainz is perhaps the only Servant able to compete even with the EX rank charisma. That is if he does use his full capabilities as a Servant, and not just the personal ability of Satoru Suzuki, of course.

* * *

**Well, here I am yet again, with the next chapter.**

**And yes, the next few chapters are action\battle scenes with Ainz and Jalter.**

**I heard from one guy his thoughts about my pat reon, but I'm in no mood to argue and frankly, this is a rather useless thing to do, so I'm just going to friendly remind you, that TWO NEW CHAPTERS AWAIT YOU AT MY PAT REON, WHICH IS THE AT LEAST TWO WEEKS OF WAITING YOU CAN DESTROY FOR A SINGLE DOLLAR!  
Seriously, I even got my 50$ goal, which is the great thing to do. Given that my monthly salary\living expenses is 200$ - another 50$ is just great. I might even start to pay my beta for all work he is doing right now.**

**Anyway, pat reon \rure - here I am, with the two new chapters.**


	20. Chapter 20

Ainz calmly met the approaching Dragon Witch - but not because he was prepared for her approach - nor was it because he was confident in his victory, infact, Ainz had little confidence in staying alive. However, he took the approach of the Dragon Witch easy because his emotion suppression cut off his panic, leaving only simple and clear understanding of her approach.

"We need to run" Ainz instantly decided. He did not want to fight an opponent whose strength he did not know — and in the past few hours his desire had not changed.

"Retreat" was the thought to come to Ainz, but in an instant, as soon as this thought was fully fleshed out in his mind, it was replaced by another one... "Jeanne is the reason why we were found."

Retreating with Jeanne was possible. As practice showed. It was possible to teleport with the help of a spell. However, Jeanne remained the weak link that the Dragon Witch could detect with the help of her abilities. If Ainz retreated now, then the Witch would catch them again, but this time, she would be ready for teleportation magic. Perhaps she would bring with her a counter-spell, or a teleportation-blocking spell. No, in the current conditions, it would be quite logical if the Dragon Witch already had something like that - so she would just need to approach Ainz - and he would lose any opportunity to escape.

In such circumstances, Ainz would need to protect Jeanne from observation. It would be possible if she agrees to become his Servant. However, Jeanne refused such a proposal before, and she might refuse it again. If this happened, Ainz will have to use one of his charm spells, and after it wear off and Jeanne reacts to his actions, use the Command Spells to prevent her from harming him or his other Servants ... No, then Jeanne could find another way to sabotage their work, which Ainz could not have foreseen and warned - so, because of this, this method of influence did not fit with this girl.

So, the only correct way of behavior was to leave Jeanne and escape with the rest of the Servants. Doing this, Ainz might even manage to see some of the Dragon Witch's abilities when she fights Jeanne, and come up with possible lines of action.

Looking at how, seemingly out of nowhere, Jeanne appeared in front of Ainz, looking at the rapidly growing wyvern-shaped spot with the Servants on its back, Ainz had no doubt that the girl would not back down, no matter what conditions lie before her. She will fight. And she will lose. And she will die.

Thus, Ainz believed that the most logical line of actions was to run away, leaving the girl to fight with her incarnated alter-ego, then watch the battle from a safe distance, using magic, gather information, prepare for a new battle, and then, finding supporters and developing a strategy, deliver a crushing defeat on the Witch in her castle.

In other words, Ainz should have escaped now, using the "_Greater Teleportation_", leaving Jeanne to be torn apart.

But he could not.

It was not a matter of limiting factors, not the absence of mana nor spell that forbade him to teleport. But he still could not. Stretching his hand forward in order to cast the spell, Ainz realized that he could not.

Jeanne was not his guildmate or friend. Even ally was to strong of a word to call her by Ainz's standards. She was a very weak ally, if Ainz understood anything about her, she didn't have any information about the world around her and, in general, Ainz simply didn't see a reason to bother with the salvation of a Saint. But he still could not leave her. For a strange reason, which he himself could not describe, he could not do it.

"..." - Ains tried for a few precious moments to come up with an argument for or against, before saying with a sigh "Okay. Okay. So be it".

Memories of Touch Me made Ainz inhale and exhale a little indignantly through his nose, "Maybe you were right. Or I just don't understand myself anymore."

"In the end," the mage also concluded, justifying himself and his decision, rather than trying to understand himself, "Sooner or later, we would have to face them in battle — and I would have to test my strength on real opponents. Why not do it now while I can still escape?"

The mage took a step forward, then the second and third - and before he could react - he stood next to Jeanne.

She, flinching as he approached, turned to Ainz, then opened her mouth, as if wanting to ask something, then closed it, looked at the mage several times and smiled at him, turning away. Ainz also turned in the direction of approaching enemy Servants, and finally commanded his Servants:

"Hide" - he gave the command "The enemy does not know that you are here, so we will give them a warm welcome".

A little thought crossed his mind, and Ainz decided that one person did not fit for this battle "Mashu. Your goal is to protect the wounded. Do not interfere in the battle more than necessary."

"Okay, senpai" the answer made Ainz nod. This girl was not yet ready for battle with other Servants, especially Servants whose power were unknown. Perhaps it would be better if she stayed out of this battle.

"Servants" he finally called on the communication to all his subordinates, "Attack the enemy when you see the signal."

"What kind of signal?" Cu Chulainn addressed him on the link, but instead Ainz allowed himself a small grin.

"You'll see," he said, watching the six Servants standing on a large, massive wyvern, become more and more visible, "Do believe me - you will not miss it."

* * *

The girl who stood first on the wyvern stood out, even when compared to the other Servants that Ainz had time to observe in the past week. She looked like Jeanne d'Arc, who was now standing next to the mage, and at the same time, they were different like heaven and earth. The Jeanne standing next to him was wearing white and blue steel armor, covered only with a road cloak, while the Dragon Witch was wearing black armor, supported by a dark maroon fur lined mantle, as if her clothes were woven from gore itself. Jeanne, who was standing next to him, leaned on her spear to support herself, looking with her eyes, blue like a clear sky, at an approaching threat, hair the color of ripe rye braided in a tight braid. The Dragon Witch stood like a ruler, surveying her possessions from the window of a luxurious carriage, straightening a blade hidden in a black holster, needed only as a symbol of her power, observing with her cold, evil and cheerful golden eyes no more than a minor pest, her platinum-white hair was cut short, swaying from the wind in the sky.

Jeanne was preparing for battle. Dragon Witch was anticipating some fun.

It was impossible to discern the features of the Servants who stood behind the Witch. Although she was not very tall, her whole appearance riveted any eyes to look at her, forcing anyone to focus on her, not paying attention to her subordinates.

The huge wyvern, on which the Witch traveled, was not familiar to Ainz, but looking at its size the necromancer could assume that it was not less than the fortieth level. For most Servants, it was not a strong opponent, but still an opponent, and not just a brainless grind mob.

"Interesting" Ainz thought for a second "Can I get a good data-crystal from it?"

The wyvern, having approached a certain distance, began to descend, and after flying in an impressive circle around, as if boasting its strength, it landed down in front of Ainz and Jeanne, instantly lowering its head like a ladder for its mistress.

"Oh really?" taking one step, the Witch first approached the edge of the wyvern, and then slowly began to descend, "Really? I can not believe my eyes! Jeanne d'Arc herself, the Saint of Orleans herself! I am so honored, I just cannot express in words how glad I am to meet you - oh noble Holy One! I've heard so much about your accomplishments - especially the latest ones. Oh, when you burned the King - I was so glad to hear that! It was such a great news - as if I myself took part in it!"

With each phrase, full of caustic sarcasm and mockery, the Witch took another step forward, like a Queen, descending from her throne. Ainz tried to take a look at the Servants on the back of the wyvern, but when Witch climbed down from the wyvern - it instantly looked up, blocking the view to the mage.

"Unsuccessful" Ainz grimaced. He did not like to act blindly, especially when he did not know anything about the enemy.

"Why do you say such horrible things?" - looking at the Witch, Jeanne raised herself, trying to straighten her shoulders, - "Why did you do all this?"

The witch took a step forward, stopped, and, as if not understanding the question, blinked once before staring at Jeanne.

"What?" She asked as if not understanding, what Jeanne was talking about, "What horrible things?"

"All these!" Jeanne instantly flashed, as if hoping that she would be able to convince the Witch to give up with a simple conversation "Murders, blood, death, so many things…"

Stopping for a second, the Witch blinked a couple of times, then lowered her gaze to the floor.

"Please, back down now!" - Considering this as a good sign, Jeanne tried to continue her attack on the Witch, "Your actions are terrible, but you can still redeem all this! If you use your power for good, then we could restore peace again…"

Ainz noticed how the Witch's hands trembled finely, but before he could prepare for her to attack in a fit of rage, he heard something else.

Laughter, the most sincere laughter that he has ever heard in the last years of his life - it was the laughter of a child, the laughter of a person who has come across something really funny and absurd - that's what he heard. He heard this and Jeanne instantly stopped talking.

"Jeanne! Jeanne! Oh my sweet Jeanne!" the Witch repeated over and over again, interrupted by bouts of laughter, - "Incredible! How long has it been since I laughed so much?"..." why did you do all this?"... "Jeanne, they burned me! they burned you, they used you and me, they covered their sins by our names, their desires and misdeeds - and now that the payback is so close - are you telling me that I can "atone"? That I can "redeem"? Oh my sweet Jeanne!"

Unable to restrain herself, the Witch burst into the next fit of laughter, after which she began to spin on the spot.

"Gilles! Gilles!" - the girl shouted several times in the direction of the Servants and the wyverns, - "Oh, water please! I am hallucinating- I see something that is simply impossible in this world!"

"Oh my, what a pity, Gilles stayed in Orleans!" - after a second of reflection, the girl tried to regain control of herself. However, the smile on her face threatened to turn into laughter every second, "But, I will definitely tell him this joke! No, I offer you, Jeanne d'Arc, Saint of Orleans. I will not kill you, just so that you tell this joke to me every day, chained in my bedroom!"

Under normal conditions, Jeanne would surely be embarrassed by the mention of the chains and bedroom, but under these conditions, whatever imprints of embarrassment in her soul might exist were erased by much stronger emotions... fear, readiness and courage.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" with this, Jeanne raised her banner, then put it forward, like a spear "I will fight!"

"Ha... Ha…" after these words, the Witch obviously tried to keep herself, but she could not, having immediately exploded with a new fit of laughter "Oh, no, Gilles, what a misfortune! The Holy One has suddenly became even dumber... no, she lost the last remnants of her mind!"

On this, Jeanne only took a step back.

"I feel bad, I'm dying!" The Witch took a step back, after which she falsely waved her hands, as if trying to provide herself with air. Ainz had time to notice how tears from incessant laughter flashed "Gilles, you didn't even tell me that I was so stupid before!"

"O Jeanne!" after these words the Witch glanced at the Saint "What nonsense you dare to spout, Jeanne! I am the only worthy thing that ever was in your life. I am stronger than you, I am smarter than you, I am more experienced than you - you are just those wastes that found no place inside me. You are the one who could not admit even to herself her weakness, her stupidity, could not outgrow her innocence, and you paid for it. I am the final form, I am the "Jeanne" you should have become."

"You're lying," Jeanne only shuddered at that, "I would never have done what you did."

"Really?" the Witch grinned at it again - but, it seems, the limit of her laughter was exhausted, "You have been doing this all your life. Robberies, revenge, murders, executions - that is what you patronized in this war. Soldiers, mercenaries, marauders, robbers, they all idolized you and killed in your name, thanks to you. I recognized this in myself - I stepped over my naivety while you chose to continue to cling to your weakness and innocence. You're pathetic, Jeanne d'Arc."

Every word of the Witch was like a lash for Jeanne, but she took it with the humility of a martyr.

"Yes," the girl finally said, "Yes, I myself ... I don't know what happened once in my life. I do not know symbol of what I have become. I do not know why I fought in the end. But I know one thing, I did not want to kill. I did not want to torture, maim and destroy. I didn't want what you want."

Looking up at the Witch, Jeanne looked at her with a challenge.

"I fought for the people, for France, for our Lord. I led people because I saw my goal" - Jeanne looked into the Witch's eyes, making her grin - but this time it was not a real smile of a merry man, but a sarcastic cheeky grin - "Tell me what goal leads you?"

"Goal?" the Witch grinned at this "I will destroy those who betrayed me. I will burn those who refused to fight for me. I will kill those who left me. I will tear this world apart."

"And what will be left after that?" Jeanne looked at this at the Witch, and then took a step forward, "What will remain after you kill everyone?"

"A world full of fire and suffering" the Witch smiled back, and Ainz, for the first time in the whole conversation, saw a hidden insanity in the Witch's eyes "A world of torment."

"So I will fight," Jeanne glanced at Ainz and he, as brightly as he could, smiled.

"Do you understand who are you even trying to fight?" Witch smiled patronizingly at this, and then she glanced at Ainz "Or are you hoping for another miracle from god? He cursed this land, his voice can no longer be heard, which means that god has left this world."

"But I did not," the girl looked into the Witch's eyes.

"What audacity!" Witch grinned at this "Putting yourself in one row with god! what a blasphemy! How right were those that burned you as a heretic!"

With these words, Jeanne took a half-step back, but Ainz extended his hand and stopped the girl, allowing her to look at the Witch again. She, in response, narrowed her eyes, looking at Ainz.

"And who are you?" Witch grinned at this, "Another enthusiastic fan of hers, ready to eat from her hands? Or perhaps you are one of those crazy priests who have found a new Idol in your Holy One? Tell me, are you a beggar? oh, she's good at misting their mind like that, or were you just seduced by the body of a maiden?"

With these words, the Witch laughed particularly loudly, after which she ran her finger along her body, passing them along her chest and up to her thigh. Of course, it looked very sexy, but Ainz could not be embarrassed with such a thing.

"No," he objected eventually, after which he glanced at Jeanne. She, in turn, looked back at him, "I'm just her ally."

Jeanne looked at him, then closed her eyes, muttering only a very quiet "Thank you."

"That's just boring," the Witch frowned at this, then shrugged, "Well, what a pity! Jeanne, I was hoping that I would be able to put you on a chain like a dog - but it seems that this time I will not be able to get what I want. But it's no problem, I think Gilles will find a way to embalm only your head. Such a trophy would suffice."

After saying this, the Witch moved toward her wyvern. The moment the girl approached the beast, Ainz nodded to himself.

"Well, it seems that she said everything she wanted," Ainz sighed. "In that case ... It's time."

In an instant, when the girl was next to the lizard, Ainz stretched his hand forward.

Yes, this body could not withstand his full power, but it could withstand even the magic of A rank, in other words, magic from the Age of Gods.

And Ainz had a wide variety of eighth rank spells.

Therefore, stretching his arm forward, Ains did not hesitate for a second "_Explosion_!"

* * *

The flash of light instantly covered not only the Witch, but also all the Servants who stood in the center of the spell, as well as Ainz and Jeanne themself. Even the hiding Servants of Ainz felt uncomfortable when the fireball rose hundreds of meters above the ground before degenerating into a combustible cloud of molten stone and steam.

In Yggdrasil "_Explosion_" was one of the best spells of the eight rank, in other words - one may even find this even in the battle of level one hundred players.

Unfortunately, the damage inflicted by it was not incredible, but as a spell, "_Explosion_" had a number of important features. It had a pretty big area of effect, and imposed quite a few debuffs on the enemies who were unlucky enough to be in the center of the spell, such as "_blindness_" and "_deafness_", but the main ability of this spell was different. "_Explosion_" was the great spell when it was about knocking back the enemy, second only to the ninth tier spell "_Nuclear Blast_", which was currently beyond the abilities of this body to handle. This spell had enormous potential just because it could be used to split a group of opponents into several single targets scattered on the map, left without the protection and support of each other.

Of course, almost all players of the hundredth level shad ways to defend themselves against such an effect, through abilities or equipment, but the "_Nuclear Blast_" and it's smaller version, used right now, "_Explosion_" were still used quite often, and quite successfully, to the displeasure of many players.

However, that was a game, and it was a reality.

Like a fireball, the _Explosion_ swallowed the earth for hundreds of meters around, instantly burning all the signs of life, throwing a flash of light miles in all directions. Such a spell could be compared to the potent spells of the High Thaumaturgy, or some Noble Phantasms, it could instantly evaporate most of the weak Servants and, of course, did not leave even a chance for ordinary people.

But at the same time, the terrifying force of an explosion, like in the game, remained only a smaller part of the spell's abilities. More importantly, according to the plan, the Witch's Servants were instantly scattered like pins, as if some lucky player hit them with a bowling ball in a clear strike. Instantly, they all lost contact with each other and mutual aid from their comrades, and were cut off from each other.

Ainz smiled, then lowered his hand, using it to cover from the Jeanne from the spell.

"Th... " Jeanne tried to say something, but looking at the scorched ashes that remained after using of the spell, she lost herself, "Th... Thank you."

Ainz turned to Jeanne, forcing her to slightly twitch when his eyes locked on the girl "No, it's nothing. However, I apologize ... Surprisingly, no one except the wyvern was killed. Well, one of the Servants was extremely interesting to me, so please forgive, I think I want to deal with him personally."

with that, Ainz smiled at Jeanne, and the disappeared into a teleportation whirlwind.

Not far from him, Cu Chulainn slowly rose from his spot, rubbing his bright-burned eyes.

"Well, we certainly did not miss it..." the guy sighed "I thought that there would be something less... Flashy."

"But, I suppose, it's better for us" Cu Chulainn twitched his neck several times, and then he looked at the Servants standing nearby, "At least, now absolutely no one can tell that my Master is a weakling."

"And so, my comrade Servants…" he glanced at his comrades standing next to - "It's time to earn our keep!"

* * *

She was dying.

The girl did not understand in what world she was. The pain flooded her mind — the entire right half of her body did not obey her, as if she didn't even have a hand, a leg, or even an eye.

She will die.

Smack of vomit and metal in the mouth were atrociously disgusting for her, her head was spinning, as if in a crazy round dance. Her stock of mana spent to the very bottom, her body crumbled, her nerves ached with pain. Even her weapon were lying nearby, like a useless stick.

She was already dead.

The fact that she was alive could not be called even a miracle, it was something superior to any miracle. But still, this miracle had reasons.

Although her class was an Assassin, the conditions of the current summon were such that, thanks to her connection with the Master, she received part of the power of Berserker. Although it did not give her any additional skills, it still raised her abilities.

It was also important that her Master fed her with practically unlimited mana. The abilities of the Dragon Witch as Master were insignificant, but the sheer amounts of power she could put in order to maintain the Assassin's abilities were incredible.

Only the mutual effect of these two factors was the reason why the Assassin was still alive. But even so, it was only a momentary miracle, the girl felt that she was dying.

"To be honest, I feel like scum. To fight the enemy in such a state is unworthy of the greatest hero of the Celts" the voice that rang out next to the girl came to her as if through a thick wall of wool, "Besides... DoI even need fight? this is now just a burnt corpse."

Is she a burned corpse?

The girl tried to understand. Burnt corpse... So fast, easy, in one spell. She was not the one who was defeated with one spell! This is not her, right?!

"Or is it already considered a blow of mercy?" A voice came out a little closer, however, behind the wall of cotton wool, the girl did not even hear his steps.

"What a pity..." the voice sounded disappointed, "You could have been so beautiful...such terrible magic... It's even sad."

She is beautiful! She is the most beautiful woman on earth! She could not lose her beauty, she was always the most beautiful! She went through so much to achieve such beauty, she did so much... It could not disappear just like that, in an instant, just with one click of a finger from some shitty mage! She could not lose so easily!

Blood did not flood her face because it had long caked into a single hard crust - therefore, when the girl opened her remaining eye, through pain and rage, nothing prevented her from seeing the guy standing next to her. Blue-haired, he leaned on a staff, watching her with a mixture of pity, sadness and curiosity.

"So are you still alive?" the guy was surprised. Although any Servant could feel other Servants, her waning powers were now so insignificant that they could easily be overlooked.

But she was still alive.

She was alive.

Alive!

And she will not die so easily!

For a moment, a figure appeared behind the standing guy. A huge iron sarcophagus with a carved ornament opened, exposing its full steel spikes inside, after which several chains sprang forward like tentacles, grabbing the arms and legs of a guy.

"What?!" only he managed to exclaim before another chain twisted around his head and a sharp jerk pulled him inside, slamming the steel doors of the sarcophagus behind him, thrusting the steel spikes into the sacrifice.

She will not die so easily! She existed before Lancer, she was the first, she must be the greatest!

"Phantom Maiden!" Assassin said the name of her Noble Phantasm, feeling the blood of her enemy spill over to her, returning her lost beauty and strength to her, and restoring her missing limbs.

Slowly, the girl rose from the ground, and raised her staff.

Although she didn't have enough strength to fully recover, she was able to stand on both legs again, taking the staff in one hand, and then touched her face with the second hand. Her face was beautiful again, her hair was again like expensive silk, her skin was snow-white again.

The girl took a step toward the Iron Maiden to reach the withered corpse of the unlucky Servant, who came too close for his own good, but at the moment when she took the step, something hit the wall of the Maiden. The girl froze, and then heard another blow, and then another.

With a sharp screech, one of the cusps of the sarcophagus opened wide, hitting the steel shell of the Maiden.

"Not a bad trick" the guy who emerged from the door looked like a torture victim, as the tool suggested. His luxurious fur coat was torn, and scarlet blood flowed from numerous wounds on his body, his hands slightly shuddered, but there was no hint of defeat in his eyes. On the contrary, there was only excitement, "But the Noble Phantasm always betrays the identity of its owner. Isn't that right, Elizabeth Bathory?"

* * *

Archer frowned when the girl in front of him lightly dusted off the dust, then looked at him with a passive look. Although she was lightly dressed and did not carry a weapon other than a staff with a pommel in the shape of a Catholic cross, something in her appearance made Archer tense.

"Why are you not hurt?" he said in the end, when he could finally understand what was bothering him in the figure of a girl. Her purple hair was disheveled and her white cape, which looked like a nun's cape, was slightly burned, but nothing in her blue eyes betrayed any pain or anxiety, just like her skin was clean from burns or wounds.

"The Lord grants miracles to his faithful followers" the girl grabbed onto her staff, and slightly tilted it so that Archer could see the cross-shaped pommel.

"So you are a Catholic" Archer nodded, then glanced around at her figure, trying to find something else, "But what does the Lord say about all the horrors that you brought to this land? What does he say about your Master? What does he say about the suffering on this earth?"

"Lord works in mysterious ways," the girl just grabbed onto her staff. However, the words came out not soothing, but cold.

"Is there any words about the killing of the innocent children in those "ways of the Lord"?" with this, Archer just looked at the girl. She opened her mouth for a new phrase...

A figure in a black cloak appeared from nowhere behind her back, it made the girl twitch, but it was too late. A small black blade that did not reflect the light entered her throat right up to the handle, after which, Hassan's hand with surgical precision opened the girl's neck to the very spine.

A moment later, Hassan jumped away from the girl's body, landing near Archer.

"At least you still understand the basics of tactics," Archer just shook his head at these words. Each of them turned away from the dead Servant, however...

"So, that's it," the girl's voice was as calm as before. The two Servants instantly turned to the girl, only to find her standing in her place as if nothing had happened "Distract an innocent victim with conversation, then, using her kindness, kill her. Such a sinful deed..."

"Hassan," Archer turned to the Assassin instantly, when his keen eyesight found that all that was left on the girl's neck was just a barely noticeable scratch, no deeper than a cut from the cat's claw, "You missed."

"No," Hassan retorted instantly, "The blade entered accurately and the cut was perfect. She cannot have survived."

"Then why is she still alive?" Archer took a step back, giving himself place for an attack, which should have followed soon.

However, Archer did not receive the answer to this question from Hassan. Smiling, the girl straightened her shoulders, like a thug preparing for a fight, and grabbed her staff in the manner of a huge claymore "The Lord grants miracles to his faithful followers."

* * *

Ainz was near his goal instantly, thanks to teleportation, but the Servant was already on his feet. His exquisite black cloak was torn and tanned, his white hair was tousled, and the neatly trimmed white beard was burned in many places, but in spite of this, the Servant looked healthy enough. A few tanns here and there looked, at best, like superficial burns, which is why Ainz stiffened. Although the spell did affect the Servant, and it was far from the strongest in Ainz's arsenal, the fact that someone could still resist Ainz's force meant a lot to him.

"So, you will be my opponent?" noticing Ainz, who appeared from the teleportation circle, the Servant looked at him with interest "You are the mage who created such a terrifying phenomenon? I pay tribute to your strength, but know that you will perish in this battle."

"Okay," Ainz just nodded at that. Although the man in front of him looked tall, slim, aristocratic, handsome, with a charm of nobleness soaring around him that was impossible to not see, Ainz's mind had already switched to battle mode, because of that, no distracting factor could now make him distracted "But please, answer one question."

"Well, if such is the last wish of such a powerful mage, I will try to respond to it as best I can," a spear, looking more like a long narrow wooden thorn, appeared from the air in the hands of Ainz's enemy. Ainz instantly noted this fact, analyzed and set aside.

"You..." he began asking his question, glancing at the aristocrat's red eyes "Are a vampire, aren't you?"

After these words, the servant opposite to Ainz stopped, as if frozen in place. Ainz noted that he hit the nail on the head.

"If the conditions of my summon were slightly different, for this question I would tear you apart and command the riders to pull pieces of your flesh throughout my Kingdom until the horses died of fatigue," the words of Lancer were bitter and dry, "However, I already promised to answer you one of your questions, and the violating my word would make me look bad. Besides, in this condition, I am afraid, the answer to this question is already obvious."

"Yes," with these words Lancer raised his spear "I am a vampire. I am a legendary vampire. I am the greatest vampire that ever existed on this earth!"

"I am Vlad III, named as the Impaler, Tepes," Vlad smiled at these words, raising a wooden stake, "In other words, I am THE vampire. Dracula!"

Hearing these words, Ainz instantly felt how the plans he built in his head immediately froze, after which, they began to re-assemble again, with radical speed, "Dracula?"

"Yes, the greatest of all vampires, Dracula," Vlad said these words proudly, but at the same time Ainz felt something under the surface, some inner shade of the spoken phrase, "Look at me, see my legend, and die."

'If he really is Dracula…" Ainz's mind made him think about one of the NPCs in Yggdrasil "The situation can change dramatically for the worse…"

"I beg your pardon," however, Ainz said aloud, "However, I have to refuse."

"I'm afraid, even if you had a choice before," Vlad instantly squeezed his spear to these words, "After such a question I will not allow you to back out."

* * *

Medusa rushed after the Master - although she did not know exactly with which Servant he started the battle with, she could feel that he was probably the strongest of all the Servants of the Dragon Witch. However, she only took a few steps, when a sudden movement ahead of her made her jump back.

"I beg your pardon," it was impossible to discern who spoke in this voice, it was rude enough to belong to a very young guy, and at the same time so soft as to resemble the voice of a masculine girl, "However, you will not go further in the name of my Master. Please forgive me, but such is fate. I'm afraid both of us will have to fight."

The Servant's voice, the sound of footsteps, even the sensation of magic confused Medusa. She was desperately unable to determine exactly who appeared before her. Although she had never before had any problems with determining whether a man was standing in front of her or a woman - right now her perception gave her the most contradictory signals. For a second, Medusa wanted to remove the bandage in order to look at the enemy with her own eyes, but she understood that most likely even a direct look at the Servant would not answer her question.

"I ask you to forgive me, noble lady," Medusa was confused by the voice, but in the end she decided to consider the one to appear in front of her a guy, "But we have no other choice. We have to fight."

"As it is necessary for my Milady's true knight, I obey her orders," the guy took another step aside, after which he took a stance, as if in a duel, and then the girl felt him slowly draw his blade, narrow and long, it mostly looked like a musketeer sword, "However, I ask you to understand how it's difficult for a true Frenchwoman to pass by beauty like yours. Please, if one of us is destined to die here and now, give me at least your name, noble lady."

Ignoring the unexpected sex change in the story about himself, Medusa looked up.

"In other words, you want to know my name before the start of our battle?" Medusa raised her head so that, if she did not have a mask, she would be looking at the opponent opposite to her. "You hide your intentions behind verbal lace and compliments. You act like a knight, but you use very dishonest tactics."

"I beg your pardon, noble..." and without finishing the phrase, a moment later Saber rushed. His enormous speed barely allowed Medusa to move from her place, the very first blow of the blade was almost the last for her. The blade of the sword passed by her head in millimeters, cutting through Rider's skin, forcing her to instantly strike Saber with a dagger. Just as swiftly as before, Saber instantly retired back, after that, when Rider's blade struck after him when Medusa pulled the chain to which it was tied, Saber easily jumped to the side, having almost done an acrobatic etude. Stopping after a few jumps, Saber smiled, a little mocking, a little joyfully, and a little evilly, after which he finished the sentence, "... lady, but I can't fight otherwise."

* * *

Arthuria saw the difficulties that Rider was facing and rushed to her aid, however, she only took a few steps, when movement from the side distracted the swordwoman. Arthuria managed only to draw her blade in order to soften the collision, after which, a sharp blow literally blew her off, sending her flying. The girl had to use the Manaburst in order to slow down her movement, and then another, in order to successfully roll over in flight and land on her feet.

However, the attacker did not stop at this, another blow forced Arthuria to step aside, blowing up the place where she was, with bits of earth flying all over, followed by another blow, then another, and another. Arthuria dodged the strike time after time, but the flow of attacks did not stop, with an incredible speed, the attacker's weapon flickered in the air, forcing the girl to avoid the blows, not allowing her to see exactly who attacked her.

One more blow, two more, one more and as many as three at once, the flow of attacks was endless. At some point, Arthuria realized that she was driven into a dull defense, she could not even see who was attacking her. She needed to act before the enemy could impose his rhythm fully on her, and then destroy with one clear blow.

Arthuria grabbed her Excalibur, and then, when the enemy's Servant struck her again, instead of retreating and dodging, she blocked the attack with her sword, after which, strengthening the blade with a Manaburst, she forced the attacker to finally interrupt the endless series of attacks, and retreated herself.

Finally, she managed to break contact with the enemy and look at the attacker. However, before seeing the one who was able to attack her with such an incessant series of blows - the girl saw what attacked her.

Finally, she managed to break contact with the enemy and look at the attacker. However, before seeing the one who was able to attack her with such an incessant series of blows - the girl saw weapon that kept attacking her.

What she saw was incredible. At first, the girl did not even understand what she was looking at.

Something resembled a staff. However it was the strangest staff that she could see in her life. It was extremely thick... thicker than the arm of an adult man, and extremely long, taller than a standing adult man, no, perhaps he was even more than two and a half meters. The staff was almost completely covered in black, with bright red cracks penetrating it like a network of blood vessels, occasionally shuddering and pulsing, as if in tune with a heartbeat.

"This is..." - the girl blinked once, a sign of her incredible surprise - "This is... The trunk of a tree?"

The strange thing in her opponent's hands was really a tree trunk. The texture and the rough shape of the bark were hidden behind the black color and red tears piercing the tree, but what the girl saw was really the trunk of a young tree, taken in the manner of the staff - and a huge cudgel.

"Who would have thought of fighting with a tree trunk?" She blinked. Only a madman.

"Who could fight with a tree trunk?" - there were many answers to this question - anyone with sufficient strength to take a tree trunk in his hands could start swinging it around, but who could fence with it? Only a true master.

The girl's gaze rose from the weapon its wielder.

Soot was impossible to notice on the black armor of the knight, because of that, it seemed as if the Arthuria's opponent came out out from someone's nightmare, he was completely uneffected by a spell that had swallowed him recently. There were no eyes in the narrow slit of the helmet — only a red glow pulsing in sync with the heartbeat of the enemy's strange weapon. However, Arthuria could have sworn that the knight's eyess were looking at her with endless hatred. Not at the world, only at her.

She knew this armor. She knew this helmet. She knew this man.

Master by the achievements in his life - and a madman by his actions. Everything, as she said.

"Lancelot," Arthuria said calmly glanced at the faithful knight of the Round Table.

The knight's rage boiled in him in a second, after which he went wild with the wild roar of a mad beast "ARTHUR!"

After that, Berserker broke a new series of attacks, a thousand times fiercer than before.

* * *

Jeanne watched how the battles between Ainz's Servants and those of the Dragon Witch erupted, and she felt gratitude. Gratitude to all who fought for her now. To all who risked their lives. And she especially felt gratitude towards Ainz.

She saw people fighting next to her, it seemed to her that she was fighting again near Orleans - the forces of France and Lord himself are on her side. But she understood that without Ainz's order, none of the Servants would have fought for her. Therefore, she was grateful to Ainz. It was Ainz who was now her army, while she was once again nothing more than the banner of battle. No, in this battle - was it even a banner? She was more like a burden. None of the fighters are now fighting for her - no one is fighting for France - and no one is fighting for Lord. They all fought for Ainz, and only for him. And so she was grateful to Ainz from the bottom of her heart.

"Really…" when dust from the terrifying spell just began to settle, a voice - too familiar to her, exactly the same as her voice, bound her, "Really, really, really…"

The words were pronounced with a slight sarcastic grin, but inside, Jeanne was frozen by the horror that churned her blood, just as the light and barely tinkering patches of armor seemed to her like a screech of the executioner's ax, "This little silly Saint decided to get rid of me?"

From the slowly falling dust, the Dragon Witch emerged like a manifesting ghost, slowly taking shape and color, turning from a black shadow into the same Witch that Jeanne faced just a few minutes ago.

"Did you really think that a couple tricks and a little bit of magic can kill me, Jeanne d'Arc?" The Witch, emerging from the slowly descending ash, did not even seem to change her facial expression. Not a single hair on the tamping of her raincoat was singed, not a single joint on the armor of her gloves was even covered with soot, not a single millimeter of her skin was damaged by the spell, - "Did you really think that you will succeed?"

Looking at this, Jeanne felt a primal panic rising from her depths and took a step back, after which, as if remembering why she fought in this battle, she grabbed her banner like a spear.

"So, do you really hope to beat me?" - noticing how Jeanne's hands were slightly trembling whenever Witch hit the ground with her steel boot especially loudly, she smiled, "But can you do it? What are you hoping for, Jeanne d'Arc? For a miracle? For the god? Or for your own pathetic forces?"

Taking another step forward, the Witch smiled, "You're just rubbish. You are nothing. Looking at you, I want to vomit, seeing how weak I once was. I hate you, your weakness is the cause of my death. You are weak, you are naive, you are pathetic."

With every word, the Witch took a step forward, forcing Jeanne to retreat time after time, as if a wild wolf was approaching a defenseless doe "Why were you even was born, if all you have achieved is a painful death at the stake? You are a nothing, you are just rubbish whose fate is suffering and agony, you are…"

With a whistle that cuts through the air, the blade, like two drops of water similar to the blade of Hassan, flew near the face of the Witch. She only managed to move her head slightly, which is why the dagger left a long cut on her cheek, disfiguring her skin, which even the magic from the Age of Gods could not hurt.

"You're annoying," the girl who appeared next to Jeanne made her turn her head. Serenity was straightening several of her throwing knives between her fingers "Shut up."

Slowly, the Witch raised her hand to her face, picking up a few drops of blood from her cheek. Stopping for a second, she took her hand to look at it and with some surprise saw the blood glisten in the rays of the slowly rising morning sun.

"So, it is like this?" - after looking at her blood, the Witch smiled, then shook off the drops from her hand and in the blink of an eye, clutched at her blade, "So, you will die next to your Saint."

"She is not my Saint," having said this, Serenity jumped aside, allowing Jeanne to prepare for the strike, "But I agree already to anything you want, as long as you shut up."

* * *

**Magic Resistance** \- is one of the most common skills in general. This skill is class-based for as many as three classes: Saber, Lancer, and Archer, but it is an extremely common personal skill in general. As it is easy to guess from the name, this skill is responsible for the Servant's resistance to magic. However, due to some interaction of the skill with Existence Outside the Domain, the Magic Resistance skill changed in case of Ainz.

* * *

**Hello there, it's still me, just the regular update.**

**As I see a few people in the comments misunderstood me - this story has NO Pat reon-exclusive content or chapters, neither I'm planning to change it anywhere in the future. But have early-access to the new chapters, that are already written and will be updated here, but later, while anyone can, for a single dollar, read them right now. So all chapters will be here, for free, just not as fast, as they are actually written - for now Pat reon have a two new chapters, that will be here, for free, but ~2 weeks later. So I hope we good.**

**Anyway, what about 2 weeks? You can read 2 new chapters right now, 1$, pat reon \rure. ****Just telling.**


	21. Chapter 21

Looking at his opponent, Ainz bit his lip.

_Dracula_ was the name of one of the unique NPCs that existed in Yggdrasil, the name of one of the strongest vampires in the whole game.

There were several different vampire bosses in the game, and one of them was the _True Ancestor_ of all vampires, _Cainabel_, the _God of Vampires_, and the _Elder Blood_. He was repeatedly mentioned in the lore of many abilities, objects and quests, but unlike other gods, he never appeared directly, since being one of the most evil gods, he would be an opponent for all players and, being a god, would have a significant influence on the surrounding territory and the NPCs that inhabited them, at least from a lore point of view. So, the creators of the game eventually didn't add him to the game...that is until a Halloween event, when _Cainabel_ supposedly gathered enough strength to manifest in the world and try to destroy it, but he turned out to be an extremely weaker opponent than his flashy title would imply. Of course, he was still able to fight three or, with some luck, four level one hundred players and even defeat them. For one of the gods and a rare event boss who appeared exclusively for two weeks and dropped a unique drop and even some game-mechanical changes like the title "_Elder Blood_" to any vampire player who killed him, he was unexpectedly weak and very disappointing as an opponent.

However, it was not this that was important in these conditions, but the fact that, as any god in the game, _Cainabel_ possessed a whole group of henchmen who tended to the _Blood Gardens_, a whole, full-fledged dungeon that any player who decided to take part in the battle with _Cainabel_ had to go through. And, as it should be, not only crowds of useless small fry existed in this dungeon near _Cainabel_, but also four of his trusted lieutenants - _Elizabeth_, _Vladislav_, _Alexander_ and _Konstantin_. At the same time, each of his trusted lieutenants had a different name, the name of his "vampire" persona - _Carmilla_, _Dracula_, _Cain_ and _Abel_. Each of these lieutenants was an adversary with his own specialization, a set of unique skills, tactics, and battle conditions, and while each of them was comparable in strength to a player of the hundredth level in normal conditions, in the dungeon, each of them received a significant bonus from their god.

Of the four, _Dracula_ was a sort of magic knight, combining the features of a warrior and a mage. Although he was weaker in magic than a full-fledged mage, and weaker in melee than a full-fledged warrior, he was much stronger than any of them alone because of his ability to control the fights by using melee on magic casters and a magic on warrior, which is why he was arguably the most difficult of all four, at least for Ainz. Of course, at that time in Yggdrasil he was able to defeat _Dracula_, and he suspected that with preparation and certain tactics he could even solo _Cainabel_, but under the current conditions, there was no Yggdrasil around him - and the battle with an enemy such as _Dracula_ was too strenuous for his current abilities.

However, it was impossible to retreat now. The enemy standing in front of him looked noble, but he clearly did not intend to retreat from the battle, even if Ainz himself would have invited him to try and reach peace, not to mention his more than expressive remark about his vampirism and the question asked by Ainz.

Therefore, Ainz, looking attentively at Vlad, did not begin a dialogue with him, but reacted first.

"_Napalm_," in accordance to his command, the extravaganza of fire instantly broke out on the spot where Dracula was. Dracula was fast enough to have time to react to the actions of the mage, but not fast enough to have time to escape from the embrace of the fire before it ascended to the sky, therefore, the silhouette that emerged from the fire a second later turned out to be engulfed in flames.

Although it was not as terrifying a spell as the one that Ainz used just a couple of minutes ago, fewer than two dozen modern mages could produce a similar effect - and only five could recreate it with one click of their fingers, as Ainz did. A servant with a C-rank endurance would most likely be instantly burned by a similar spell, and even the higher rank Dracula would be extremely hurt by such a force. However, although Vlad III, the Lord of Wallachia, lived on Earth at a time when magic was already too rare to rule this world, his legend surpassed his mortal name, like the Great Vampire, the magic of mortals was no more than a toy for him, because of that, even such a strong spell should have left no more than a couple of burns on it.

However, the figure burst from the flames ablaze. Covered fire, easily eating the flesh off his bones, the vampire struck with a wooden lance towards Ainz, but before the spear could pierce the mage's body, he used a spell again.

"_Teleportation_," with this spell, Ainz moved a hundred meters ahead, then commanded again, "_Napalm_."

A column of fire swallowed the place where Dracula was, burning his body with the force of a small sun, flashed by the will of the necromancer.

For some reason, the Lancer's Magic Resistance barely kept up with the pressure of Ainz's spells. Was it related to Ainz's power? Yes, but only partially. The real and most important reason lay elsewhere.

"As I thought" Ains noted to himself when, after the second fallen column of fire, he again saw the figure of Dracula burned with a magical flame "Fire works well against the undead and vampires."

In the new world, the undead were not vulnerable to fire. At least no more than an ordinary person was vulnerable to it, the dead flesh did not respond well to high temperatures and burned badly, while the bare bones of the skeletons did not burn at all. Moreover, vampires in the new world were not undead at all, at least according to the general definition of what the undead is. Even if some kinds of undead could have been afraid of fire, the vampires obviously wouldn't suffer more from it than their nature was supposed to.

But not for Ainz. In Yggdrasil, the vampires were undead, and all undead were vulnerable to fire, which is why Ainz now had no doubt, sending one fiery column after the other towards the enemy. And his phenomenal "Existence Outside the Domain" allowed him that. As a creature that brought its "principle of existence" as one of its skills, things like "vampires are vulnerable to fire" were taken for granted by him. And his skill, obeying this logic, entered into a fight with the world around, forcing it to believe in the truth of Ainz's statements. And although this skill was not completely positive - because necrotic magic, which was Ainz''s his speciality, will be greatly reduced in effectiveness against the undead and vampires following the logic of Yggdrasil, including Dracula, despite the fact that he was usually as vulnerable to it as any other living thing. But at the moment, this ability was the thing that made the spells of Ainz so deadly.

Dracula rushed towards Ainz again, but Ainz was not fazed by that, nor did he change tactics, seeing that it works.

"_Napalm_," he commanded, but this time Vlad turned out to be more agile and was able to dodge the flaming column of fire, barely burning his cloak.

"Commendable ..." he began, but Ainz was not distracted.

"_Napalm_," he conjured another spell, after which he calmly went the other way, "_Teleportation_"...

* * *

Arthuria avoided getting hit time after time, time after time, time after time. Right, left, bend down, jump...

"ARTHUR!" - Lancelot's brutal roar tore the sounds of battle, after which the King of Knights barely had time to raise her blade before a new blow sent her on a short flight.

The blow was so strong that even in plate gloves, holding Excalibur in her hands, possessing all the power of the Servant, Arthuria felt her hands go numb for a second.

The strike sent the girl in a short flight. However, she easily regained her balance, landing easily on her feet a couple of seconds later, only to instantly step aside, fleeing from the next series of attacks.

"ARTHUR!" - like a mad beast, howling its battle cry, Lancelot rushed "ARTHUR! ARTHUR! ARTHUR!"

Arthuria was dodging the blows with an ever shrinking gap, barely managing to occasionally brush aside the figure of the black knight approaching her.

One strike, a second, a third, a fourth...

His knee, sharply crashing into her solar plexus, knocked the air out of Arturia for a second, and if it were not for the instincts that screamed in her body to bend, the next blow coming her way could have been the last one. She bent in an unthinkable pirouette to put the blade under the blow of an improvised weapon in the hands of Lancelot, Blackened Excalibur took the blow of the weapon in Berserker's hands, but instead of tearing apart the weapon that had collided with it, the sword just grated helplessly, as if facing iron instead of wood, before Arthuria could find in herself enough strength get out from under the ensuing series of strikes.

"ARTHUR!" letting out another cry, Lancelot rushed again, not giving the King the opportunity to even rest.

'This is…' - only after that, and from the very beginning of the battle, a single thought slipped into Arturia's head - 'Somewhat unpleasant.'

When he was alive, Lancelot was the perfect knight. In terms of fencing techniques, he was superior to Arthuria herself... no, it would not have been an understatement to say that he was superior to any knight of the Round Table in battle. Arthuria could fight him using brute physical strength and manaburst, but if she decided to fight Lancelot in an honest duel without taking advantage of her rough power, she would instantly end up on the ground, rubbing all the places Lancelot would consider necessary to injure in a duel. In other words, in this case, the only hope for Arthuria was manaburst and superiority in pure power.

However, by becoming a Berserker, Lancelot sacrificed his mind, exchanging it for power, which meant that he was now more than comparable to the King of Knights. Even her manaburst gave her only a second of advantage before Lancelot overwhelmed her again.

Of course, if Lancelot really completely lost his mind, then his fencing technique should also sink into oblivion, turning him from a noble knight into a mad beast, swinging a blade like a club. However, this did not happen. Every trick and attack Lancelot used was perfect, as if she was fighting him again in the courtyard of Camelot, waiting patiently, as he, having won in their battle, would teach her a new trick. No, maybe his technique was even better - to the perfect fencing of Lancelot he added his insane fury directed at Arthuria, which is why all his flawless tricks acquired an internal spark, becoming angrier and stronger with every swing. Arthuria had to get away from his attacks, maneuvering between one strike and the next. Without the possibility of even once swinging Excalibur. The girl was driven into a complete defense.

"This is..." - she calmly analyzed her situation - "Bad."

Lancelot was not an invincible opponent. If Arthuria could hit him with her Noble Phantasm, he would have died instantly, she only needed a few seconds to activate it.

But Lancelot did not give her those few seconds.

Moving away from the next strike, the girl dodged a new attack, after which she jumped back, breaking contact.

At this moment, she received from Ainz only fifty percent of all her mana, putting her at half her maximum strength. If Ainz had given her full access to his mana, then she would have become twice as strong - she would have surpassed Lancelot in all parameters, after which, with the help of a manaburst, she could have destroyed him with a few blows.

In any other case, she would have done just that. Fighting the Dragon Witch, or Saber, or the girl with the Catholic cross, she would have instantly used all her reserves, destroying her opponent in a few moments without leaving him a chance.

But not now.

Dodging the next series of blows, Arthuria took a step back. Lancelot slowly but surely was overtaking her.

Lancelot... The name of her shame. The man that caused her defeat. Lancelot-madman, Lancelot-traitor, Lancelot-rebel. The name of her main opponent and the name of her dear friend.

Escaping time after time from his attacks, Arthuria tried to discern in each subsequent blow something from the real Lancelot, the one she had known once. From her friend, teacher, follower. But did not see anything.

This Lancelot breathed rage. Hatred, anger and madness ruled his mind - and with each strike it became more and more obvious. There was nothing in him, only blind rage and madness.

This Lancelot was bound in armor from pain and anger and saw no other choice but to continue to grow into them more and more, going mad more and more.

In an instant, Arthuria stumbled, allowing Lancelot to bring his weapon for the final blow, but at the last sliver of time, when the knight in black appeared behind her - the first manaburst, then the second, third and fourth - allowed her to exceed the limits of even the perfect knight and deliver an instant hit with Excalibur. By allowing Lancelot to control the fight, Arthuria tried to trap him, but even distraught, Lancelot was a more skilled as a knight than Arthuria ever was. Such an obvious trick was not a surprise for Lancelot - and he instantly tried to dodge left. If it were not for the repeated manabursts, then he would have easily avoided the blow. But Arthuria did not take chances, and therefore, Excalibur pierced the body of the knight, leaving a deep wound on his chest. His lung was pierced, but Lancelot seemed to not even react to this, his only response to this wound was a series of his insane attacks.

Arthuria broke contact again, jumping back for a second.

"Lancelot..." she said for the first time in the entire battle, and Lancelot, the knight ablaze with hate, stopped, "Forgive me."

For a second, the black knight stopped before exploding in a new fountain of hate.

"ARTHUR!" - the earth itself seemed to crack under his feet at the hate radiating from him.

Arthuria only prepared her blade.

The Past could not be changed, and Arthuria was going to kill Lancelot. However, this did not mean that she ceased to be responsible for him. Lancelot was her mistake - and she had to correct her mistake personally.

* * *

The blade flew from Serenity's hand towards to Witch, forcing her to defend from the attack with her hand, easily batting itl with a glove. Jeanne took advantage of her opponent's momentary confusion, sending her spear towards the Witch, forcing her to defend from the new attack, striking a black blade against the Jeanne's banner. Serenity, taking advantage of this, threw two more blades towards the Witch.

The Witch, frowning slightly, curved sharply, letting the two strips of steel fly over her, after which, a blow from her blade parried the following blow from Jeanne, and taking a half step back, rising, she counterattacked. The black blade in her hands seemed to absorb the light, not leaving even a glare on its surface, as if it was completely assembled from darkness - and the strength of the hands holding the blade exceeded the strength of the weakened Jeanne, because of which, she barely managed to fend off the blow with her banner, but before the Witch could cut the spear shaft with the next blow, a sharp movement behind her back made her give up the attack and strike another blow with a backhand. Serenity, taking advantage of her superior dexterity, easily left the line of attack, after which she retreated with one continuous movement, throwing a few more knives towards the Witch. Jeanne, finding no pressure on herself, instantly took a step back, avoiding the possibility of the Witch's attack.

The battle fell into this rhythm for ten minutes. The three participants circled around each other, exchanging minor attacks that did not turn into real blows. All of Serenity's attacks were too weak to hurt the Witch. All Jeanne's attacks were easily blocked by the Witch, and all attempts from the Witch to attack in response were easily interrupted by attacks from Jeanne or Serenity. The fight reached a stalemate.

The three fighters exchanged insignificant attacks, continuing to dance around each other, but no one could inflict much wounds. But still…

Slowly, the Witch was losing.

In a one-on-one battle, the Witch could kill either of the two Servants. Despite the fact that Serenity possessed tremendous Dexterity, in a one-on-one battle, where the Witch could concentrate entirely on her attacks, she would calculate her fighting style, after which, only one attack would be required to instantly kill the Assassin.

If Jeanne had her full strength, perhaps she would become a serious opponent, but the Witch believed that she could still win the battle. This assumption was not entirely groundless.

But now, with Jeanne having lost so much of her strength, a victory over her would be not much more difficult than a victory over an ordinary zombie. Longer, but not harder.

But at the same time, the Witch had been fighting the two Servants for ten minutes and... Was losing.

Yes, it was imperceptible, but the Witch was slowly losing the battle. Jeanne's attacks did not reach her, and Serenity's attacks left only shallow scratches, but the Witch really slowly was losing under the onslaught of two. Scratches meant hardly more than scratches, but the Witch knew that she was losing... Slowly and inevitably.

If anyone wished to compare the course of the battle, then it would look like a forty-nine percent victory on the part of the Witch - and fifty-one on the part of her opponents. Despite the fact that this advantage was insignificant, only two percent, it was nevertheless existing. Serenity's attacks, which left scratches on the Witch's body, were similar to signs of this advantage. Too insignificant to be called even full-fledged attacks, and yet real, existing, proving that even with miserable percentages, the Dragon Witch herself was weaker.

No.

The thought of her weakness stirred in her mind like a candle flame rising from glowing embers.

No.

Powerlessness instantly spread through her mind, as if dry foliage picked up a spark from a glow candle.

No. NO. NO!

She was not weak! She was the strongest of all! She will kill them all! No one will betray her! No one can beat her! Revenge, chaos, pain!

Clenching her teeth, as if trying to crush them together, the Witch growled slightly.

The Jeanne's lance was once again racing to stab the Witch's body, but she knew that by continuing to retreat, she would only enable the enemy Servants to continue their slow progress towards victory. No one was supposed to beat her!

Hatred flooded the Witch's mind, after which, with a hand chained in black armor, she intercepted the spear directed at her heart and sharply pulled it towards her. Jeanne, who did not release the banner from her hands instantly found herself in front of the Witch...

Pain pierced the Witch's mind when two Serenity's blades dug into her exposed back, but pain didn't mean anything to her now. A black blade, not reflecting light, entered Jeanne's stomach, forcing her to freeze in pain for a second, then, with a sharp, tearing motion, the blade was pulled out, causing the Saint to faint for an instant before the Witch could throw her off. Serenity's blades sank again into the Witch's body, making her hiss from pain, but before the black sword arced towards the girl, Serenity was already gone, having gotten away from the Witch.

With a double jump, Assassin got in front of the Witch again, with her hands firmly grabbing her blades, which now left a trace of Witch's blood on the ground.

The Witch pointed it at Serenity with her blade.

"Now what?" blood oozed from the wounds on her back, and her body was slight heated because of the fight, but the Witch kept herself steady and confident, "You are alone. If you give up now, then so be it, I will spare your life."

Jeanne lay wounded nearby, blood flowed from her torn abdomen as if all the regeneration of the Servants was no more than a myth, but Serenity was looking straight at the Witch, not taking her eyes off her.

"Well," the Witch slowly led her blade around, "Your Saint is about to bleed out and die. Hurry up, or you will not have time to save her."

"She is not my Saint," Serenity did not even notice the mockery in the words of the Witch, "And the value of her life is insignificant at the moment. Perhaps, if she dies, it will even be a positive outcome."

"Hmm?" slightly surprised at such an answer, the Witch looked at Serenity with a slightly different look, "Such an unusual look at things. Ordinary people are always easily captivated by her kindness, beauty, modesty and naivety. Her Christian virtues."

"My morality is not based on these qualities" at this moment Serenity glanced at Jeanne. "Besides, she has already completed her part of the work, therefore her continued existence is not obligatory."

"Hmm?" The Witch was even more surprised by these words, after which, she lowered her blade slightly "I admit, I am amazed. Perhaps, if we could meet under other conditions, we could establish fruitful cooperation."

"This is unlikely" Serenity calmly objected. "You are a young and beautiful girl who would be next to the Master. We would not cooperate with you."

"Hmm?" this stopped the Witch for a second, not fully understanding, was she supposed to be more pleased with a compliment or angry at refusal, but, as a result, without coming to a definite conclusion, she simply turned to another question "Well now, with your ally almost dead, you're alone with me. Tell me, what are you going to do?"

Jeanne moaned a little, the bleeding had almost stopped. Her life was no longer in immediate danger, but she could not participate in battle in any way.

But instead of panic, a small, confident smile appeared on Serenity's face.

"Just what I planned to do before" Serenity straightened two blades in her hands, "I will silence you."

* * *

Medusa pulled her blade towards herself, after which, with a sharp movement of her hand, she threw it forward. Saber, without a second of delay, moved away, but obeying Rider's movements, a sharp iron spike connected with a steel chain rushed after the swordsman as if alive, but Saber easily dodged, took a step back, after which, when the second blade struck where he was, he jumped to the side, having beaten off one more attack with a blade flashed in his hands.

"Noble lady, you are fighting with the grace of a deer and the ferocity of a tiger," he praised Medusa for continuing to attack him, "I am amazed that my fate brought me together with you, but I ask you to give up. You have no chance."

"I doubt it" Medusa calmly replied, after which, she sent another blade, which Saber easily batted off, as if not paying attention at all.

The situation looked bad.

Rider bit her lip.

Saber was abnormally strong. Because he kept dodging Rider's attacks or deflecting them with his blade, he still hasn't been scratched, and in the worst case, all that Medusa managed to do was mess his clothes. At the same time, Medusa herself paid for each of her attempts to go on the offensive, several shallow, but long and unpleasant cuts on her body continued to drip slowly with blood, soaking the ground beneath her.

But she was Medusa, the legendary heroine of Greece - she was at the top of the Servants. But in this battle, all she could do was to keep Saber at a distance, not letting him get close to her.

Stalemate.

Medusa and Saber were absolutely equal. Of course, Medusa was injured - but these wounds could not affect her actions. She found the perfect strategy to keep Saber at bay - but this led only to one thing.

Absolute stalemate.

"Noble lady," having shown his gallantity, in a symbolic gesture, Saber lowered his blade to the ground and smiled, "I see, you also understood the situation in which we both turned out to be. I ask you to reconsider, there is no need for this battle."

Medusa did not believe these words. He had already attacked her once, at the very beginning, interrupting their exchange of courtesies. But now, what he said was true. They really were both in a draw. Saber could not get close, and Medusa could not go on the offense.

Pulling the chain, Medusa pulled the blade from the ground into her hand, and then turned to Saber, barely noticeably nodding her head, showing that she was listening to him. Seeing such a barely noticeable movement, Saber was delighted, after which he nodded.

"Noble lady, why should we fight?" Saber tried to take a step forward, but instantly, Medusa's blade thrust into the ground in front of his foot. "Oh, you do not trust me? Well, it would be stupid of me to say that I did not expect this, but this does not mean that such behavior on your part does not hurt me."

"Noble lady," Saber took a step back, "As you understand, in the current battle we are both in a stalemate. I can not attack, and you can only defend. In other words, our battle is meaningless and can last as long as it takes, and not reach an end. Without the intervention of another force, neither of us could win."

Medusa could not disagree with his words, but without understanding exactly where Saber wanted to lead this conversation, Rider did not dare to respond in any unambiguous manner to Saber. However, he was satisfied with simple silence and continued.

"I suggest you stop this battle for the few minutes that the other servants would need to win their battles, your friends or mine," Saber was pointing to the battles that were going on not far away. On the one hand, Cu Chulainn drew the runes in the air, trying to hit the black and white shadow with a burst of fire, while on the other, both Archer and Assassin were trying to land a hit on one seemingly defenseless girl, who could somehow fight on equal terms with both of them with her titanic cross, accompanying her physical blows with spells, forcing the Servants to escape from the splashes of energy that arose every time.

Saber's proposal sounded logical, however, trusting the enemy, which had already demonstrated its desire to fight her while neglecting honor, was the height of stupidity.

Medusa could neither refuse such an offer nor agree to it. Apparently, realizing the same fact independently, Saber sighed.

"I understand you, noble lady," the boy sighed, "But I'm afraid if you cannot agree with me, then I will be forced to see your answer as a denial."

After these words, Medusa tightened her grip on her blades, but Saber, wiping his blade on the sheath, brought it back into place.

Rider hesitated for a second - but after these actions, Saber just took off his hat, and slowly sat in seiza on the grass, wet with morning dew, putting his hat next to him.

"Lady, you should not stay standing!" he said to the misunderstanding Medusa "The world will not collapse if you sit down, please"

Medusa blinked once, then the second and third, and then looked at Saber. He really sat on the grass. Peering closely, Medusa was even able to determine that the guy had covered his eyes and was now slowly breathing in the morning air that had come from the nearby river.

Somewhere nearby, the roar of an explosion from the battle of Cu Chulainn and his opponent made Medusa snap out of her torpor. However, Saber only continued to sit on the grass, as if he was not at all concerned about the surroundings.

"Lady!" finally he turned to Medusa, when she was distracted by the explosion that followed from the battle of Archer and Assassin, "Please, sit down. If we are destined to kill each other, the perhaps in the last moments of our life we should enjoy the nature around us?"

Medusa blinked once, after which, as if accepting defeat, she sighed and slowly sank down on the grass. From the morning dew her legs immediately became wet, but Saber did not jump up the same second, trying to tear the girl apart.

Feeling a little stupid, Medusa, nevertheless, still decided.

She closed her eyes for a second.

Just for a second.

Pain shot through her.

Saber's blade pierced through the girl, tearing her belly open. Perhaps Saber could have pierced her heart, but instead Saber chose to hit her in the stomach, a place that definitely should not have been protected from the blow.

How could he do this? It remained only a guess. Saber's talent was so incredible during his lifetime that he remained especially Skilled even when he became a Servant, despite his achievements during his life as a mortal not hinting at such talent.

"I ask for your forgiveness, noble lady," the swordsman pressed the blade slightly, accepting Medusa's silence for her shock from pain, "But I really do not know how to fight otherwise."

A moment, and Medusa's hand squeezed the hand Saber was holding the hilt of his sword with. The swordsman tried to get away, but Rider's incredible strength squeezed his arm so that he could not even loosen his grip on the sword.

"I understand," said the girl. Her "Monstrous Strength" Skill acted only during a melee battle, therefore, she needed to lure Saber into close quarters combat no less than Saber need to get closer to Medusa. Saber's trick was equally useful to both of them.

A blow of incredible strength with Medusa's blade hit Saber's arm, separating it from his body, it immediately fell to the ground, showering the grass with blood.

Saber did not seem at all surprised or frightened by this development of events, he instantly picked up the fallen limb with the blade still in its hand, and irrigated the earth with a blood-stained stump as he leaped back.

"I miscalculated," he said calmly, wrapping the bloodied stump with what's left of his sleeve in seconds, "I thought I was able to distract you. Anyone who sees my face cannot ignore my words."

To this, Medusa just calmly lifted the blade and tapped a couple of times lightly on her blindfold, reminding him that she had not seen his appearance.

Disarmingly, Saber smiled "Forgot."

After the battle that had just happened, such a simple excuse from a magnificent swordsman made Medusa look at him carefully, "Forgot?"

"Hmm," Saber was a little embarrassed at this "Let a girl have her own oddities!"

Medusa did not react to this embarrassment, so Saber smiled again, "But, apparently, I will not be able to offer you a second time to rest."

The blood stopped gushing out from Medusa's belly, and the pain no longer reflected on her face, which made it clear that Rider was ready to continue the battle. On his part, the swordsman took his blade in his hand, and then, he smiled, "In that case... Shall we continue?"

* * *

Gradually, evading Vlad's attacks became increasingly difficult.

"_Teleportation_," Ainz walked away to find a wooden stake flying into him. Weapons of this level could not inflict damage on Ainz, especially considering that it was a thrown weapon, which technically made it a ranged weapon, Ainz's defense against such weapons was particularly strong, but the mage did not tempt fate and went on to the next teleportation, only to find himself moving closer to Dracula.

The clothes of the vampire were almost completely burned, in some places his formerly luxurious black camisole melted into the skin, his hair was full of bald spots, the skin was disfigured with terrible burns, his left arm was almost completely burned to charcoal and could break off like a dry branch in any moment, but still, Vlad was still alive and could fight.

"What perseverance," Ainz nodded, then instantly teleported to the side, before Lancer's spear could pierce him.

To this, Vlad just threw another one, which appeared as if from nowhere.

"Is running away is all you can do?" Dracula's voice was full of anger, "Fight!"

In response to this, Ainz went in the direction of another teleportation, after which, in silence, he sent another fiery spell towards Lancer, forcing him to leap off.

"Dishonorable son of a bitch!" Vlad squeezed the spear in his hands with such force that the wooden thorn cracked "Fight like a man!"

"Why should I?" Ainz was a little surprised, "I'm winning."

It would seem that these words were the last straw. Raising his spear into the air, Lancer instantly rushed at Ainz, who only teleported to the side, then again, and again, and again...

Spears shot from the ground and pierced through Ainz, a dozen wooden stakes struck out of the soil at the speed of a bullet, punching into the mage's body in many places.

Lancer instantly stopped when he saw this scene.

"Finally…" Vlad stopped in his place, after which, he turned his eyes to Ainz. The mage's body hung on a dozen spikes, pierced in several places at once, like a rag doll nailed to the wall with a pin "How long have I been waiting for this!"

Vlad smiled, then, without holding back emotions, he laughed. Considering that half of his face was burned — through the coals left in place of his cheeks, one could see rows of teeth with sharp, long canines — this laughter looked particularly creepy.

"How long have I waited, how long have I suffered!" - Vlad burst out laughing at this, after which, he slowly moved to Ainz, crucified on his spears.

"My stakes submit to my will," slowly, feeling the inevitable death approaching Ainz with every step he took, the vampire enjoyed every moment. "Everything in my kingdom obeys my will. Anyone who happens to be in my territory is subject to my judgment. To live or die, be pinned - or join me."

"Only one problem," Vlad winced at this, "Creating a kingdom takes time. It takes time to declare your land, to subjugate it to yourself. The time that you still gave me. If it were not for your dishonest way of fighting, I wouldn't have been able to do this. I might even thank you."

Looking at the crucified body of Ainz, Vlad extended his hand, after which a spear appeared in his hand. Slowly raising it, he directed the stake into the heart of the mage crucified in front of him.

"Having declared the land I walked on as my kingdom, all I needed was to go around as much territory as possible," Vlad remembered how long he had to chase Ainz and winced, "And then make you step on it. It was interesting to play catch with you, but now you will die."

Ainz, after these words, opened his eyes.

"Thank you for the information," he said calmly, after which he used the spell, "_Teleportation_."

"Huh?" for a moment, Vlad was even taken aback by such a quick change of scenery.

Behind his back the mage used another spell, after which Vlad felt Ainz disappear from his territory.

Turning around, Dracula could see that now Ainz was floating in the sky, at a height of several tens of meters above the ground, having correctly understood Vlad's weakness. Of course, if he had more time, he could even turn the sky into his kingdom, which would make it impossible for Ainz to hide in it, but now, with such a scant period of time, Ainz was completely protected from instantaneous impalement in the air. However, this did not answer the question of how Ainz managed to escape from the restraint of stakes on the ground, nor how his clothes were completely intact with not even dirty with a drop of blood. Even though he was pierced a second ago.

"How could you avoid **Kazikli Bey**?!" Vlad demanded an answer.

Ainz had several answers, including his characteristics, one of skills, another skill, a third, a fourth, and also at least six items of his equipment, but the mage did not want to respond to Vlad, revealing even the smallest part of his abilities was dangerous.

"_Napalm_," he replied to Vlad with a spell, forcing him to throw himself to the side, after which, he continued to calmly attack the Lancer, "_Napalm_."

* * *

**Magic Resistance:** _A+_

A Servant of this rank is invulnerable to modern magic. For him, even the High Thaumaturgy and the Great Rituals are no more than simple tricks. Even the greatest magi of the Age of the Gods rarely pose any danger to him, only a few dozen Servants and mages in the entire history of mankind were able to discover in themselves a power capable of surpassing the resistance of such a rank.

Also, in addition to the spells, this skill reduces the effect of other Skills and Phantasms with a magic base. The titanic strength of this resistance is such that it can even neutralize a magic-based A-grade skill - or weaken a stronger skill to this level, turning even A++ rank skill into E rank - or do the same with Noble Phantasm up to B rank.\

* * *

**Hello there, it's still me, I'm still here!**

**I was told in the comments, that E rank is beyond Olimpic level since it 10 times the human power - but the trickiest part is that it is stated, that E rank is 10 times stronger than _average_ human, and Olimpic level are sure not average. And I don't want to start any kind of argument with this statement - I'm just telling what I saw.  
Also, there was a question about lemons - and so far I'm not planning writing any kind of this things - neither I'm confident in my ability to write any kind of erotic, neither I can foresee the situation, that will require something like this. I'm not telling that there will be no sex at all - I do think, that it will happen one way or another - but about the detailed things? I can't answer those question right now.**

**And yes, actually - my Pat reon \rure have 2 chapters right now, that will make it way here only in the 2 weeks - so if you want - I can gladly offer them right now - for 1$. It's the minimal sum of money I can even set - and this will not only help me greatly (since I'm not from USA even 10$ is actually a thing, I need only 300$ for all my monthly expenses) - but also show that I'm as writer and my writing at all indeed worth something.**

**Okay, anyway, I think I gonna see you in no time. Actually a think, that it maybe less than a week.**


	22. Chapter 22

Dracula was losing.

Avoiding attacks one after the other, Vlad understood that he was losing.

He had no opportunity to attack his opponent. All he could do was continue to throw useless spears into a soaring mage, who in turn just evaded them time after time, and then continue to run like a frightened mouse, feeling like each of the pillars of flame that kept coming from nowhere was melting his strength with his flesh.

He did not have the opportunity to use his trump cards. While the enemy was floating in the air, he was out of reach of Dracula's** Kazikli Bey**, which he could conjure according to his will in any place in his Kingdom. It would take him time and concentration in order to subdue the air around him, but if he even stopped for a second, he would get hit, and only two or three more direct hits would burn him completely. Moreover, even if he had subjugated the air to himself, this did not mean that his opponent would fall. In a strange way, the mage could escape his fate. He had already survived getting pierced with a dozen lances at the same time. It could be just a one-time trick, of course... But it could be something more.

And his opponent did not stop attacking. His attacks were exactly the same, as straightforward as possible, simple, and unmercifully strong. The fire arising with every word from his opponent licked tore flesh from the bones with the greed of a hungry beast, bringing with it the might and hatred of the primordial fire. Such magic was comparable to great magic - to the magic from the Age of the Gods. Even in the past, at a time when the gods walked the earth, such magic was not a bazaar trick, but a powerful ritual, magic available only to the strongest. Even if Dracula had fought the old Sumerian maiden, she would not have been able to use such magic more than ten times outside her territory. In her base, maybe she could reach fifty. But she was really strong, Vlad could not deny it, even if he did not want to admit it.

But his opponent continued to use spell behind spell as if such magic was, at best, a common occurrence for him. He was close to the designated fifty uses of such a spell, but unlike the witch, he was not in his territory. Even more, after fifty such spells, that witch would have been completely exhausted and would have had to leave the battlefield, while this mage, who continued to soar, seemed to not break a sweat, sending spell after spell at Dracula. And all that while he maintained his Fly spell. It was not a strong spell, many Servants could afford some sort of flight, but it was an extra waste of man, mana that was supposed to be used on spells, mana which seemed to be infinite in the body of Dracula's foe.

"What kind of monster is this?" Vlad asked himself a question and grinned. Not to downplay the irony of the greatest vampire calling someone a monster, but his opponent was truely much closer to a monster than to a man. Not every magi from the Age of the Gods could so calmly attack Vlad with this abundance of powerful spells, as if he was not at all concerned about his mana expenditure. Dracula tried to remember the name of someone who could attack over and over with magic of this caliber, but failed. His opponent used only three spells during the battle: fire, teleportation and flight. Vlad could not even imagine with whom he continued to fight - and at the same time, he was forced to reveal one of his main trump cards, his **Kazikli Bey**.

If it were not for his opponent's method of escaping from attacks and his excessive practicality in choosing the method of attack, Vlad would give him a respectful bow, as an equal. However, his enormous respect for his opponent was counterbalanced by his contempt for the tactics of his battle, because of that, all that the vampire could do was snort ardently, as if reluctantly recognizing that his enemy was still not weak.

Under normal conditions, even if Vlad faced such an adversary, his tactic would be to wait. He would wait out the attacks of his enemy, until he used all his strength - however, judging by the way his opponent continued to attack him, not caring about mana usage, Vlad understood that such tactics were useless. In other words…

Vlad was losing.

Dracula winced as if from a toothache, after which he glanced at his enemy, who continued to throw spells at him while floating in the sky.

Vlad still had four... No, five trump cards up his sleeve, although even the fact that he was ready to consider the fifth thing a trump card only showed how dangerous his opponent was, and how much his current summon changed him as a person.

One trump card, **Kazikli Bey** in his Kingdom was useless - and therefore the second trump card was useless too. There were three left, although under different conditions he would rather throw himself to stray dogs to be eaten than decide to use the last one, which was probably the strongest. So now he had only two.

And again, one was useless under current conditions, but another one ...

Vlad made a leap back, dodging the column of fire, then looked at the figure floating in the air.

If Vlad had the ability to neutralize the attacks of his enemy, he would rely on this ability. According to his theory, if the mage was able to neutralize his **Kazikli Bey** again, then there was no reason for him to rise into the air, evading further attacks of an ability not dangerous to him.

For Ainz, his thoughts were the opposite. No matter how much protections he uses against his enemy's ability, they will always fall short from absolute protection. This made him take his opponent seriously, which turned his battle into an endless race with an imaginary opponent, who could somehow outsmart any of his defenses or countermeasures at any time. Because Ainz took his opponent seriously, there was no such thing as "excessiveness" or "overkill". He could easily walk through the crowds of zombies, if he knew that they were weak, but when confronted with the Servant, who, by definition, was judged by his mind as "the pinnacle of power", Ainz took Dracula seriously. If he decided to prepare for a battle with a Servant who had fire magic, he would equipe himself with fire protection gear, use fire protection spells, protection against magic, protection against breaking through fire resistance, protection from breaking through protection from magic, anti-magic, anti-magic against penetration of protection, protection against penetration of anti-magic, anti-magic against anti-magic, and protection against protection from anti-magic ...

In other words, despite the fact that Vlad's attacks consisted of ordinary stakes, which could not harm the Ainz's body, despite the fact that the individual strength of each spear was below the threshold needed to cause damage to the mage, despite the fact that the physical resistance of the necromancer was able to cope with attacks much stronger, despite the fact that, as a creature made from bones, Ainz was particularly strongly protected from Vlad's piercing attacks, he nevertheless took to the air, protecting himself from Lancer's attacks even further. Moreover, he was ready to use at least five different spells aimed at defending against Lancer's attacks, all he needed to use them was for Dracula to demonstrate something that went beyond his assumptions. For Ainz, endless preparation and defense against all possible attack variants was a power.

For Vlad this was evidence of weakness. The king does not run away from those who are weaker than him, such were the thought of the legendary Dracula. If he was stronger than an advancing army, he would destroy it, proudly striding forward, ready to meet tens of thousands of enemies at a time. If he was stronger, then for him there was no such thing as "reinsurance", he would never have decided to retreat and then destroy the enemy from a safe distance. In this regard, he was infinitely different from Ainz.

In other words, in the actions of Ainz, who rose into the air, he saw not a demonstration of tactical wits, which means strength, but rather fear of getting attacked, and therefore weakness. For Vlad, such a retreat meant only one thing: The fact that his opponent was not as invulnerable to attacks as it seemed. That his **Kazikli Bey**, even if it didn't work the first time, was still not too weak to hurt - or kill - the mage. So in this trump card there was a meaning.

Avoiding another spell that exploded with a flower of fire at the spot where he was, Vlad stopped for a second. All that he could stand now was three direct hits of a spell of a similar level. However, in order to win, he was forced to perform such a gambit.

Fire sprang up around the vampire, burning his flesh. In the end, his face melted like a candle, his left hand burned to the ground, but he still stayed.

Concentrating on the power that had betrayed him before, Lancer appealed to the full power of his Noble Phantasm.

"**Kazikli Bey**!" and with these words a million lances launched out of the ground.

* * *

A million lances is still a million lances, it was hard to argue with that statement. Instantly, the stakes lashed from the earth to the very horizon, knocking away parts of the earth like horrifying, twisted trees, raising defeated enemies into the air, like an offering to the bloodthirsty gods of the sky.

Most of the Servants managed to respond to such a sudden occurrence - Arthuria's instincts forced her to disappear in a meaningless jump into the sky, Serenity's reaction was such that she used the rising stake as a platform for a new jump, even Medusa was able to escape from the blow of the legendary vampire. Some could not get away from the blows of the emerging stakes - Jeanne, who had barely stood up from the ground, managed only to move slightly from the impact trajectory, allowing the tip of the emerging lance to scratch her body, and Lancelot, devoured by his hatred, did not even notice how a certain peak pierced his body, impaling it as if on a pin, continuing his attack, breaking down the stakes emerging from nowhere as if they were splinters. However, no one was able to completely avoid the actions of the Dracula.

Except for one single girl.

Archer stepped aside, but this did not save him completely - even though a spear arising from the ground did not pierce him - the light surrounding him allowed the guy to understand what would follow next.

The blow of white fire that emerged from nowhere was not particularly strong, the opponent of the two Servants was not a particularly powerful mage in terms of attack, and Archer had small, but still relevant defense against magic, because of which, such an attack was only slightly more for him than a small flick, but nevertheless, Archer was extremely annoyed that he could not in any way evade such a spell, no matter what he tried.

At the same time, the girl who held the staff in her hands, more like a huge cudgel, did not even budge when the vampire stakes pierced the ground next to her. Not a single spear even scratched her, on the contrary, a thorn that emerged from the ground stood as an unexpected obstacle in front of the Assassin who appeared on the girl's side, and immediately retreated into the shadows.

It happened over and over again. Randomly, some of the Servants' attacks were simply interrupted without hitting their target. The blades in the Hassan's hands deviated from their course, passing in a centimeter from the girl's body, while Archer's arrows broke on her light robe, as if on a stone wall. However, this was not because of the girl's actions, nor because of the incompetence of the Servants the attacking her. The attacks broke down quite by accident. With equal probability, a shot from Archer hand would either fail, crashing powerlessly into an invisible shield around the girl, or hit her, causing the girl to step back. Equally likely, the strongest of Assassin's attacks would either powerlessly slide over Rider's skin, or leave huge wounds on the opponent's body. What kind of attack will be successful, and which will fai, it was quite by random, as random as Rider's own attacks.

Swinging her staff, Rider hit the ground under Assassin's legs, cracking it with in half, but Hassan easily walked out from under the blow, sweeping his blade on the girl's arm. This time Hassan's attack was successful, a red wound band appeared on the opponent's arm. However Hassan himself was wounded before, during a seemingly awkward movement, the girl was able to send Assassin flying with an unexpected blow.

Archer launched several arrows at the girl, after which, with blades he summoned in his hands, he rushed after her. Two arrows broke down powerlessly, as soon as they hit the girl's body, but one entered Rider's belly. However, the following attacks by Archer also ended in nothing, several flashes that lit up in the air turned out to be beaten off by the girl's staff, who, having caught the moment, drove her fist into the solar plexus of the guy, sending him too on a short flight.

"You will know the might of the Catholic Church, infidel!" the girl grinned, after which, waving her cross like a cudgel, she sent Hassan, who was near her, flying yet again. Now she didn't look like herself at all, there was no trace of the former modest nun. The fist blows of the girl sent her opponents flying with each hit, as if a huge bull was fighting them, and the staff in her hands turned from a symbol of faith into a threatening cudgel, breaking bones more easily than anyone would have thought. The girl's hairstyle was disheveled, there were a few drops of blood on her face, and the smile on her lips showed that the girl enjoyed the battle with the joy of a berserker, who seized the fight. Perhaps her Master, the Dragon Witch, really influenced her. However, it would have been impossible to achieve such a level of joy from the massacre taking place if the girl didn't have the original predisposition to it.

"Is that all you can do?" mocking them, the nun went on the offensive, forcing both Servants to prepare for the strike. The girl was injured, her staff carried several deep chippings, several arrows stuck out of her body - but the girl continued to fight with the enthusiasm of a real fighter, "Come on, fight!"

Rider's blow split the stone on which Archer was now standing, but the girl's attack did not end there. Archer blocked the girl's blow with a blade that appeared in his hands, but a sharp kick, as if received from a drunken sailor in a pub fight, knocked him back.

'Which of us is even winning?!' was Archer's only thought. He and Hassan continued to attack the girl time after time, she was much more heavily wounded than either of them, but she clearly was not experiencing any particular problems. On the contrary, it seemed that she had entered the berserker's rage, becoming more dangerous the more her opponents wounded her. Magic, fists, staff, kicks.. all mixed up in a single mad whirlwind.

Moreover, her strange abilities were problematic... It seemed as if the principles of cause and effect themselves were going mad around the girl, her attacks seemed to have their own mind, deciding at random if they hurt the enemy or not. Sometimes, it would seem she was absolutely incapable of harming her opponents, other times, her blows would catch up with Archer or Assassin, as if space itself was curving around them, changing the trajectory of their movement, or the Servants' attacks themselves bypassed Rider, powerlessly breaking from her strange defense.

This battle was chao... real chaos. Archer couldn't even say for sure who was leading in this game, he had only to take Rider's defense into account, how his arrow had pierced the girl's flesh, and when he considered himself a winner, a new impossible attack forced the guy to go on a long-distance flight.

"Absolute Madness" Archer found Hassan's gaze. He continued to dance around Rider, not paying attention to her attacks, however, catching his gaze Archer was ready to swear that he thought absolutely the same thing as Archer himself.

"It definitely can't go on like this" although Hassan had no face, even his eyes behind his white bone mask were not visible - Archer saw these words as clearly as he saw the ongoing battle of the remaining Servants with their opponents.

Archer nodded slightly, then jumped away from the girl, then again, and again.

"Where are you going?" Rider's voice was simultaneously bloodthirsty, confused, curious, and perplexed, but Archer did not dare answer these words.

"**I am the bone of my sword.**.." Archer's voice, for a second, made Rider stop.

"Oh," she only responded, instantly realizing the meaning of the spoken words and smiled, "You highly appreciated my strength, I am grateful."

"But..." the girl smirked, "You, it seems, have not yet understood who you are unlucky to fight against."

"**Tarrasque**!" the girl's voice instantly filled with power, and before Archer's Reality Marble could absorb the girl, the movement of magic suddenly stopped when the incredible force opposing her began to take shape in this world "**O' Tragic Drake Who Knew Naught of Love**!"

* * *

"Master is really something ..." Cu Chulainn shook his head, watching how calmly Ainz scattered spells of an incredible level from sky, "Looking at this, you begin to wonder. Does he really need us to fight?"

Without waiting for an answer, Caster shook his head, "Wonderful.. the works of Gods!"

"Don't you dare to ignore me!" the cry of a girl from behind Caster made him turn around slowly.

"Oh, so are you still alive?" with these words, Cu Chulainn sighed, looking at the wounded Bathory, or Carmilla, who was gasping for air, leaning on her staff.

Carmilla gave a low rumbled roar to these words, but she already realized that it was dangerous to follow her emotions in this fight. Despite the fact that Elizabeth used her Phantasm at the very beginning of the battle, she was still losing. There were several reasons for this.

First of all, her very Noble Phantasm. The **Phantom Maiden** was the embodiment of her legend about the murder of hundreds of innocent girls. This Phantasm got stronger the more the target was young, beautiful and feminine. Against an adult male, its effectiveness was low.

Of course, on the other hand, the effectiveness of this ability was that, by using such a Phantasm, Carmilla could regenerate some of her lost health, however, if the damage dealt by the Phantasm was minor, then the regeneration was also minor.

Of course, Cu Chulainn also did not represent the apogee of power, so Carmilla had a chance to win at the very beginning, having impaled his body on iron spikes inside the **Phantom Maiden**, but since he was reinforced by Ainz's incredible mana and created a protective rune before being completely stabbed, Cu Chulainn survived, which meant that Carmilla had no chance.

But for some reason she still fought.

Elizabeth could not understand why she still allowed to fight. Was her opponent playing with her? Or perhaps he could not kill her for some other reason?

Carmilla no longer had trump cards up her sleeve. Her Phantasm was her main ace, and if this ability was useless, then she no longer had the opportunity to attack.

And yet, a miracle or not, but Carmilla continued to fight.

The rune, which arose before Cu Chulainn, spewed fire at the gir, forcing her to escape from the blow in a quick jump.

"And you are very tenacious," the guy gave the compliment to the girl, but Carmilla could not hear anything in it but a sneer. The only reason why she was still alive was because her opponent did not use his Noble Phantasm. If he had put his trump card in the game like she did, she would have lost.

However, she did not know that that was false, much to Cu Chulainn's regret.

The use of the **Wicker Man** was his trump card, but in this battle it was useless. The resulting giant would have been an unstoppable power, but against such a brisk and quick goal as Carmilla, he would have looked like a man who irritably tries to catch a fly. One blow would be fatal - however, the giant would not have had the opportunity to deliver this blow.

The situation was not a stalemate, Cu Chulainn clearly waw winning this battle. However, his victory was not going to be a quick one, and the battle threatened to drag on much longer than any other battle of the other Servants around.

Fortunately or not, the appearance of spears from under the ground caught the combatants off guard.

Cu Chulainn managed to take only a step to the side before the wooden stake broke through his leg, and Carmilla, even though she had tremendous Dexterity, could not react to the stakes that emerged from nowhere. Whether this was because she was injured, or because she was distracted by the battle, it was not clear.

What was clear was that the spears that had arisen around her turned into a prison, holding the girl down for those few precious seconds that Cu Chulainn needed so much.

"**Wicker Man**!" the name of the Noble Phantasm rippled through reality like circles on water, causing Caster's Concentrated legend to manifest in reality. The giant's fiery body rose tens of meters above the battlefield. If someone compared the creature even to something like a dragon, then the **Wicker Man** would have been much more impressive. Although much weaker in reality.

Carmilla attempted to throw herself again to the side. However, sandwiched between the clutches of stakes, she turned out to be an easy target for the huge fire giant.

The burning giant caught the girl and lifted her from her arms, then he squeezed her in his hands, and then, in one continuous movement, threw her inside his own thorax, which opened like the hungry mouth of a beast.

A moment later, when the Assassin's black and red stain disappeared inside the creature's cage, the giant's fire flared up with renewed strength, and the yellowish orange flame shot up along the bars of the cage, absorbing Carmilla within it. For a second, the creature stopped, then, like an explosion, every particle of the body of the **Wicker Man** flashed with blinding fire.

Cu Chulainn even closed his eyes for a second, the fire from his Phantasm was so this bright, after which, he blinked several times, brushing away the tears that had formed in his eyes.

It was his weaker Noble Phantasm of the two, but nevertheless, it was not wise to underestimate its power.

Cu Chulainn blinked a few more times, regaining his sight, then grunted in satisfaction, watching the ashes of the burnt-out monster descend from the sky.

However, instantly his eyes were riveted to strange details.

On the place where his Noble Phantasm was just a second ago was a black sarcophagus. No, it was not black, it was just covered with fumes and soot to the point that it seemed completely black to an outsider. In fact, judging by the appearance of the sarcophagus, Cu Chulainn could guess that in fact it should have had the color of unpainted steel, since he could distinguish the outlines of the **Phantom Maiden** even at such a distance.

Slowly the steel sarcophagus opened, after which the sweeping chains carried forward what was inside.

The one that came out was none other than Carmilla.

"Oh, that's how it is..." Cu Chulainn instantly realized the gist of what happened - "I didn't know that she could use the **Phantom Maiden** to defend..."

Carmilla used her **Phantom Maiden** like a protective shield, hiding inside it when the **Wicker Man**bustling around her in the flames, after which, she emerged from the flames unscathed. Clever - Cu Chulainn could not object to this. But…

Carmilla's dress was torn, and there were several small bruises on her body, so it was impossible to call Carmilla unharmed. But there was not a single burn on her, which meant she was not injured by the **Wicker Man**. In other words, the only way for Carmilla to be wounded in such conditions was to be wounded by the **Phantom Maiden** herself.

The **Phantom Maiden** was not intended to be used as a defense, it was a tool for wounding and torture, and anyone who was inside her had to suffer, Carmilla was no exception. However, she was Carmilla, she was the famous Elizabeth of Bathory, who bathed in the blood of hundreds of innocent peasant women in order to maintain her beauty. Even if that was not true during her life, that was her Legend as the Servant. The blood of her enemies fed her, in other words, any victim of the **Phantom Maiden** gave her her strength. Even if this victim was herself.

Of the three parameters to increase the power of her Phantasm, Carmilla was subject to two, she was beautiful and feminine. Even Cu Chulainn, who did not fit not even one of these three parameters, could have easily died from Bathory's Phantasm, he experienced the whole disfiguring power of this damned instrument. He knew that if he were an ordinary person, he would have died instantly from the pain, before dying on stakes; therefore, it was almost impossible to assume what Bathory had experienced.

And yet she chose to go through this pain, to experience the same thing as the hundreds of her victims, instead of losing so easily Cu Chulainn.

Will to win' Caster bowed his head in respect.

Carmilla actually forced herself to go through torture, supporting herself with her own torment. However, this ability had two problems.

The first is that the efficiency of life support was not equal to one hundred percent, because of that, Carmilla was still forced to injure herself with her Noble Phantasm.

The second is that this Phantasm did not reduce the pain at all.

Therefore, in a moment after the chains of Phantasm lowered the girl to the ground, she rushed at Cu Chulainn with hatred tens of thousands of times more than all that she had experienced before.

However, in the instant when the girl was in front of Caster, something exploded under her feet, making her to jump aside.

No matter how strong her will to win was, Caster was not going to give up so easily.

* * *

Ainz hovered in the sky, watching the actions of Dracula with concealed apprehension.

The main purpose of passing the _Blood Gardens_ was the battle with _Cainabel_, the most significant and powerful, the _God of Vampires_, but his lieutenants were more than able to fight a full-fledged player of the 100th level, and, as to be expected of game bosses, each of them had their own, uniquely disgusting abilities. _Carmilla _had monstrously strong AoE attacks, mind control, time stop, she constantly teleported, created clones, and could rise three times after her death. _Konstantin _was incredibly tenacious, he had the ability to regenerate three times the amount of damage he did with any attack. _Dracula_... _Dracula _was extremely unpleasant for his endless stream of summoned mobs, his ability to block any attack, his astral form, the poisonous aura, the passive weakening of each victim he attacked, and his _Reality Slash_. Even though he was not a full-fledged mage, he knew a few spells of the tenth rank, similar to Demiurge.

Therefore, Ainz prepared for battle. He prepared for the astral form of his opponent, for his weakening blows, for the powerful offensive magic and for the hordes of vampires endlessly emerging from nowhere.

But there were no such things.

At this, Ainz glanced at Dracula, suddenly frozen on the ground, and sent him a new column of fire.

A strange conjecture pierced the mind of the magician.

Was it possible that this Dracula... Was not _The Dracula_, like in the game?

Was it possible that this Dracula was weaker, or had a completely different set of abilities?

No, of course, _Dracula _used an ability a little earlier, which pierced Ainz with spikes from underneath, but Ainz simply felt that Dracula used some of his low-level abilities, such as those that all 100-level opponents have, but never use in a real battle, in order to test Ainz's resistance. Ainz, seeing that Dracula used his low-level ability to test the opponent's resistance, even found him an even more dangerous opponent, because he used a low-level spell, conserving even the insignificant mana that was the difference between a single casting of a low-level spell and a high-level one.

However, continuing to look at how Vlad continued to throw stakes at him, Ainz came to a strange conjecture.

"Is it possible?" Ainz thought "That he is just weak?"

Ainz would not call him unequivocally weak, he was fast enough that he did not think that he would manage to defeat him in melee combat. However, even if his parameters were high and his combat experience exceeded Ainz's experience, if he could not surpass all of Ainz's abilities, skills, spells and equipment, then he still remained too weak to fight with a level 100 opponent.

Spears arising from the ground distracted Ainz.

Wooden stakes covered the ground in all directions all the way to the horizon — the spikes arising from nowhere injured several of the Servants who were fighting around, but Ainz himself, who continued to float in the sky, was completely unaffected.

Of course, this happened because Ainz was currently floating at a height of several tens of meters, while the stakes themselves did not even reach five, but, even if Ainz were on the ground at that moment, Dracula's ability would still not hurt him No matter how many thousands of lances were sent at him, unless each of them had enough power to go through at least the first level of his protection, each of them will be powerless to harm his body.

However, Dracula probably did not think so. Although the fiery tornado instantly swallowed his body, inflicting more damage on him than he could inflict on Ainz with all the spears that had arisen, he rejoiced at the effect of his ability. Having lifted a finger to the sky, he pointed to the figure of the floating mage, after which each of the thousands of stakes instantly shut upwards like arrows, after which, gathering with hundreds of similar ones, they turned into a huge prickly serpent in a second, hundreds of stakes rushed into the mage with the speed of a bullet.

It was pointless.

If any other Servant were in place of Ainz, he would have been torn apart the instance the whirlwind of lances touched him. However, this same Servant could have easily died before, after being pierced by wooden stakes arising from nowhere.

For Ainz, three spears or three millions, it was meaningless. However, Ainz was not so sure about that at the moment.

Ainz was a creature of a different principle. What was natural for the rest was wild for him, and vice versa, so it was not easy to predict whether the damage from the wooden stakes would exceed the level of Ainz's physical nullification.

As an example, the zombies in the game were the weakest opponents. However, the existing _Zombie Horde_ mob, which represented only a group of dozens of zombies, merged among themselves, was still a fiftieth level creature. It was still extremely weak, but still capable of easily destroying hundreds, even thousands, of first-level opponents. Much more than he should be able to, based on the logic of the lore.

Therefore, Ainz was not sure that Lancer's spears would not cause him damage. If each of the copies inflicted only a single damage, then none of them would even be able to rumple his shirt. If Lancer's ability somehow considered all attacking spears as a single weapon, then Ainz reasoned that the damage would exceed the threshold of protection his body had against abilities of this level.

However, this did not mean anything, Ainz still had more than one ability to reduce the power of attacks directed at him, with multiple that could completely prevent damage. In other words, even if Dracula's spears had crossed the threshold of Ainz's complete protection from attacks of a certain power, they still couldn't deal damage to him.

However, Ainz chose not to take risks and avoided the vortex approaching him by teleportation.

Having appeared at a new place, he stretched out his hand in order to continue attacking Dracula, but the whirlwind of copies forced him to teleport again.

"Hm" after leaving teleportation, Ainz was forced to leave again, evading a spear thrown by the vampire himself, and then again, moving away from the soaring whirlwind "So this is his plan? Even if he cannot hurt me, he plans to force me to move from place to place... "

This plan was not fundamentally bad - however, it was absolutely useless. All the spells that Ainz used up until this point did not go beyond the seventh rank,, in other words, his mana was practically full, even though the use of the flight somewhat reduced his mana regeneration rate. Of course, if he were a lower level player, or someone not so focused on magic, and therefore had less mana reserves regeneration rate, or if Ainz himself used stronger spells, then this plan would make sense. However, in the current environment, all that Dracula could achieve was reduce Ainz's ability to concentrate on the attack, and thus reduce his accuracy. Of course, this was a good decision in itself. However, even at best, it could only delay the inevitable loss.

But why, in that case, did he resort to such a decision, instead of using any of his trumps? Summoning his henchmen, or perhaps using a strong instant attack?

The idea that Vlad could have been just less powerful than Ainz had initially considered him to be quietly crept to Ainz's mind, but he drove it away. Such thoughts were the way to defeat. His friend, Punitto Moe always talked about this. Therefore, he was not going to give Dracula concessions.

Teleporting once again, instead of using a brief second of calm to attack Dracula, Ainz used a different spell.

"_Summon Undead: Eighth_" he instantly ordered, after which, a black fog appeared around him and descended to the ground. Ainz immediately left the swarm of stakes following him, but the black fog was in no hurry to disperse. Slowly, it began to take shape, outlining the contours of a humanoid figure, then refining into a human one, and, eventually, a man dressed in armor. A second later, a black mist that hugged him from all sides, burst, after which, the man was born. His long black hair contrasted with his bluish-pale skin, descending along his black armor to the waist. The cloak that flapped behind him was full of black and red flowers that painted a strange symbol that was impossible to discern at the second that he was standing motionless. However, the beauty of his armor could not hide the deformities of his body.

In place of gauntlets, only bare hands with long, broken claws came out from under the armor, his face resembled a long bat face, his mouth was full of sharp needle teeth lining the inside of his mouth and throat, and even going deeper inside, and black eyes with red pupils blazing with insane thirst and hatred.

A moment later, the "_Lord of Vampires_", obeying the instinctive desire of his summoner, broke into a run.

* * *

**Magic Resistance:** _A+_ _(Case)_

For a creature of Yggdrasil, this skill is not just mandatory, it is one of the nine basic parameters that determine the most basic characteristics of a player or creature. The very existence of any living creature without this skill is unthinkable . After all, without protection from magic, any character can easily become a puppet of any sensible mage.

In the world around Ainz, this truth is often questioned, although not completely. Despite the fact that the absence of Magical Resistance really is most often a death sentence in the case of collision with a really powerful magician, the majority of Servants did not have protection from magic, and only a small portion of them has protection potent enough for really strong magicians to take in consideration.

Due to this, and given that Ainz's spells were originally designed to fight creatures with a very high level of magic resistance, even the fact that someone from the Servants survived from the initial use of the "_Explosion_" is worthy of respect. The fact that Dracula - albeit reinforced by his summon, Master and existence within his Kingdom, was able to withstand several direct hits from _Napalm _is doubly worthy of respect.

* * *

**And here I am, still there. A little bit of uncomfortable from the current conditions of my life - but with a new chapter none the less. How is it going for you? I hope good.**  
**Well, none the less - the current update technically took LESS then a week - even if a day less. But still - that's just life.**  
**And well, what else can I say? My Pat reon \rure have 2 chapters right now, that will make it way here only in the 2 weeks - so if you want - I can gladly offer them right now - for 1$. It's the minimal sum of money I can even set - and this will help me greatly indeed.  
But oh well, we talking about boring stuff again - anyway, gonna see me the next week - hopefully.**


	23. Chapter 23

Dracula felt the moment when a creature similar to him was summoned even before the dark mist acquired its final shape, outlining long claws and a twisted mouth full of teeth. The feeling of grave cold and the barely perceptible smell of death passed over his bones like sandpaper, terribly similar to the feelings that Dracula himself bestowed on his allies as they approached.

"Vampire" Vlad instantly realized this, "Extremely strong one".

The vampire that appeared out of nothing was not weaker than Vlad himself.

Of course, in a battle inside Vlad's Kingdom, taking into account the help of his Master, his summoning and Noble Phantasm, Vlad believed that he was still stronger than the summoned vampire, but if he had to face him in a one-on-one battles on neutral territory... Vlad was not sure his victory was assured. And even it were, it would not be an easy victory.

"Creating a creature of such power ..." Dracula looked into the sky, where his opponent continued to evade the whirlwind of stakes that was chasing him "Who are you even?!"

The vampire that appeared from the black fog, however, did not bother with Dracula's thoughts and instantly rushed forward, forcing Vlad to respond to his movements.

The claws of the summoned creature met a spear in the hands of Dracula, leaving deep dents on it, then, feeling something was wrong, Vlad threw away the spear, which, after a second, disintegrated to smithereens due to the force behind creature's blow.

Vlad retreated a step, after which, intercepting with a newly conjured spear, he blocked a new strike of the creature, which was followed by another.

Left without direct control from Lancer, the whirlwind of stakes in the sky unexpectedly slowed down, after which, almost lazily, slowly crawled behind the wizard, who teleported again. Without Lancer's control, the whirlwind lost most of its speed and maneuverability, which meant that with only one move, Ainz instantly virtually neutralized all the danger from the **Kazikli Bey** vortex that arose earlier, while creating a really strong opponent for Dracula, capable of fighting him on an equal footing.

"Great..." despite the fact that Dracula was full of disgust for his opponent's stingy and dishonest style of battle, he could not help but admit the genius of the move of his opponent, "In one move he was able to neutralize me, my main and the most deadly trump card for him, and provide himself with a powerful ally at this crucial moment of our battle. So this was your trump card?.. As expected from my opponent."

Dracula greatly overestimated Ainz, although at the same time Ainz himself greatly overestimated Dracula. Ainz created the _Vampire Lord_ as a temporary solution. Ainz saw **Kazikli Bey** appear as a whirlwind, but he considered that this ability was necessary to Dracula only to buy Dracula some time to prepare one of his trump cards. He needed to disturb Dracula's concentration, and he considered it best to create a temporary puppet in order to buy some time for himself before he decided on which battle strategy was best.

However, to the surprise of the mage soaring through the sky, the undead that emerged at his behest was not only not killed in battle, he unexpectedly forced Dracula to retreat from his position, defending himself from the merciless blows of a newly created vampire, while the soaring whirlwind of spears slowed down and turned into a lazy cat barely crawling across the sky in a reluctant pursuit of Ainz.

For Ainz, this meant only one thing.

"He prepares some powerful ability!" Ainz felt like a panic attack rose inside him, which got wiped out in an instant his passive skills "I should do something!"

The most suitable action was to use one of the high-level spells. However, Ainz could feel that his body could not withstand such a thing, even the use of Napalm was quite exhausting for his body. In other words, the use of high-level spells in such conditions was a last resort.

Ainz used teleportation to get away from the slowly approaching stream of spears, and then he looked at his opponent, who continued to fight the summoned "Vampire Lord." Unfortunately, the mental command of the summoned creatures was inaccessible to Ainz, so he was forced to accept the loss of his summon. However, contrary to Dracula's thoughts, this summon was not his trump card, but Ainz still did not like to waste summoned creatures in vain.

* * *

Perhaps it was a miracle of fate or a warrior's instinct, but when Dracula saw how Ainz stretched out his hand to create a spell, Dracula realized that this was the end. The summoned vampire continued to attack with the ferocity of a beast, while the spears of **Kazikli Bey** remained just a useless cloud littering the sky.

Dracula had to act.

Even if he dies at the end, he had to show that he would not die so simply. That he is still able to fight, and surprise.

The vampire, with whom Dracula continued to fight, suddenly dug into Vlad's throat, without meeting with the usual resistance from the Impaler. The beast's fangs pierced the defenseless neck of the Great Vampire, after which, obeying its ancient instinct, the ugly monster began to fondle the blood of an enemy that had not yet been killed.

Fine. Just the way Vlad wanted.

Having discarded defense, Vlad again concentrated on the whirlwind of lances, which, having received an order from it's creator, rushed forward at an incredible speed.

As the spell left the hands of the soaring mage, fire took shape. It was not like the fire that Dracula had been dealing with for the entire battle, no, it was a fire that burned ten times hotter. Like a small Sun, the flame descended hundreds of meters from the sky, but the fire still did not reach Dracula. Having crashed into the spears forming the cloud of Kazikli Bey, the fire instantly devoured them, turning the incarnated Vlad's legend into dust and ash in a heartbeat, while the resulting fireball continued to devour more and more new spears.

The hungry beast continued to lap up Dracula's blood, never stopping, drinking more and more with every second, just like Vlad wanted it to do.

"**Kazikli Bey**!" he used his ability for the last time. It activated like his ability before, but at the same time it was a unique ability, bestowed upon him by the nature of his summon, by his vampiric nature "**The Blood-stained Demon King**!"

It was a unique power bestowed upon Vlad by interweaving his true life and the Legend of Dracula. It was his vauled treasure, a trump card that Vlad had as a secret weapon, yet he never actively tried to keep it secret, using it openly the entire battle.

How did Vlad get his endless spears time after time, from a thin air?

From his own blood.

The blood absorbed his opponent drank from his neck submitted to the words of Dracula, and instantly turned into hundreds of spikes, tearing the greedy vampire that wanted to eat Dracula himself, to pieces.

Moments later, everything around became clouded with smoke and ash.

* * *

The Witch's body burned with pain.

Her muscles were screaming in pain, bones seemed to be trying to break through her skin, blood slowly and reluctantly flowed out of her veins, burning her mind, as if it was made of fire.

The sword in her hands grew slower with each blow, as if was getting heavier.

Serenity's shadow emerged from nowhere, which made the Witch jerk in an attempt to brush her aside, but the deft figure effortlessly walked away with the sway of the blade, after which, several throwing daggers penetrated the witch's skin, causing her to hiss in pain.

Gravity seemingly doubled, it became even stronger for the Witch, which led her to drive her black blade into the ground to lean on it and not fall, and Serenity's shadow, who appeared from nowhere, did not hesitate to take advantage of that.

Two more blades entered the Witch's body, and she fell, feeling the last of her strength leaving her body.

In her current state, her Phantasm was useless, she could hardly gather enough strength to even pronounce it's name.

Serenity suddenly appeared next to the Witch, and mercilessly knocked her down with a kick straight to the face. The Witch expected to see Assassin's triumphant face, but Serenity's face seemed to be bored. There was no smile, no grin, or even disgust on her face. Just routine boredom.

"You lost," Serenity said it calmly.

The hate inside the Dragon Witch rose like a tongue of flame, burning her inside out. Her opponent had to rejoice, she just triumphed over her, over Jeanne d'Arc herself! she should have been happy... smug...willing to make demands... anything! Her opponent should not have looked at her with such a bored look, as if she were an ordinary enemy, just like everyone else, insignificant, and so lacking.

"Go to hell!" having gathered all the power into a fist, the Witch tried to move for the last time, but with this, her energy was finally exhausted and she fell flat on the ground.

Serenity did not even flinch when the Witch made her last attack, observing her actions with the calmness of a pathologist looking at a new corpse.

"Now you finally shut up," the girl said it calmly, then leaned over the Witch's face.

The Witch did not want anything more in the world at this moment than to stick her teeth into the neck of the killer bending over her, but the red-hot stream of pain and exhaustion spreading through her muscles chained her to the ground with invisible chains.

"All my attacks are poisonous," Serenity bent over the girl at that moment, and then she touched the Witch's face with her own hands. From the cold fingers, the Witch felt an intolerable heat, as if acid was slowly spreading over her face, "My body is poison. My blood is poison. Even my breath is poison. Any blade that has been in my hands is poisonous."

The Witch wanted to swear, but all she could do was mentally curse the Assassin and Jeanne, who at that moment had managed to rise to her feet.

"Jeanne played her role in this battle," Serenity slowly raised the Witch's head, who did not even have the strength to resist such actions, "It was enough for me that you considered me less of a threat than her. You took to a few blows from me in order to get Jeanne out of the game. This means that Jeanne played her role, this was enough for me."

The Witch felt the pain of poison spilling over her body mixed with phantom pains from the fire of the Inquisition, which was eating her from the inside, so all she could do was twist her lips in a grin "Go to Hell with your Saint."

"She is not my Saint," Serenity calmly objected, and then forcibly opened the Witch's mouth. "I used to give death to my enemies through a kiss in my life. I always thought it was very poetic and beautiful, but after finding the Master…"

After these words, Serenity paused and took a deep breath.

"**To burn your body and mind**," the girl exhaled, but instead of exhale, a cloud of dense purple smoke burst from her mouth. The Witch understood that this smoke would be her end, but her body was already depleted. She did not even have the strength to push Serenity away from her. All she could do was watch the smoke burst into her throat unobstructed "**Zabaniya**."

The heat and pain in the Witch's body intensified a thousand times after the name of the perfect poison was uttered, and the Witch's mind was devoured by the poisonous smoke brought by the sad Assassin.

Violet smoke absorbed every cell of her body and penetrated every capillary, bringing torment.

And death.

* * *

It was difficult enough to fight Saint Martha on her own. Fighting her summoned dragon was impossible.

Archer retreated time after time, trying only the distracting blows on Tarrasque. His Reality Marble was never able to completely absorb such a powerful creature, which is why at the moment, he was limited in his options, but even if he was not, it is unlikely that he would have found something so strong as to destroy the real dragon.

"This is clearly not a wyvern," Archer noted to himself and shook his head inwardly, thinking that he now understood the reaction of his Master and Summoner. Further thinking for him was impossible due to a blow from the huge paw of the summoned monster.

"Is that all you've got?!" standing on the back of Tarasque, Martha shouted at Archer with a sneer, "Is that all you can do? Fight the defenseless Servant of the God, and run in fear at the sight of monsters?!"

'Even in a nightmare, I wouldn't call you defenseless,' Archer had only thought of that for a second before escaping from another blow. A replica of the holy sword flashed in his hand, a copy of Durendal, but without the full materialization of the Reality Marble, all he could create was a weak copy. Even overloading his blade completely to the highest point, his next blow, which exploded with a hundred gleams of light on the dragon's scales, did not even make him slow down.

"What a problematic opponent..." was the only thing Archer could think of before he had to move away from the next blow.

"What?" throwing another scoff, the Saint smirked, "Maybe then you would run away, like your boyfriend?!"

Assassin was able to instantly assess the situation.

"I am not suitable for fighting monsters, only for killing people" was his words before he disappeared from the battlefield.

A bright light surrounded Archer and he prepared for what follows next. In an instant, the explosion absorbed him, but his opponent was not strong when it came to offensive magic, because of that, he felt only a slight push and a burning sensation, as if he were doused with hot steam.

"These are not Master level attacks" after that, Archer shivered when he remembered the power of the necromancer. Whoever he really is, his strength served as a clear argument in favor of his right to command.

Archer had already foreseen the next blow from Tarrasque, therefore, having jumped aside, he was able to instantly charge the bow that appeared in his hands with a copy of the created sword. Caladbolg went flying, this time aiming not at the dragon, but at Saint Martha herself.

"Is that all you can come up with?" the girl just grinned at this, while the dragon shielded the girl with his body, "This way you can never beat me!"

"No," Archer calmly agreed. "But I don't need to."

* * *

Hassan fled in order to help other Servants in their battles and then bring them to aid Archer, who was in a difficult situation. At least that's what Martha thought.

It is stupid to fall for the same trick twice.

Hassan did run away, but not at all to find someone to help battle the enraged Taraque. Moving a decent distance from the battlefield, Hassan performed the most logical action in the current conditions. Came back.

But invisible.

Hassan had an extremely high rank of Presence Concealment, he could be not afraid to be revealed by almost any Servant, barring a few exceptions, but even if Saint Martha could detect him, then under current conditions he was virtually invisible to everyone. In the collision of such forces, the two Noble Phantasms, the Reality Marble and the dragon, Hassan was like a leaf among the trees. Even if he had not been hiding at the moment, he most likely would not be spotted before it was too late. However, Hassan chose not to risk it, therefore at the moment he moved in silent invisibility following the elusive dragon.

"Could you stop taking the dragon further every time I prepare for the jump?" Hassan sighed once again when the beast left the last trajectory which Hassan was preparing. Despite even his invisibility and the battle that was happening opposite him, Assassin did not want to take risks, so he prepared himself for the fact that this would be his only chance. His opponent was a dragon, a real dragon. Even in the current conditions, if the dragon retained even a part of his awareness, it would be no problem for him to see Hassan jumping onto his back, and therefore it would not be difficult for Martha to detect his presence.

Therefore, Hassan sneaked behind, waiting for the moment. One movement, second, third one...

"A chance!" Hassan responded instantly and was in the air before the dragon could move.

He let his black, tattered cloak slide off his shoulders and down to his waste, where his belt kept it in place, this exposed his hands. More precisely, only the right hand.

Hassan's left hand was wrapped with a variety of black belts and seals, like a priceless relic, which it actually was. In his life, Hassan sacrificed not only his face, but also his left hand, in order to gain the strength necessary for the new leader of the Hashishin clan.

Instantly, his left hand, wrapped in straps, swelled, and before Assassin's feet touched the dragon, the seals on his hand burst, exposing what was hidden beneath.

Hassan was extremely tall, even though he was painfully thin and constantly stooped, his height exceeded two meters, and yet, the hand that emerged from under the wrapings was disproportionately huge for his body. If Hassan had exposed it completely, it would easily have reached three meters, and that would still not be the limit.

The red hand, filled with a painfully scarlet color, contained something within it, a sealed evil... a Shaitan.

And Hassan was going to take full advantage of its power.

The instance Hassan landed on the dragon's back, he rushed forward at incredible speed, and even faster, he threw his left hand forward. Stretching out like a serpent, his clawed scarlet hand ignored all the laws of physics and anatomy, bending as if without bones, in pursuit of its goal.

Saint Martha was defended by a miracle. A true miracle, given by the Lord. A miracle that directed her hand when she attacked and kept her body safe from harm, increased her strength and allowed her to avoid her fate. But even a miracle has its limits, as it did not provide immunity against another miracle such as magic capable of a miracle, or a crystallized miracle...a Noble Phantasm. So when Martha finally responded to the threat that appeared from nowhere, it was too late.

One touch of the cursed hand ended everything. Touching the Saint's heart, Hassan felt a ghostly connection with the her appear in his hand.

"**Zabaniya**," he said detachedly and in an instant, when Hassan was near the Saint, her heart spattered in his hands in all directions with blood. Saint Martha merely coughed up blood, feeling how instantly all energy disappeared from her body, and her dragon froze in place.

"This is the end," Hassan said calmly, after which, he glanced at the dying woman.

However, she, having fallen, was unable to support her body even with her staff, instead of dying, only found Hassan's gaze and, instead of a curse, she twisted her lips slightly in a smile.

"Do you think that's all?" To this, Martha only stretched her lips even more, turning a smile into a foxish smirk "I was not known as the Saint that summons dragons. I was known as the Saint, who subjugated the dragon."

And with these words, Martha gave one last laugh and, with a sigh, closed her eyes.

However, her dragon did not disappear.

Hassan stopped for a second before he felt a shiver. This tremor did not come from within him, but from the creature on which he stood. From the dragon.

And it was not a shiver of panic or horror, but a shiver rising from the depths of rage.

Sensing this, Hassan just instantly jumped off Tarrasque's head, thinking only of one thing.

"I hope that now at least someone will help with our battle..."

* * *

Arthurias's body ached from the stresses and wounds inflicted by Lancelot.

Even if he fought with a wooden trunk, he was not inferior to the King of Knights. His attacks were accurate, his skill was unmatched, and his strength was undeniable.

Arthuria avoided a strike, then jumped back, breaking the distance with the insane knight.

Her mana reserves came to an end, and the mana bursts became less and less frequent, she was exhausted from the battle.

However, her opponent was also exhausted.

Lancelot still continued to look at her with unspeakable hatred, and his attacks were still as terrifying as they were at the very beginning of the duel, but Arthuria knew her old friend too well to miss all the signs of his fatigue. Now he stood a little more uncertainly than at the beginning of the battle, the end of his weapon was slightly tilted to the ground, and Lancelot himself allowed Arthuria to break the distance, instead of rushing after her, trying to inflict a crushing defeat on her with a series of bestial attacks.

Lancelot was stronger than Arthuria and significantly more skilled in fencing, but that did not mean that he was invincible. Despite all his accomplishments and his nature as a Servant, he was still vulnerable. Not in any way weak, but not omnipotent.

An extended battle would exhaust Lancelot completely, leaving him defeated.

If not for the fact that Arthuria was exhausted and wounded much more than Lancelot.

Despite the fact that Arthuria took the place of the leader, she was not the strongest among the knights of the Round Table.

However, unlike Lancelot, she had one trump card.

Arthuria, noticing her opponent approaching, managed to react and rushed to the side. If Lancelot was less tired, then with this maneuver Arthuria would not be able to escape from his attack, but in the current conditions, Arthuria could not afford the luxury of avoiding using a mana burst.

The battle in the current conditions was impossible.

If only she had asked for help from Ainz...

'No,' she brushed aside this thought, 'Lancelot is my mistake, and I must be the one who ends his life.'

Firmly grabbing her black blade with her second hand, Arthuria stopped.

Dark energy swirled around the blade, which did not reflect light, becoming like a tangible storm.

Once, her blade was a holy sword, giving hope, the blade of the true king, beloved by the people and ruling the knights.

No, Excalibur still remained undefiled, in her real identity, the identity of Arthuria Pendragon, the King of Knights.

But the Arthuria who fought now was not this noble king. She was a Tyrant who seized power in Britain, a desecrated black king, who accepted his power, his dragon's blood and his hatred. And her Excalibur was distorted like her personality, from a holy sword, embodying the king's divine right to power, it turned into a symbol of her downfall, a symbol of her unlimited tyranny, a symbol of her black hatred.

Grabbing the blade tighter, Arthuria focused her eyes on her opponent who, sensing something was going to happen, rushed toward her.

She and Lancelot were not so different. Lancelot plunged into the abyss of madness, rejecting his knighthood, as Arthuria rejected her honor, plunging into power.

"**Excalibur**..." Arthuria raised her arms above herself to unleash the power of her blade upon her adversary.

Instincts screamed at once inside her. If she remained the one Arthuria Pendragon, who carried the holy **Excalibur** in her scabbard, her mind would put out her instincts, allowing her to deliver the final blow, but the mind of this Arthuria was like a predatory beast, forcing her to obey her animal instincts, forcing her to immediately rush away from the source of danger.

Lancelot, even if he was an unsurpassed swordsman, in such a mad form was not able to obey his mind, and therefore could not escape from imminent danger.

For a few seconds, everything around Arthuria was clouded with smoke and fumes, forcing the girl to cough before the roar hit her ears and a wave of air dispersed the veil around her. Arthuria was able to stand on her feet, not allowing the shockwave to knock her down, and after only a few seconds she was able to re-evaluate the situation in which she found herself.

Understanding og what happened came to her after a few seconds, when her eyes could find her Master soaring in the heights, slowly lowering his hand after creating a spell.

"Another of the Master's incredible spells" the puzzle has finally formed in her head. The Master applied another of the spells of the Age of Gods, and its area of effect reached the battles of other Servants. This has already happened the last time when his opponent created the spears throughout the battlefield, but now the incident was less ambitious, but much stronger. Arthuria saw how great the destructive power of her Master's spells was and understood that even with her enormous resistance to magic, she could not escape unwounded from it.

Therefore, when the ashes finally fell to the ground, Arthuria expected to see the imprint of destruction on the whole area around.

But she did not expect not to see Lancelot.

The fireball generated by the necromancer swallowed Lancelot, and when the spell finally subsided, the black armor did not emerge from the fiery blaze ever again.

Feeling as if she had found herself in some kind of silly joke, Arthuria looked around and even looked up. However, this also remained true. Lancelot was not in her sight.

Arthuria blinked once, then a second time and a third, completely confused and not understanding what situation she had found herself in, then she looked at her blade.

The black energy of the defiled Excalibur was still circling around its blade, but gradually began to fade, turning from a storm into a snowstorm, and then into a barely noticeable black fog around the blade.

"No" Arthuria blinked "This shouldn't be like this."

Arthuria fought with Lancelot because he was her mistake, she decided to kill him with her own hands because he remained solely her mistake.

He could not just die, by chance, like some kind of insignificant fly.

He was her friend. He was her enemy. She was his executioner.

And Ainz took him away, quite by accident, without even paying attention.

Arthuria lifted her gaze to the sky to find in it a soaring mage, who did not even look in her direction.

Arthuria continued to look at him, ten seconds, twenty...

She would not feel hatred for her summoner, but, looking at the mage now, in her soul, a feeling rose most of all like... An insult? Yes, maybe a grudge.

The girl continued to look at the sky, after which her attention was attracted by a loud roar from the scene of the battle of Archer and Hassan. Moving her gaze to the dragon that was raging there now, Arthuria squeezed her hands on the sword, then rushed to the aid of the other Servants, feeling how an unfamiliar feeling towards the Master was rising in her soul.

* * *

She lost?

The one who was called the Dragon Witch asked this question, feeling the heat penetrate her bones.

She is dying?

It was inevitable. This is the result of her loss.

She seemed to be tied back in the center of the fire, watching helplessly as the flame approaches her body.

No!

NO!

N O!

Jeanne burned at the stake.

But the Witch will not allow this to happen again.

* * *

Serenity was still bent over the Witch after she delivered the death sentence with her breath, the Witch's fate was finally sealed...but a sharp blow with a plate glove sent Serenity on a short flight.

A bestial roar, as if the Witch had completely lost her mind, slowly began to rise from her chest.

All the Witch's pain and hatred could not be described in simple words, and the girl, burnt by these feelings, could only make a loud roar, like a wild beast that does not have the words to describe all the sensations devouring it.

The girl slowly began to rise from the ground.

"Impossible," Serenity's voice seemed shaken for the first time in the battle. The Assassin, who had risen after the strike, watched the Witch's actions with disbelief, continuing to stay away from the Witch, "Anyone who touches my poison dies. This poison has no antidote and there is no safe concentration, one drop can kill anyone. The only way to escape from this poison is not to become its goal."

However, the Witch did not listen to these explanations. Having risen from the ground, on all four limbs, like a wild dog, the Witch shuddered, after which, a black mass gushed from her mouth like a stream.

Instantly, the sweetish smell of flowers struck Serenity's nostrils, and she glanced at the spreading puddle of black color with disbelief and horror. When it came in contact with the ground, the flowers instantly dried out and the grass died. Serenity was able to identify her poison at a glance.

The Witch's body shuddered several times, throwing Serenity's poison out of itself before it subsided. However, after this, the Witch did not rise, instead she snarled once more.

In this roar there was nothing even resembling human language, only endless bestial cruelty and hatred, and since at that moment, the Witch continued to stand on all four limbs, her resemblance to a beast was even greater.

The girl squeezed her hands into a fist, and then, without straightening up, rushed forward on all fours.

Serenity managed to prepare her blades, but even if at that moment she pierced through the heart of the Witch, she would not slow her down even for a second. Her blades entered the Witch's body, who easily knocked the girl down.

The Assassin fell to the ground, after which, before she had time to do anything, a leg chained in a plate boot struck her in the chest. However, instead of knocking the girl away, the Witch's leg pressed Serenity to the ground, pressing her into the soft grass.

Looking at the Witch's face, Serenity thought that she wanted to say something - but even if the Witch had once been able to speak, now her look was devoid of all hints of logic or reason, so the black blade instantly appeared over Serenity's face.

The Assassin did not even have time to prepare for her death before the situation changed again. In an instant, the pressure of the boot was gone from the girl's chest, after which, Serenity was able to notice how the body of her opponent was sent into flight by a blow.

"I'm sorry" Mashu's voice became noticeable for Serenity earlier than her huge shield casted a shadow on her lying body. "The evacuation took longer than I expected."

Mashu extended her hand to Serenity, but she easily rose from the ground on her own, after which, she looked at the Witch rising in front of her.

It seemed that any semblance of humanity in the Witch at this moment disappeared completely, even her movements now did not belong to a human, but to some monster resembling one.

Issuing a low roar the Witch clutched at her blade.

* * *

Medusa continued to fight.

Her wound significantly reduced her capabilities, but Saber, who was left with one arm, also lost in his abilities in equal measure.

Stalemate again.

Medusa continued to attack Saber time after time - and each time it all ended the same way.

Nothing.

Time after time, Rider's blades collided with Saber's sword, each time her chains touched the swordsman's body, his blade left a scratch on Rider's body.

One to one. Rider took off her hat to her opponent. If she had a hat of course.

Continuing this battle in the current conditions was meaningless, and at the same time it was the only thing they both could do. Exchange the same blows with the same result.

Rider was engrossed in her battle and could not be distracted by how the battles of her friends went, because of that, she could not count on their help. She had to act.

Medusa had four trumps, but one of them was useless and one of them her opponent had already managed to see, and paid for it with his own arm. In other words, all that remained for the girl was one of her Phantasms - and a bandage.

Once again, when confronted with a swordsman with blades, the girl retreated to the starting position, again and again, creating a hundred-meter distance between her and her opponent.

"Lady?" her opponent looked at the girl for the last time, then pointed at her with a blade, "Did something happen?"

To this, Rider only raised her hand to her bandage.

Saber instantly realized that he should have interrupted the girl's subsequent action, but even rushing forward, he did not have time.

Rider's hand slid across her face and, for the first time her summoning, her eyes glanced at this world.

The yellow, unblinking gaze of the eyes with black, wide, rectangular pupils glanced at this world, and instantly, Saber felt his body as if plunged into viscous glue. His hands stopped obeying him, and his legs instantly turned into cotton, barely capable of supporting his body.

Saber was able to instantly realize both the nature of the incident and the identity of the individual who was behind this effect.

"Medusa Gorgon," Saber said clearly, noticing how the opponent rushed at him for the final blow "I will remember our meeting."

Saber also had several trump cards.

"**Fleur de Lys**," Saber's words took form, "**Sword Dancing In Falling Lilies**."

While his opponent was hiding her eyes, all of his Noble Phantasms were useless. However, now, that Rider had taken off her bandage, she also gained tremendous weakness with strength.

What appeared before the eyes of the girl was a young man. It was impossible to determine whether he was a man or a woman, his short-cropped hair the color of the early sun at dawn, and blue eyes, like crystal-clear water, seemed to be created by the hand of a master who wanted to approach the ideal in his creation. The fragile figure could seduce any person who looked into Saber's bottomless eyes, and the grace with which Saber made every movement was so polished and perfect that they seemed unearthly.

Looking at him, Medusa could feel only how her feelings clouded her mind, and her hands lowered at the sight of such beauty - which is why the white glow of the shining blade did not attract her attention.

In the next instant, Chevalier d'Eon's narrow sword slashed both of Medusa's eyes.

Instantly, Rider was again blind, the pain in her head was given off by blood spilling from her cut face. And Saber, once again having the opportunity to take a deep breath, feeling how Medusa's enveloping pressure had disappeared, did not stop.

Dashing forward, taking his blade, Chevalier prepared to deliver the final blow, only for Medusa's own blade to race toward Chevalier's belly, forcing him to bark in surprise and pain. Chevalier retreated in an instant, regaining control over his senses again.

"I fought you blind before" Medusa "looked" at her opponent "Why did you decide that something has changed now?"

At this Chevalier just broke into a smile, "Lady, you are amazing."

Then, frozen for a second, Chevalier suddenly turned away from his opponent, and then turned to Medusa again "I beg your pardon, noble lady, but I am afraid that this time our battle will remain without winners."

After that, in one instant movement, Chevalier rushed away, having easily beaten off Medusa's daggers thrown at him, dissolving into the distance.

Swaying a little on the spot, Medusa slowly and quietly slid to the earth and covered her missing eyes.

* * *

Slowly, the ashes from the burnt stakes dissipated, spreading with the mist in all directions from the spell Ainz used, allowing Vlad's figure to emerge from a smoky cloud, as if the only surviving victim of a battle. In a sense, that was the case.

Ainz continued to look at his opponent with a careful look, expecting movement on his part, however, instead, Vlad only continued to look under his feet, not paying attention to the reality surrounding him.

"Ha..." he finally managed to pronounce, after which, as if somewhat emboldened by what he had said, he continued, "Ha-ha..."

"Ha-ha-ha..." saying again, as if trying out what was said to taste, Vlad was silent for a second, after which he continued, "Ha-ha-ha... Ha... Ha…"

In the end, as if at some point, something finally knocked out Vlad's last bit of sense, the vampire burst into mindless laughter - "HA-HA-HA-HA! HA-HA! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"

Ainz continued to carefully observe the actions of Vlad, assessing his condition, while the vampire himself was trying to cope with the incessant laughter.

"How long have I waited!" finally, stopping his laughter, Dracula smiled at Ainz floating in the sky, "For how long I waited! For such an enemy... such power!"

"My respect for you, Adam's descendant," Ainz was a little wary of these words, getting ready for Dracula's actions, but instead of attacking, Dracula just smiled at him "But you cannot hide your personality endlessly, even if you tried to do everything to prevent me from guessing, only one was the lord of fire and necromancy on this Earth. My respect to you, Patriarch Canaan."

At this Ainz continued to only silently review his enemy's words, thoughtfully reflecting on what was said by the vampire.

"But what should I do now?", at this, the vampire looked up at Ainz, after which, he threw up his hands, pointing to the surrounding spaces, "My kingdom is destroyed, my trumps are crushed, my lances are burned and my body is mangled. My respect to your strength, patriarch."

Vlad really could not do anything else. Nothing but one.

"But this," the vampire smiled at these words, "I would never have dared to use it under normal conditions, but now, let me enjoy even such meanness, the understanding that you will not be rewarded with a victory over Vlad III. Rejoice that you could only kill Dracula."

"**Legend of Dracula**," and with these words pronounced, Vlad III, the king, disappeared. In his place came Dracula, a vampire.

* * *

Cu Chulainn continued to use rune after rune, having long since switched from the simple throwing of fireballs to difficult tactics. He tried to catch his opponent in a trap, limit her movements, create an illusion, make her explode on a trap lined up in advance, but with persistence and the intuition of a wild beast inside, Carmilla continued to avoid every trap, forcing Caster to frown, inventing new non-working victory tactics.

"Really..." - Cu Chulainn winced - "I will have to use...the second Phantasm?!"

Cu Chulainn called as Caster served as an amalgam of people's ideas about the Druids, so he was able to find his first Noble Phantasm, the **Wicker Man**, who took the form of the oldest and most famous of the rituals of Celtic priests, the embodiment of cruelty and the power of beliefs in the Old Gods. However, this figure was still created around one existing personality, around the personality of Cu Chulainn, the great hero, and therefore a part of his legend, reflected in people's perception of ancient magi, was embodied as his "personal" Phantasm, his personality, embodied in the beliefs of the priests and people.

It was the main and most powerful trump card up his sleeve. Just thinking that he will have to spend it in the very first battle...

However, Cu Chulainn had to win. Therefore, instead of continuing to draw runes in the air, his hand descended to the belt where his real weapon was kept, the original runes.

His opponent, as if instantly understanding Cu Chulainn's idea, fell to the ground like a wild beast, and then, before Caster touched the perfect runes, rushed forward.

Cu Chulainn's hand touched his weapon, after which his mind touched the Noble Phantasm...

However, his opponent, not stopping, continued her run. When Cu Chulainn prepared to bring the pristine power of the original runes into this world, Carmilla approached the magi, instead of trying to hit him, or chain him again, she jumped over Cu Chulainn like he was an obstacle, and rushed away from him. For a second, Caster was taken aback by this development of events, and therefore, when he turned to his opponent again, she was no longer alone.

At some distance from Cu Chulainn there were three opponents. Carmilla was one of them, her dress was singed, her face was disfigured, and her skin was ripped off her bones in many places, but even so she still had a mind, which was impossible to say about the Dragon Witch.

It seemed as if the Witch was possessed by a demon, her movements were torn and jerky, as if at a spoiled clockwork doll, and the look that continued to wander around the faces around her was like a rabid, harassed dog, ready for its death.

At the last second, next to the two girls appeared... One more. The Servant's body and face were such that it was impossible to determine whether they should belong to a boy or girl, the beauty of the Servant's face blurred up any possible differences between the sexes, which made the mind refuse to perceive the face of a boy or girl as something specific from the fear that the disagreement of the real sex of the Servant with the ideas could spoil his beauty.

Three Servants, all that remained of the army of the Dragon Witch. Cu Chulainn could not vouch that his own group did not manage to incur irreplaceable losses, but regardless of what happened, Caster was inclined to call this battle a victory. Their enemies, who attacked them themselves, retreated.

As if to confirm these words, when the Witch attempted to rush forward, Saber's hand instantly grabbed her by the steel plates and pulled back, as if pulling a dog, after which the Servant himself smiled.

"I ask you to forgive us, noble gentlemen and ladies," Saber smiled for a second, "But I am afraid that our battle is postponed for a certain period of time. Milady is not feeling well."

The next second, Saber slightly leaned toward the Witch, and at that, no matter how fogged her mind was, she lifted her face to the sky and roared, forcing Cu Chulainn to prepare for a new round of battle, but instead of that, black viscous smoke escaped of all the joints of her armor, enveloping the Witch and the Servants surrounding her, rising into the sky. A second later, when a gust of wind dispelled the black cloud that had arisen, the remaining enemy Servants disappeared.

* * *

Ainz continued to float in the air, looking at how the transformation of Dracula occurs with increasing horror.

In Yggdrasil, the vampires were not beautiful, they were creepy and terrifying monsters. There was only one mob of vampires, the beauty of which was undeniable, the Vampire Bride. There was also the ability to customize the look of a created NPCs, which allowed someone to recreate the popular trend of the "aristocrats of the night."

The rest of the vampire monsters in the game remained terrifying, and the Lord of Vampires summoned a little earlier by Ainz was one of the most peaceful options.

Dracula's face continued to bend, turning into a monster's mouth, his body continued to stretch, his hands grew claws, and the terrible wounds covering his body were slowly closing before Ainz's eyes.

Ainz felt a surge of panic at the moment when Dracula began to turn, slowly looking like a monster more suitable for Yggdrasil.

"Now he will come in full force!" a moment later, the emotional suppression left only his bare mind "Of course, that's how it would happen. Turning to his true form, the form of the trusted Lieutenant of _Cainabel_, was to become his Noble Phantasm... of course..."

Ainz's mind told him that if Dracula could still turn into Yggdrasil's Dracula this time, then Ainz would have to throw away his body and fight to the fullest. However, at the same time...

The roar of a demoniac beast came from behind Ainz. A dragon, the real dragon ... Not a wyvern that Ainz could easily destroy, but a dragon... A dragon is almost a death sentence for any player of the hundredth level on his own.

Ainz felt the realization of the impossibility of continuing the mission slowly rise inside. No, he may even have to use Noble Phantasms. Ainz was sure that his chances of victory would be minimal in a battle with Dracula and an unknown dragon, at least in Yggdrasil, which is why, even with all the Servants on his side, he was in a very shaky position.

"**Guillotine Breaker**"! A resounding girlish voice distracted Ainz for a second. In any other conditions, he would have cursed himself for it, but at that moment, it was for the best, because in this way Ainz could see how the Servant girl who appeared from nowhere, rushed forward to the raging dragon.

The ice, pure as a rhinestone, instantly swallowed up the dragon, climbing up monster's legs and body before Ainz could see that the girl was not moving on her own, all this time she was riding a glass horse, as if made of pure crystal. Ainz saw how the dragon, absorbed in ice, tried to move inside, trying to destroy the ice mountain in which he found himself, before the girl riding the horse headed to the very center of the ice mountain. However, a second before the collision, the girl made a jump, worthy of a gymnast, after which, she landed on the ground at the same time her glass mare struck the ice barrier, which instantly exploded. For a moment, millions of fragments reflecting the light hid the figure of the huge dragon. However, when they finally fell to the ground, there was no longer any monster in place.

Ainz, looking at the events unfolding before him, just now noticed that a man was with the girl, whom he had not noticed before, after which he turned his gaze to his opponent who had finally finished taking his new form.

Dracula was finally able to take on his disgusting form of a beast, but having got rid of one distraction factors, Ainz was ready to try to fight a new one.

"_Napalm_," he said instantly, after which he teleported upwards and continued, "_Napalm_."

* * *

**Emotional Suppression** \- is a unique skill of the Overlord race, the highest form of magicians among the undead and undead among magicians.

This skill is similar to many Servant skills by the result of its action, since it provides protection for the mind of its user from certain mental effects. However, it is extremely different in the mechanism of its action. While the Protection of Faith provides protection of the mind through endless faith in God, and Detachment through the denial of emotions, this skill virtually expels emotions from the mind of its user. Instead of just putting them down or finally making them disappear, this skill not only destroys the emotional imprint, but also all possible judgments or conclusions that could be affected by the emotion. Although this skill may be the most effective from a practical point of view, because it provides the absolute efficiency of the user's mind, the absence of empathy for certain things can be a problem.

* * *

**Well, hello there!**

**Well, some people talked in the comments about the story unfolding slowly. What can I say?In the chapter 11 I talked about it - and while I'm still not planning on dragging it to the epic levels of Taylor Warga or something - there is quite a chance, that this fanfic would be very, VERY big - and more then this, it would go in it's own, quite a slow pace. Not because I want it - no, actually I thought a few times that I'm rushing things, leaving someone behind, ignoring interesting opportunities, cutting the corners (in this fight, none the less!) and not giving enough time for a big cast of characters to develop properly - so I might even say, that I'm already hurrying up the best I can, without dropping the quality - that this text have from my point of view at least. So... Well, that is, this fanfic while may seems slow just can't function any other way - at least as far as my mind and imagination go.**

**Oh well, but besides all of this - I have at least three news for you. First one - this battle finally ended here. Well, technically not ended, but you got it. Another two news I have - that is, two new chapters, that are waiting at my _pat reon \rure_ page for a price of a single dollar. I'm not greedy, this is the minimal price that can be even charged and everything would be - one day - fully available for free on this site. But damn, do I need money...**


	24. Chapter 24

After using his main, final and strongest trump card, Dracula became even weaker than before. It was paradoxical, but it was true.

Vlad's last trump card was that if he had accepted himself as Dracula, he would have gained all his mythical abilities as a vampire: tremendous strength, speed, vitality, and, most importantly, tremendous regeneration, but the problem was somewhere else.

According to the rules of Yggdrasil, most types of the regeneration did not extend to the damage caused by negative energy, acid and fire. Having taken the form of an undead, Dracula finally rejected all protection against fire, which was bestowed on him by his human body.

If Dracula collided in this new, liberated state with any other Servant, like Arthuria, Lancelot, or Cu Chulainn, he could easily destroy them. Even in a battle with the greatest among all Servants such as Karna, Gilgamesh, Scatach, he might stand a chance.

But for Ainz, he became only an even easier and more vulnerable target than before. Having lost the ability to create stakes, he lost the opportunity to attack Ainz, who was hovering in the sky, and even if he could reach him, Ainz with his teleportation would simply leave him at that moment. However, this was not the worst part, because, having lost his mind, Dracula turned into a crazy, bloodthirsty beast, that even forgot about the very minimum of military tactics. In other words, when a column of fire engulfed his body, instead of planning for different options for his battle with the mage, the vampire only rushed at him in a head-on attack. It was in vain.

By the time the Servants, exhausted after their battles, reached the place where the battle between Ainz and Dracula took place, Ainz had long since gotten down to the ground, and was now only continuing to examine the ashes and black coals left by what was once the most powerful vampire.

"Hmmm" the mage's slightly interested voice caught the attention of the Servants before the necromancer's hand grabbed something from the very depths of the black ash, which immediately fell apart "Data Crystal. Good."

After these words, the mage's hand disappeared into the black portal that appeared next to him, after which, the crystal, shimmering with soft light, disappeared, and when the mage's palm appeared again from the hole, there was nothing in it.

Only after this did Ainz reacted to the approaching Servants and turn to them.

It was impossible to say for sure what attracted his attention, the two new Servants who appeared next to him, the blood that continued to drip from under the blindfold covering Medusa's eyes, or the looks that Arthuria still continued to award him. Ainz hesitated for a few seconds before choosing to prioritize matter of the new faces that appeared at the last moment of the battle.

The first them catch Ainz's attention was a young girl. She looked hardly over sixteen years old, her ash-blond hair was braided into two tight curls hanging from the sides of her head, while the remaining hair framed a neat, sweet, childishly naive little snub-nosed face with blue eyes looking at a world with a kid-like admiration and curiosity. Her almost childish body was dressed in a tight-fitting red dress, turning below the waist into a short miniskirt, barely hiding her legs, covered a little lower with high white stiletto boots, while on her hands were short gloves that covered her palms.

In contrast to her looks, the man next to her appeared tall and thin, his long arms had long thin fingers reminiscent of the claws of some carnivorous bird, and were dressed in high white gloves, going deep into the hollow spacious sleeves of his outfit, which seemed to be a solemn uniform embroidered with gold embossing, on his shoulders was a grandiose black cloak with a gold lining. However, while the girl was beautiful, there was nothing special about the man's face, his long sun-blond tangled hair and gray eyes, together with sharp thin features, a narrow long nose and thin lips made him look rather groomed, than charming, because of which, his figure served rather as a shade of beauty for the young girl, lost on her background.

Ainz carefully looked at the two arrivals, after which, after a little thought, he looked at the man behind the young girl. However, instead of him, the young girl was the first to speak:

"Since you have already seen my Noble Phantasm," the girl smiled, "I think it makes no sense to hide further. Servant Rider, Marie-Antoinette, nice to meet you!"

The girl curtsied at this, and although Ainz, for obvious reasons, had never such things and could not confidently judge her performance of such an aristocratic action, in his opinion, the performed curtsy looked flawless.

"And this, is my friend and colleague." after the perfect action, the girl pointed her elbow at the man, who, having ceased to glance at Arthuria, finally reacted:

"Servant Caster, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart," the man bowed after these words.

Ainz was not completely sure what he was supposed to do at that moment. Courtesy demanded reciprocal courtesy, however, such a disclosure of all cards from the very beginning of communication seemed unusual to him. On the other hand, finding Jeanne with a glance, while she was not far from him, still supporting her wounded body with a banner stuck in the ground, Ainz recalled their first meeting and doubted it. Perhaps he really should have disclosed at least minimal information about himself in return ...

"Ainz" the mage finally decided, "If you want to talk to the rest of the Servants, then I have no right to disturb you."

"Oh, of course," Marie blurted out a smile at this and instantly flew out of the conversation with Ainz, before he could continue it, "Oh, please forgive me, will you tell me your name?"

"Jeanne," the Saint only smiled at this question, "Jeanne d'Arc."

"Wow!" Ainz could almost see how Marie Antoinette's eyes lit up, "Jeanne d'Arc itself! Incredibly, I never even dreamed that I could meet you alive!"

At this Ainz just looked at the two girls talking to each other, after which he looked at the man who remained in front of him. He, as if catching the mood of the mage, only sighed and shrugged, as if saying "it always happens", and then turned to Ainz, "Please forgive me, Her Majesty did not want to offend you with her neglect, she's just one of those so-called "airheads"."

"Nothing of the kind, old pervert!" as if reacting to this, Marie interrupted her conversation with Jeanne, after, which she cast an angry look at Mozart, "I'm just familiar with the aristocratic life and understand that sometimes competent people should do the real work, so Amadeus, I entrust you with this important mission while I make contacts!"

And satisfied with the answer, the girl turned to Jeanne and continued the conversation, making Mozart once again sadly and heavily breathe, as if he were doing some incredibly hard, but necessary work.

Ainz did not know how he should react to this small exchange, so he chose the safest way "Thank you for interfering in the battle a little earlier. If not for you, the battle would not have ended without loss"

"I doubt it" Caster said simply, after which, he looked at the ashes left by the great vampire, already thoroughly blown by the wind around the field, after which, he looked at Ainz, "In any case, we are always happy to help."

"Thank you," Ainz bowed briefly to this, after which, he looked at Marie Antoinette, who had already thrown a conversation with Jeanne and was trying to hug Serenity. To her credit, Serenity, who could have rid herself of yet another potential rival in such a simple way, was not giving in to the girl's embrace.

Having come to the conclusion that the new Servants were still more likely allies, Ainz went on to the following matters.

'And yet…' the thought slipped through his head, 'Marie Antoinette and Mozart ... This is someone famous, right?..'

* * *

Medusa slowly pulled off her mask, exposing the face disfigured by the blow, devoid its eyes. She expected Ainz to be taken aback, or maybe make a wry face, but instead the mage only raised a hand to her face calmly, "Does it hurt?"

Medusa wanted to object to this, but as soon as he touched the cut, she involuntarily hissed, as the necromancer tore off a thin crust of clotted blood from her eyes with an inaccurate movement, causing them to bleed again, to which the mage just nodded "so it hurts."

Ainz did not quite understand why he was doing this, he was not a doctor, and knowing whether Medusa's wound was painful or not would not have brought him anything, rather, he simply acted as dictated to him by the knowledge of films and programs he watched.

"It's okay, Master" Medusa instantly tried to make up for her involuntary reaction "The wound will be closed in the next few days."

It was a logical phrase, it meant that if the girl's wound would be healed in a few days, then she was not a liability, and the reduction in combat capabilities in this case was temporary and insignificant, which means his intervention was not needed. But still…

"Hmm, maybe," Ainz indefinitely held out, looking at the red strip stretching horizontally across the girl's face through her eyes and nose. Even if Medusa was just slightly injured, she was still injured. And what was much worse, she was injured due his decisions.

"Something wrong, Master?" noticing his silence as he continued to look at her face, Medusa asked him again, but the mage said nothing, continuing to think.

From an objective point of view, Ainz did not have to spend even the smallest crumbs of his resources on Medusa. Especially if Ainz had limited quantities of these resources at his disposal, but at the same time...

Ainz was a collector by nature, this was one of the defining features of his personality and a motivation for his behavior, not only things that were almost impossible to get were stored in his inventory, but also, those things that should have been spent a long time ago. Potions, wands, tonics, amplifiers, poultices, staves, scrolls, crystals... all that Ainz did not use because he considered it "too valuable" or prepared it for when he "truly needed it", and after that, the need for these items finally disappeared as they became obsolete. In other words, even things absolutely useless for him, such as dresses, were stored in his inventory, simply because he once put them there.

Healing potions were useless for Ainz, no, in fact, they were even dangerous for him. Healing potions were a concentration of positive energy, while Ainz, who was undead, was a concentration of negative energy. In other words, the healing potion was supposed to hurt him as much as it was supposed to heal sentient beings. It was useless to him.

However, Ainz, being a miser by nature, still continued to accumulate such potions when they came to him, which lead to countless vials of the weakest healing potions piling up in his inventory, enough to fill a small sea, not to mention the more powerful healing potions, or potions with other effects that mimic healing, or other things with similar effects. Ainz possessed almost endless supplies of any consumable in the game. However...he was a miser.

If he saw a simple person dying from the plague, then even with thousands of bottles of "_Healing from the disease_" potions, Ainz would pass by.

However, Medusa was not an ordinary person. She was Ainz's Servant, and therefore, a subordinate of the negligent boss Ainz, who took the name of all his friends as his own. So he could not afford to dishonor the name of their glorious guild by cowardice and treason.

So with a sigh, Ainz reached out into the black hole of his inventory and pulled out a small red phial. The liquid splashing inside was like blood, but only partially. It was a dense red liquid that did not leave a residue on the walls of the bottle, scattering the rays of the sun breaking through the tent, where Ainz and the wounded Medusa were now. "_Potion of minor healing._"

"Well," in the end, the guy handed the potion to the girl after a second of doubt, "Drink it."

"Thank you, Master," but instead of obeying his orders, Medusa only shook her head, "But I assure you that this wound will close on its own after a few days. You don't have to spend any of your stock on me."

"I know," Ainz agreed to this, and insistently handed the girl the phial, "Drink it."

"Master, I really don't need this," Medusa stubbornly refused again, "I can regenerate it on my own."

Of course, from the outside it might seem that Medusa was stubborn because of her warring character, because she did not like her Master or because she did not trust the potion, but in reality, the reason was nothing like this. The problem was that Medusa did not think that she was worth the cost of a healing potion.

Of course, she still felt the pain from the wound, and it was unpleasant to feel a void in place of her eyes, and she felt uncomfortable because she could not feel her usual blindfold. However, Medusa did not consider this to be sufficient reason for her Master to spend his resources on her.

Medusa saw herself as a Servant, a tool, a weapon, a doll, a monster, anything, but not a living person. And therefore, she sincerely did not understand Ainz's attempt to heal her wounds. For her, it seemed as strange and redundant as trying to console a scratched table with kind words. An unnecessary action that did not fit the situation because of its banal absurdity.

However, Medusa's Master still continued to insist that she drink the potion, so the girl was still forced to give in.

"Good," she took the phial from the hands of the mage, after that, she poured the red liquid inside herself. The potion did not have any specific taste, rather, it simply resembled fresh spring water. However, instantly, the girl felt a pleasant coolness spreading across her body, and felt her flesh grow together with a not unpleasant, but strange sensation and slowly take on the same shape of her eyes.

After a couple of seconds, the girl felt how the cut on her face disappeared, after which, she blinked several times.

However, despite the fact that the wound was physically repaired, the girl was still blind. Her vision did not return to her.

Slowly, the girl raised her hand in front of her to make sure what happened, and then ran it across her face, feeling only perfectly restored skin and eyes under her fingers.

"Something is wrong?" To this Ainz turned to the girl, forcing her to startle.

Of course, something was wrong, because the girl's vision did not return. However, Medusa felt somewhat guilty that Ainz's potion did not cure her blindness, so she only shook her head.

However, Ainz, sensing something in her actions, thought for a bit, and with a sigh, looked at the girl carefully, "Your vision has not been restored?"

Medusa could continue to deny the obvious, but instead, the girl only nodded slowly, feeling guilty about what had happened.

"Of course, I could have guessed," Ainz sighed. Simple healing spells could heal any wounds, however, if the wound was accompanied by a status effect such as "_trauma_" or "_crippled_" for example, or when an eye was injured or a hand was lost, then a simple healing spell might not be enough. Thus, the potion was able to heal a simple wound, restoring Medusa's health, but not her vision.

To this, Ainz just moved his hand to the side, allowing it to hide in the void of his inventory.

"It's not worth it, Master," realizing what will happen next, Medusa tried once again to force Ainz to give up, but it was useless. Although Ainz did not want to spend his consumables just like that, he was also not used to being limited to half measures.

"Good," stretching out a new phial, this time with a slightly unclear purple liquid, he handed it to Medusa and, not listening to her timid objections, made her drink the liquid.

Instantly, as a sensation of pleasant lightness spilled over the girl's body, an image appeared in front of her eyes. She was able to see the awning in front of her, its walls swaying in the wind, and the man sitting opposite her, and looked into his eyes.

A moment later, Medusa closed her eyes and looked away, "I'm sorry!"

"Hmm?" Ainz just tilted his head slightly, after which, realizing, he nodded, "Don't be. I have strong protection against magic, and additional protection against petrification and paralysis, so you do not have to worry about looking at me."

Medusa only paused for a few seconds.

She wanted to look at her Master, she really wanted to, but she realized that any person she looked at would instantly die, petrified. Of course, her Master was not weak, it was unequivocal, but even the Servants could not defend themselves completely from her strength. Perhaps he simply could not recognize the powers of the damned eyes of Medusa...

The girl thought for a second, after which, nevertheless, she trusted her Master and slowly opened her eyes.

Ainz turned out to be... ordinary?

Medium height, with black short-cut hair, carelessly combed with a parting in the middle, with a completely ordinary face and black eyes, medium build, a little older than twenty-five, the most ordinary man. Although…

It would seem that every trait in Ainz was ordinary, but at the same time... Something was particularly prominent. The usual physique seemed ideally suited to his face, the color of his eyes perfectly combined softness and depth, his eyes balanced on the fine line between severity and softness. As if even looking normally, he still managed to look especially significant, as if even the most ordinary body could not hide the greatness lurking behind.

In fact, the reason for such a strange appearance lied in more prosaic things. In Da Vinci, who created Ainz's perfect body.

However, the fact that this body was created by Da Vinci did not mean that Medusa's thoughts were completely wrong.

The girl continued to look at Ainz, and he, in response, looked into her eyes. For a second, she became scared of this, not only because of the fact that directly looking into her eyes should have been many times stronger than a look from her, but also because Ainz could see the damned eyes of Medusa.

The girl's pupils were forever twisted and the very structure of her eyes took a different look. Her gaze was unblinking, as if serpentine, and the black pupil, resting in the center of the yellow eye, looked like a wide black quadrangle, frozen in the very center of her eyes.

Any person looking at her eyes would shudder at the unnaturalness of the picture that appeared before him.

However, Ainz, looking into these eyes, did not pay any attention to this.

Was this due to his memories of the Yggdrasil monsters? Yes, but only in part. More importantly, Ainz came from the twenty-second century.

Genetic and cybernetic changes were the norm of his time, and therefore Medusa's pupils were not the strangest thing that Ainz had seen in his life. Moreover, his previous boss also wore eye implants, due to which his pupils could freely change shape in the most suitable way for the environment, and in his spare time, the boss preferred to make his pupils look like an hourglass, which is why Medusa's eyes were not even on the list of the top thousand strangest things that happened to the human body that he saw.

Therefore, observing the girl, Ainz just nodded to himself, "Do you feel okay?"

"Ha?" on this Medusa blinked once. Although she did not need this normally, she still did so sometimes, in moments of emotional significance.

"Has your vision completely recovered?" the girl only stopped for a second, then slowly nodded.

"Good," Ainz nodded to himself. "In that case, if you need anything, any help, please contact me. I understand that you may not consider me suitable for help. However, I will try to do everything in my power."

For a second, Medusa thought about what was said, after which, only realizing how her attempt to refuse help looked for Ainz, she tried to turn to the mage, but he already went out into the street.

Medusa, staying inside, sighed several times and closed her eyes.

And again, she does everything wrong and causes someone inconvenience because of her stupidity...

The girl sighed at this and pulled the blindfold over her eyes.

* * *

After Medusa, Ainz tended to his other subordinates who got injured in the battle, who were almost all of his Servants: Serenity, Cu Chulainn, Archer, Hassan. After some thought, Ainz also decided to deal with Jeanne's injuries. In other words, the last who remained on the list of the wounded and still was not cured was Arthuria. And meeting with her was the thing Ainz was most afraid of.

Arthuria frightened him a little, her cold condemning gaze and eternal detachment seemed to press on Ainz, reminding him that he was an insignificant insect that accidentally ran into the greatest heroes of humanity. At least, they all claimed to be such, and Ainz was inclined to agree with them. At least he had to fight with Cu Chulainn and King Arthur in the past, but back then they looked different and King Arthur was a man. However, as his knowledge prompted to him that ordinary people could not become Servants, Ainz was forced to accept their words without questions.

And so, after healing all the Servants, Ainz stopped in front of the last target, Arthuria, but he hesitated. He did not want to meet this gloomy woman with an aura of power around her, but if he fled now, would that not show him as a weak boss? What kind of boss in the world would run away simply because he did not like his subordinate?

No, if you think about it, Ainz could recall how his colleagues once talked about the fact that someone from a street gang decided to get a job in an office nearby and the boss sent his deputies exclusively to talk with him...

Subsequently, when one of the deputies reprimanded the newcomer, he was shot dead on the threshold of his house few days after...

Ainz flinched, because such a line of thought did not help him to concentrate on his actions nor gather his strength, after that, he shook his head and resolutely took a step forward, finding himself in a dark place one on one with the girl.

No, in fact, the shelter created by Ainz was the same in all cases, the eighth-rank spell "_Create Base_" created a minimally liveable camp of arbitrary size with the minimum necessary supplies for almost any number of people, so Arthuria's shelter should not look different than the shelter of any other Servant. The girl's temporary base was darkened solely by the fact that she was here, with her black armor, which at the moment was perched aside, leaning on a small armor rack.

Ainz was distracted for a second at observing the standing armor, trying to figure out what exactly in the sight in front of him did not give him peace before the voice distracted him, "Master?"

Arthuria turned to Ainz, and guided by the cold tone, the mage turned to the girl, sitting on the bed and, realizing by her appearance what was haunting him, nodded a little.

Until that moment, Ainz had never seen Arthuria without her armor.

Without the black armor that gave her volume and gloom, the girl herself looked... Fragile?

Perhaps not as fragile as a precious vase or crystal decanter, but as fragile as a piece of art, cold and majestic.

The girl in front of him was pale and not as impressive as Ainz remembered her in his memoirs just a second ago. There was clotted blood on her pale skin, and Ainz could see a couple still open wounds, in many places, her luxurious evening dress was torn.

'I didn't know that she wears a dress under the armor…' Ainz thought for a second, looking at the girl before her voice led the guy out of thought.

"Master, did you want something?" the girl looked at the guy who had just noticed her sheathed blade lying next to her.

"Yes," finally gathering strength, Ainz took a step toward the girl, "Here, a healing potion."

Ainz handed the girl a phial, who, carefully looking at the bottle, accepted it without a word and drank it instantly.

A soft radiance spread across her body, after which, she calmly gave the bottle to the magician, "Is that all?"

To this, Ainz hesitated for a second, "If you have any other wounds or problems..."

"No," the girl answered shortly, after which, she asked again, "Is that all?"

"Yes, perhaps," having failed to say something else, Ainz was forced to agree with Arthuria.

"Good," the girl answered once again and returned to her sword.

Ainz should go out and get further away, but the feeling that something was wrong did not let him go. Despite the fact that Arthuria looked and even behaved the same as before, some feeling did not allow him to simply leave the tent and go about his business. Memories of strange looks that the girl threw at him not so long ago forced Ainz to open his mouth again, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, Master," Arthuria answered as coldly and clearly as always, after which she turned her gaze to the mage, "I'm fine."

Ainz frowned at the words. Of course, he was poorly versed in Servant lore, but still, there was a reason why he could become a compromise figure for forty renegades of society, ready to lead them all, "I may not be the best bo... Master, but still I am ready to do everything in my power to help my subor... Servants."

At this Arthuria just looked at the necromancer unimpressed, and then sighed, "Such perseverance should be punished."

After these words, Arthuria nevertheless set aside her blade and looked into the eyes of the Master, "Why did you do it?"

"It?" Ainz blinked for a second, after which, as if a light bulb popped up above his head, - "Ah, so you say... It's About "that"…"

Ainz had no idea what "It" she was talking about, he could not even imagine what the girl was thinking right now, but he understood that a boss who could not even see his mistake was the worst of all possible bosses, so leaving himself an internal note about the need to find out what "It" girl had in mind later, Ainz nodded in understanding.

"Yes," Arthuria also nodded slowly, realizing that her Master was still able to understand what the girl meant, "Why did you do it?"

'What are you talking about!?' Ainz wanted to scream at the girl, but instead Ainz's brain was busy with other work, he tried to come up with the most convincing lie that he could "Ahem, this... Sometimes such actions are necessary."

"I understand that," the girl only nodded. "However, it was my duty. I had to do it myself."

"Oh, ahem!" Ainz suddenly realized that after this remark he finally lost the thread of reasoning he thought he shared with the girl and was forced to trust blind intuition, "Ahem... Sometimes the Master's duty is to do such things on his own..."

"Is it?" Arthuria looked at Ainz calmly, "It is my duty as a knight... No, as a king."

'Oh, at what moment did we start talking about kings?!' Ainz mentally shuddered at the moment when the conversation turned in this direction, but his face did not even raise an eyebrow at these words, "I have no doubt in your ability to fulfill your duty. However, my duty as a Master is to help you."

To this, Arthuria only looked at the mage with a curious look, and although his appearance did not suggest any possibility to support such loud words with actions, remembering his terrifying power, the girl was forced to agree that he could fulfill what was said, "My decisions are my responsibility and I do not I need someone's help to take care of them."

"I understand this," feeling that he talked away from the dangerous "It," about which he had no idea, Ainz wisely nodded. "And I'm not saying that you need help. However, just as you have your duty, so do I as a Master. My duty is to help those Servants that I have called. If I can't even help you, then what worth am I as a real guil... Master."

For a second, Arturia's gaze, which Ainz could swear touched him, burned him, as if evaluating and weighing all the arguments, but the girl nevertheless gave up and looked away, "I do not need your help."

"But you can always count on it," Ainz nodded. If he still had to become the boss in the end, he planned to become the best boss he had never had!

Arthuria only rolled her eyes at these words, hardly noticeable, but Ainz could still see this, and then turned around from the mage, letting him know that their conversation was over, to which, the necromancer just nodded and walked away.

Arthuria, left alone, reached for her sword again and was easily able to get it out of its sheath and look at the blade.

The blade of her sword was anthracite-black, however, unlike the black blade of the Dragon Witch, it still reflected the light in his calm state, so Arthuria was able to see herself in the reflection.

For a few seconds, the girl continued to look at her face, after which, having sighed completely humanly, she returned the blade back to the scabbard and put it away from her.

Ainz though, as soon as he took a step out, came face to face with Mashu, hurrying somewhere. The girl, as soon as she saw the Master, brightened, and then hastened to tell him the important news, the person they saved woke up.

* * *

Mashu hurried to meet Ainz, so only half of the Servants gathered at the man's door.

In addition to Mashu and Ainz, Jeanne, Mozart and Marie were at the door of the tent, so, when the mage approached them, the last one of those waved friendly to him, and before the magi could react in any way to her actions, she disappeared inside the tent, only having time to wave back to the door flaps. Mozart, observing her actions, only sighed and followed. Jeanne, having seen the actions of two and not finding any reaction from Ainz to this, also hesitantly pulled away the tent flaps and entered after the two.

Ainz, though he was the Master, was actually the last to enter, so the scene he found was somewhat different than could be expected.

The rescued man was very young, literally twenty years old, and, as any victim of torture should be, he was naked. Trying to fix this, the man tried to cover his lower body with a sheet pulled from the bed, but at the same time, for lack of other weapons, the man tried to shake menacingly his fists in the air, brushing off the onset of two girls and one unfortunate man who was forced to babysit with them. No, to be more precise, he tried to isolate himself from only one girl.

"Back away, Witch!" the man literally burned with anger, splashing his fist in a formidable shock in the air directed at Jeanne, "I did not give up the last time, and my opinion will not change! Kill me! I won't join you, Witch!"

"I apologize, I do not want to harm you!" Jeanne tried to take a step forward, but being afraid of hurting the man in front of her, she was forced to immediately retreat when he waved his fist at her, "Excuse me, I'm not an enemy!"

Marie also participated in this skirmish, however, instead of helping Jeanne, or even the beating man, it seemed that she simply enjoyed the situation itself, interfering with the process more than helping.

Mozart tried to make the biggest contribution to solving the problem by trying to get Marie out of the mess, but she, bursting out with a childish laugh, only continued to leave his tenacious hands and walk around other people, bringing additional chaos to the already complicated situation.

Ainz watched the scene for several seconds, trying to determine which of the two things required more of his attention, after which, with a sigh, he extended his hand forward.

"_Mass Hold Species_" the spell in his hands instantly took shape, and then bursted into reality, fettering people. All targets of the spell instantly lost all power and ability to resist, freezing like silent dolls. The bodies of the frozen could not make a single movement, even talking and moving their eyes was impossible in their case. If Ainz wished, this spell would instantly become a death trap, because by controlling all the muscles and the smallest movements in the body, the mage could force the captured to stop breathing. However, the necromancer naturally did not want this.

Calmly, Ainz took a few steps across the tent, after which, making sure that all those who had frozen understood the situation they were in, lifted the spell.

Mozart took advantage of this first, seizing one of Marie Antoinette's arms, who, despite the fact that she had her fun a little bit halted, could easily turn the situation into even more chaos than it was at any time.

Next, the unknown man reacted, picking up the sheet that had slipped off during the paralysis, the man took a step back, but now, knowing that his opponent was able to paralyze him, the man seemed to have reconciled with his fate and now only looked at Ainz with malicious anger.

With a sigh, Ainz took a step forward, putting himself a little behind Jeanne, and looked into the eyes of the man standing in front of him.

Recalling all his experience as a seller and clerk, Ainz tried to convincingly smile at his new acquaintance, "Good afternoon. My name is Ainz, and it so happened that at the moment you are in the camp run by me and my subordinates…"

"Witch's servant!" interrupting the mage, the man glanced at Jeanne, standing next to Ainz, "Do you think that I will forget the one who betrayed me, and the entirety of France?!"

"No," Ainz nodded, and then shook his head. Even Ainz himself was suspicious at the first meeting with Jeanne, so it would be naive to assume that he would be able to convince a person who personally met with the Witch so easily "But I think that you understand that if we were working with Witch, then we would not need to take you out of the cage in the square, or even more, to heal you."

The man frowned at this, unconsciously acknowledging the veracity of the words of the mage, "The Witch has repeatedly tried to trick me. She didn't succeed earlier, she won't succeed now!"

After these words, the man glanced at Jeanne, who, as if being burned by him with a glance, took a step back, now standing behind Ainz.

"Ahem," Ainz paused. It would be foolish to deny that this is all a trick of the Witch because any of the minions sent by the Witch would do so. However, Ainz had another argument, "In this case, this attempt to gain your trust is extremely ineffective."

"Hmm?!" the man only looked at the mage angry and a little concerned.

"To begin with, we initially brought the Witch to you," after glancing at Jeanne Ainz noticed, how she flinched a little at the moment her opponent was mentioned, "Then we healed you completely without your awakening and did not even leave supervision from us. In this case, the best way would be to provide you with a minimum restoration of strength so as not to let you die, and then awaken you. Then, while you were already conscious, we would leave you a "caregiver", who would be both a supervisor and a jailer, at the same time, he would do minor medical work and maintain contact with you, because of which, you would be forced to become more emotionally close to this person. Then it would be necessary to imitate the lack of supplies, one of our group should advocate to abandon you, after which, the nurse assigned to you would give you his supplies, forcing you to react to him or her with even greater emotions. Then, after some time, it would be possible to conduct a false attack of the Dragon Witch forces on the camp, where the nurse would protect you during your helplessness, having received a wound in the process. After that, we could finish the treatment as soon as possible and the person appointed as your nurse would enjoy your full trust, which would allow us to find out any of your secrets after about a week or, in the worst case, two."

After these words, echoed in an empty tent, all those present stared at Ainz, as if they had just first seen him for all the time. Even the man who was so prepared to attack, relaxed a little, albeit for a different reason than it might seem.

"You have the magnificent and perverted mind of the Devil himself," Ainz only suddenly felt a rush of embarrassment at these words. Frankly, he simply remembered what Punitto Moe once told him and applied it to the current situation, so he had absolutely nothing to be proud of, "And therefore I believe that you are not a minion of the Witch."

"Huh?" Jeanne, looking at the mage, was more shocked not by the ruthlessness of the plan, but by the man's thoughts, "How does it even work?!"

"Dragon Witch is a dull and impulsive hysterical bitch, she does not have enough patience or brains to think up such a devilish plan. All that was enough for her was to call one of her minions to convince me of how magnificent she is," the man sighed at this, after which, he looked at Jeanne, "I sent her to the Devil and she broke my arm."

"It's sad," Ainz nodded without thinking of any better answer. "Nevertheless, we hoped that we would be able to get some answers from you."

To this, the man only measured the mage with a glance, after which he nodded, "Good. At least we can try to talk."

"Good," Ainz nodded, and then introduced himself. "As I said, my name is Ainz."

After that, the man pointed to a girl standing nearby, "Her name is known to you…"

"Jeanne d'Arc," the man nodded, then grimaced, "She is known to me much more than to many, but the fact that she still has not recognized me only supports me in the thought that she is still not the Dragon Witch."

To these words, Jeanne turned to the man, who, trying to maintain the falling sheet, nevertheless did something like a bow "John II of Alenсon".

* * *

**Emotional Suppression:** _EX (A +++)_

At this level, we can say that at the moment when this skill activates, all emotions, positive and negative, not only cease to exist, but are also fundamentally impossible, and the mind of the user is fundamentally rewritten with this skill in order to not contain even a hint of emotional judgment.

Any methods of emotional or mental influence on the magician are impossible at the conceptual level, be it passion, fear, love, or even an attempt to turn emotions into tangible values, it it all meaningless.

All attacks that use the emotional sphere as a measure of their strength are impossible; not so much because they may lack potency, but because of the lack of a target.

Unique is the fact that, due to the lack of an emotional side, this skill not only defends the mind of the user from emotions, but also from their absence. For example, since the concept of "fear" is alien to Ainz, he cannot be afraid, but he cannot NOT be afraid. In other words, emotions are fundamentally not compatable with an overlord's body, which means that without the ability to experience emotions, and with the inability to not experience them, Ainz is not only invulnerable to mental manipulation, but also unable to achieve nirvana or enlightenment.

The only reason why this skill has had its rank lowered is the fact that this skill appears only sporadically, in cases when emotions can cloud the judgement of the user. If Ainz uses the full power of this skill and its full rank, he will completely and absolutely lose all semblance of emotions or empathy. Further suppression of this skill by gaining emotions is theoretically possible, but at the same time, it is extremely unlikely, because having lost all kinds of emotional attachment, it is unlikely that Ainz's mind will find a reason to return the emotions to their place again.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**A few people misunderstood Author's words in the previous chapter, so I would need to tell about it more clearly.**  
**I can't write it faster, can't change the pace of the story - and can't do things I can't do. So, all in all - I will continue to write this story in the pace I see as the fitting one for this story - no more and no less than that.**

**Also I was asked about my money need - and no, I'm not dying from hunger or trying to fight some medical problem, neither there is something bad happening with my family or something - God save me from the time I would need money for that reason. I'm just in the perpetual need of money - and yes, although my monthly expenses are only300$ - I'm currently getting only 200$ from my regular source of income, so the other 100$ are mostly closed by - and by my friends sometimes, which is not exactly the way I would prefer this to go. **

**To put it simply - I just have a little bit of a money problem.**

**And hey, isn't it great that you can support me on Pat reon \rure right now, getting two new chapters for a price of a 1$? I think it is.**


	25. Chapter 25

After some thought, Ainz decided to conduct a further conversation with John without any extra ears, which naturally meant that Marie Antoinette was in the tent with him, Jeanne and John. Since Marie Antoinette made her way to the interview site, Mozart, who felt guilty of her affairs, was also forced to attend.

Ainz was initially against this, and in other conditions, he would have probably not allowed the young Rider and her protégé to be there, but under these conditions, Marie, was formally the third side of the conversation. Unlike Jeanne, who in fact was nothing without Ainz's, Marie and Mozart still remained Servants in full force and therefore were allowed to participate in the conversation.

'It's like the director of a small company at a meeting of two mega-corporations agreeing on a monopoly' Ainz came to the conclusion with more familiar words 'He is much less influential and can be removed from the conversation, but then his actions might violate the established order in the market ... As I thought, politics are too much for me ... '

The rest of the Servants, who did not hear the mage's thoughts, simply took their places at the small table that appeared with the help of Ainz's magic, after which, they just stared at each other, until John took decided to break the ice.

"So," the experienced soldier and commander sighed, while his gaze was fixed on Jeanne, who instantly stiffened, "I trust my eyes, and my eyes tell me that you are the Dragon Witch."

Jeanne tried to object to this right away, but John only frowned slightly, forcing the girl to shut up instantly.

'What a terrible person …' Ainz just felt a lump in his stomach begin to toss and turn. He was almost two times older than the guy in front of him, but at the same time, he always had great problems communicating with any powerful person, so observing John made him remember unpleasant memories from his work.

"But at the same time, due to certain circumstances," John directed these words to Ainz, who, without changing his expression, shuddered inwardly, "I still have to doubt what I see now, so I'll try to ask you straight. What exactly is happening now with France?"

Ainz had a completely direct answer to this, which, however, would only confuse everything even more, since the mage would have to explain the concept of time travel, parallel worlds, Servants, apocalypse and many other things in the process. Therefore, carefully looking around all at the Servants sitting nearby, the necromancer decided to simplify the incredibly difficult situation to a simple one.

"An evil witch was able to take the form of Jeanne d'Arc and assemble an army of monsters and powerful minions under her command, after which, she attacked France under the guise of Jeanne herself," after these words the mage turned his eyes to the Servants sitting nearby, and especially to Jeanne herself, "That Jeanne that is now sitting in front of you is the real Jeanne, resurrected in order to fight the Witch. I and...the other people that you were called into this world in order to fight the Witch too."

After these words, Ainz looked at John, who, after a little thought, nodded confidently.

"Yes," he concluded solidly, "This is complete nonsense."

After that, the guy sighed, as if resigning himself to what was said, and continued the thought, "But since we have dragons flying through the sky, and the living dead, why not your story too? It is all the same and can't be crazier."

After these words, John closed his eyes for a second and rubbed the bridge of his nose, Ainz wanted to correct the man regarding his comment about dragons, but changed his mind at the last moment.

"Well," John leaned back in his chair, and then looked at Jeanne, who was sitting next to him, studying her "Suppose I believe in your good intentions to save the France. What's next?".

Ainz thought for a second and looked at John in front of him, before he realized that he did not particularly know why he needed John alive.

Initially, he saved him because he believed that he could know some information about the Witch, but if he is an enemy of the Witch, one she had left for the dead in a cell and forgotten about, then his usefulness was actually practically zero.

Coming to this conclusion upset Ainz a little, he did not like to take useless actions.

However, not sharing his despondency, Jeanne at that moment picked up the conversation.

"John of Alanson!" out of the blue, and for the first time since the conversation started, the girl looked the guy directly in the eyes, as if she saw her long-lost friend, "I know that a lot of time has passed, and you may not even believe me, but... we once fought together, under one banner…"

"Yes..yes..I remember this time very well, Jeanne," John said a little dismissively to the girl, after which, he sighed, "But what now? Do you want me to go with you on a new reckless attack? Jeanne, I am only one person, I am no match for the monsters serving the Witch."

It was difficult to argue with this, even one wyvern posed a threat to several hundred men, let alone one. However...

"On the way to Charite, we saw a dead wyvern" Ainz recalled this fact, after which, as if he had just snapped back to reality, he looked at the man, waiting for his reaction to this out of the blue comment.

Fortunately or not, however, John took what was said as a complete sentence with an underlying meaning, which made him look at the mage with certain dislike in his eyes "Yes, we killed one of these monsters. So what? Hundreds of people gave their lives to kill it, only to rise as the living dead on the Witch's side and attack their friends minutes later. You did not see what happened to us."

"The zombies in Charite... You fought there".

"Yes," John only sighed and grimaced at that, "I was the commander that fought the only real battle against the forces of the Witch. I fought, and lost, miserably. My teachers' souls probably won't be able to rest in their graves after my failure in that battle.

"And maybe" the guy grinned unhappily, "They are back in this world, waddling somewhere in dilapidated bodies under the Witch's direction."

Ainz sighed at these words, after which, he looked at the guy in front of him. Of course, it was pleasant for him to see someone with common sense, since this proved to him that the world around him was still working according to the same laws that he was used to, but at the same time, the mage unexpectedly discovered that working with a servant with an illogical understanding of human society was much easier for him than dealing with a normal human.

Jeanne's worldview, although unusual for him, was simple, if there is evil, then you must go and destroy it.

Marie Antoinette and Mozart ... It was already somewhat more difficult with them, since Ainz did not have time to talk with them in any significant way, but they also seemed to share Jeanne's simple view of the state of affairs in this world.

But John did not want to die, and did not intend to go to certain death simply because it seemed to him as the right thing to do. This was absolutely logical, since John was still an ordinary person, maybe not average, but ordinary.

Nevertheless, something in John's view in this case seemed strange to Ainz.

Marie Antoinette intervened in the conversation, most likely trying to convince the man to change his mind, after which, Mozart reluctantly supported her, but Ainz was already lost in thought.

John was an ordinary person like Ainz. Well, in order not to flatter himself, Ainz was ready to accept that John was a much more outstanding person than Ainz. But he was still just a simple human.

The condition they found John in, as well as what he said, both clearly showed that the Witch doomed him to death..no, to torture. For what purpose would she torture him? anger? revenge? self-satisfaction? many reasons came to mind, but Ainz could not find a specific one. However, John endured all these tortures.

Back when he was a human, Suzuki was an ordinary person, If he, fell into the hands of an enemy and suffered torture, he would break. He was not a more of a coward than any ordinary person; he had some principles, but he was aware that torture, pain and bullying forced people far more significant than him to abandon all their principles and boundaries. Suzuki would have broken one way or another. He might have lasted an hour, a day or maybe a whole week, but he would have broken. But John did not break. Why?

Ainz did not have anything that could preserve his mind and spirit during torture. John had such a thing, something that kept him from breaking.

Ainz suddenly froze. Did he really have nothing deep and sublime in his soul?

No, he was not the most outstanding person, but a thing that he would never betray did exist inside him... Ainz Ooal Gown, his shining everything. A guild that gave him his adventures, achievements, life, and family.

At this point, Ainz shifted his gaze to the guy, and then said calmly, "People... It's other people that you are concerned about."

After what was said, John, who was talking with Jeanne about something, suddenly became silent and turned to Ainz. Ainz realized that he had hit the nail on the head.

Jeanne finished her sentence, but there was no response from John. He continued to look at Ainz, as if he had just seen him. Ainsz answered him with the same unblinking look. For a second, the eyes of the two clashed.

Ainz did not like to look people in the eye, it always seemed to him that they were trying to suppress him with their authority, but after years of working in megacorporations, where any significant boss could compete in influence with the as mayor, he learned to withstand such clashes, so, after ten long silent seconds, John looked away.

"Yes," he said, and then sighed, "I was not mistaken. The mind of the Devil himself."

From such a flattering characteristic, Ainz felt a surge of embarrassment, but John continued to speak further.

"Good," John finally turned his back to the Saint to face Ainz, showing who was in charge of the company, "Suppose you're right. What's next?"

Ainz was not quite sure what kind of mystery John decided Ainz had solved, so he tried to ask a general question.

"How many do you have?" the mage glanced at the commander, who exhale and replied "All who remained" he answered vaguely before elaborating "I commanded the battle near Charite. Half of the French army fought under my command, while sixty thousand remained with Gilles and didn't participate."

"Gilles de Rais?" Jeanne instantly recognized the name of her friend and mentor "Is he alive?"

"Alive" the guy admitted with a sigh, after which, he looked at Ainz, "But that was the last time I saw him two weeks ago, which is more than enough to..."

At these words, Ainz nodded. That was John's usefulness.

"You have an army," Ainz glanced at the guy, to which he only grimaced.

"Yes. So what?" he tilted his head slightly to one side "Once, there were sixty thousand of us, but we fought Jeanne... the Witch, and lost."

"But you caused her a few losses," Ainz nodded.

"Yes," John agreed, after which he instantly grinned bitterly, "So what? How many dragons were killed? Fifty? So what? More than a thousand of us died for each of her dragons, and all the dead are on her side. Under her command, thousands of monsters. And this is not even the worst of what she commands."

At this, Ainz just looked at the guy, waiting for an explanation.

"Her henchmen," John only grinned bitterly, "A crazy, beast-like knight in black armor ... a resigned aristocrat with a spear, a black mage with a crazy look, an aristocrat in a mask, a devilishly beautiful girl with a blade, a bestial archer, and a false Saint on a dragon. Each of them can destroy a whole army. They are invincible to swords and arrows. They move like the wind. Their blows smash walls like paper. You have no idea what forces obey her."

"I do" Ainz just sighed. "In fact, we defeated some of them a few hours ago."

The man only blinked at this, after which, he said calmly "What?"

"Those you listed," Ainz sighed. John clearly described the Witch's Servants, even if some of them were new, "After your rescue, the Witch caught us in a trap and we fought her... We were able to kill three of them."

After that, silence reigned for a half a minute in the tent, none of those present dared to break it, until John could no longer control himself.

"You're lying!" he declared instantly. "These monsters cannot be defeated."

"The ashes from the battle have not yet cooled down," Ainz said calmly, "I can take you there and let you see for yourself what happened."

John did not find a suitable answer to this, and fell silent for a second, sensing success, Ainz hastened to use this silence.

"As I said," Ainz tried to smile with a fake-salesman-smile, but under the current conditions, his expression turned out to be more like a patronizing smirk. "We were called on to battle the Witch. It would be strange if we were weaker than her henchmen."

John was forced to shut up, after which, Ainz, feeling confident, tried to further his success "You are a cunning man. You have already met with those who can fight her henchmen, haven't you?"

At these words, the man jerked his head and instantly stared at Ainz, forcing him to blur in another fake smile that looked like a confident smirk for John. After thinking a little, Ainz decided to explain what was said.

"Saint on a dragon," Ainz nodded. The dragon was the Noble Phantasm of the Servant "She would not need to call the dragon in a normal encounter with ordinary people. The dragon is her trump card and main strength. As you said, a clash with ordinary people would be a foregone conclusion, so why did she need to use this force in a simple battle?"

At this, John was silent for a second, after which he shook his head.

"The devil's mind, yes," he sighed once more, after which, he looked at the magician, "Good. Say I believe that you are able to fight Jeanne's...the Witch's minions, and defeat them. So what? Why do you need an army? The army is not able to fight them, it will not help you in the battle against the forces of the Witch."

"Not really," Ainz shook his head. "They won't be able to fight the trusted lieutenants of the Witch... But they are capable of fighting her army."

John frowned at what was said, after which, Ainz used his last trump card in these negotiations, "If you didn't want to fight, you wouldn't have gathered your army at all. You said that your friend may be dead, but you didn't mention the possibility of the army disbanding or the soldiers deserting. You know that they still retain the desire to fight, the desire to resist the Witch."

John only hung his head, after which, he sighed and looked straight at Ainz again.

"Yes," John accepted the defeat with honor, "From all sides... You outmaneuvered me on all sides. We really still want to fight. We really still have an army. We still want to win."

Ainz nodded at these words.

"We stopped believing in winning after Charite, and yet, we can't abandon our hope," John grinned, "Call me crazy or a fanatic, but once I fought for France ... And still I want to fight for it."

After these words, the man pushed the chair away from the table and rose to his feet.

"We stopped believing in victory. We realized that we don't have enough strength to fight the Witch," after these words the man looked at Jeanne, who continued to look at him, and for the first time in the whole conversation something like warmth and kindness flashed in his eyes, before turning back to Ainz "But if our Saint is with us again... If your diabolical mind guides us, then I am ready to risk everything that I have left."

After these words, the man held out his hand to Ainz, who accepted it.

John finally found hope again awakening in his heart. Hope for another miracle.

Ainz was not this miracle.

As he said before, he needed to find an opportunity to test the abilities of the Witch's Servants and distract her army in order to get into her lair.

He found suitable decoys.

Ainz shook hands with John and smiled to him with the fake smile of an old businessman.

* * *

All the Servants currently hovering in the air felt a little insecure at the height of their flight, being supported only by Ainz's magic, especially John, who tried not to distance himself from Ainz by more than a meter… All of them, except Marie Antoinette.

"Ahaha!" bursting out laughing, the girl tumbled through the air, after which, like a swimmer diving into the water, she threw herself down, reducing the distance to the ground at a record pace, after which, after falling a hundred meters in almost free fall, she soared upwards, "Ahaha!"

"Will she be all right?" Mozart inquired, continuing to calmly move through the clouds next to Ainz, to which Ainz shook his head.

"As long as she stays within..." Ainz sighed and tried to hide his uncertainty "Three hundred meters?"

In fact, such a spell acted on people within the same location as the caster himself, so that Ainz couldn't speak confidently that everything would be fine with Marie Antoinette, not knowing which area around was still considered "the same location". In Yggdrasil, there were locations of tens of kilometers wide, and secret rooms several meters in size, so Ainz tried to use the safest option.

'However, if she fall and dies…' the mage sighed 'I will be forced to revive her and apologize…'

After that, the mage looked at the ground below and sighed 'I hope she does not crash to death... I do not have many high-level resurrection items to allow myself to spend them on such accidents.'

Not that Ainz believed that there was an amount of items that was considered sufficient to allow wasting them on such things.

After these thoughts, Ainz looked at John , who was trying to stay close, "You see the traces of the army?"

Overcoming his fear, the commander glanced at the distant land, a few kilometers away, and sighed. "Not yet, but it was in this direction that Gilles planned to move after Charite."

"Good," the mage sighed and headed forward.

Ainz had been using the spell for several hours, which, coupled with the decent speed of their movement, meant that they had already crossed several hundred kilometers. During this time, they came across several destroyed villages, several traces of small battles, as well as a couple of groups of monsters roaming around, which Ainz simply destroyed with a few offhand spells, without stopping or descending in the slightest.

Of course, the mage could move at a much more impressive speed, surpassing even the most modern fighters of his era, but in this case, John most likely would not be able to see any signs of the retreating army.

"To the end of the universe!" with another scream full of childish delight, Marie Antoinette flashed beside him, trying to maintain a Superman pose, after which, he turned around, and started flying in circles around the other Servants.

"Marie, please don't get too far away," Mozart called out to the voice of reason inside the girl, but she only stuck out her tongue and flew forward.

"At least someone is having fun in the current conditions," Amadeus sighed and looked at Ainz, who only shrugged.

Frankly, he was never particularly good at dealing with children, so he was not sure that he should have answered that.

'Children are the most wonderful things we have in life,' he recalled the words of his friend, 'And they are worth trying to live for them.'

In the end, Yamaiko left the game after she became pregnant. Of course, Ainz was a little upset that she left, but he was still happy for her and her happy family.

'Interesting' looking once again at Rider, who went for the next maneuver, Ainz thought for a moment, 'If I had children... What kind of a parent I would be to them?'

Ainz tried to imagine himself as a father, holding a small child, but the image did not want to form in his head. He could not imagine his wife, nor how their child would look, nor even how he would act under the circumstances...

'Under the current conditions,' Ainz sighed, and then unexpectedly reached out to Serenity, who was caught off guard by such an action, and patted her hair, 'Serenity is the closest I have to a child.'

After what happened, Serenity giggled a little, like a schoolgirl, but if she had heard Ainz's thoughts at that moment, she would not have been this happy.

"I can see it!" John broke the thoughts of the mage, attracting his attention, "Several sources of smoke, likely from a camp."

The necromancer nodded at this, after which, he increased his speed somewhat, so that after ten minutes the Servants could see from a bird's eye view a large tent camp. Judging by the tents that were spread out in all directions, there was significantly more than a thousand people in the camp, and judging by the exposed sentries, who had their weapons ready, and the hastily constructed picket fence, these people were not ordinary refugees.

For a second, Ainz suddenly felt something unusual, but John again attracted his attention.

"That is Gilles," the commander pointed to a waving blue flag with three lilies "The Flag of the French Royal Family."

"Oh, the Fleur de Lys are still cute in this era!" Marie Antoinette appeared as a ghost behind the conversation and, using her newfound powers, leaned on John's shoulders.

"Marie, please," Mozart tried to appeal to her commonsense "You are behaving inappropriately."

"But we are not at the royal court!" the girl only smiled, after which, at the moment when Amadeus looked at her, she showed him her tongue and instantly disappeared behind him, taking advantage of the flight.

"Why do I still do all of this?" Caster shook his head and looked at John.

Ainz, having reached the nearest possible point to the camp that he could without getting spotted, began to descend to the ground. Of course, he could go down in the very center of the camp - or even use teleportation to get inside unnoticed, but there was a high probability that such actions would be considered as an act of aggression.

After landing, Ainz ordered the Servants to wait for his return, after which, he he turned to Jeanne "Jeanne, I apologize, but..."

"It's okay," the girl tried to smile, but Ainz could still understand that she was uncomfortable from the constant reminder of how the people of France perceived her, "I understand everything."

Ainz also gave Mozart a meaningful look, and he understood him without words, nodding in response. One could only hope that he could keep Marie Antoinette from rash acts.

"Good, then," Ainz looked at John . "Come on."

John just nodded at that.

* * *

Ainz emerged from the forest with John less than an hour later, after which, he was almost immediately called out.

"Hey there!" came the voice of one of the guards from the hastily knocked together watchtower, "Halt! Who are you?!"

Ainz took a step back, letting John to speak.

"John II of Alencon!" John took a step forward.

"What?" for a second, the man on the tower blinked, "The Duke of Alanson was captured by the Witch!"

"And I escaped from captivity!" John took another step forward, "I need to meet with Gilles!"

For a second, the guard at the sentry tower was silent, but when Ainz thought that he was going to climb down or let them enter, he showed a certain discipline and instead shouted to the camp, continuing to monitor the two unknown men who appeared from the forest.

After a couple of seconds, several armed people appeared, probably some kind of patrol. Each of them was an ordinary person, but they were all well-armed and covered in chain mail, so the group that appeared looked impressive enough for ordinary people. However, when they approached the two arrivals, surprise appeared on their stern tired faces at the sight of living John.

"Your Grace!" the leader of the group instantly kneeled, followed by the others.

"Ah, Sir Lancel," John smiled. "Glad to see you in good health."

"Your Grace, but how?" Sir Lancel raised his head in surprise, "The Witch…"

"I escaped from her captivity," John sighed, then nodded toward Ainz, "With the help of my friend."

After that, Ainz finally received an attentive look from the people that were trying to determine who he really was.

For them, the only thing that was strange about him was his strange clothing, which was clothing brought from Chaldea, but no one dared to ask anything, trusting the judgment of the Duke, and as such, after rising from their knees, the guards instantly surrounded the Duke and Ainz, as if guarding them, and then went forward. Apparently, this was familiar to John, but Ainz, who found himself in a kind of convoy, felt uncomfortable, as if being escorted as a prisoner, despite that, he moved after John.

It took them a while to cross the camp, so the mage had the opportunity to look around and see how the base of the remnants of the French army looked.

The sight around... It was not gloomy, but it was not at all impressive. Looking around, Ainz saw a lot of people doing their own thing. One was telling stories next to a small fire, One was sharpening his blade alone, One just rested, leaning back and exposing his face to the daylight. Among the tents, children periodically scurried from tent to tent, delivering food, and many wounded people with their hands and feet bandaged walked around slowly. Somewhere nearby, Ainz saw a flashing horseman rushing off somewhere.

The camp lived a normal camp life. Of course, on one hand it was normal, but Ainz expected to see something more... Impressive?

People walking around looked tired, gloomy, even darkly decisive. There were no fabulous songs, smiles, bravados or hardly restrained courage. The people around didn't look like an army, or maybe they prefered to forget that they are an army, because of that, sometimes the laughter or stories told by the fire seemed unnatural, as if inappropriate, like a makeup or a mask put on a corpse trying to hide the cadaveric spots that began to appear.

In the end, Ainz traveled with the escort to the central, largest tent, next to which, the strange feeling that he had felt earlier only intensified, and after Lancel the soldiers escorting them saluted John, he and Ainz were left at the tent's doorstep.

John, looking at Ainz, nodded to him and took a step forward, entering first. Ainz followed a second later.

The only person in the tent was a man. He was tall and a bit thin, because of which, he did not seem threatening at all, despite the gaze of his large eyes and his armor, which completely covered his body. Somehow, his short-cut black hair only added thinness to him, making him a little taller visually. The knight's blade stood in a sheath not far from him, but Ainz understood that he would not need much time to get it if necessary.

The first person this man saw was John, but he, before standing up to his friend, looked at Ainz.

'Ah, so this is it…' - the mage instantly realized what was this strange sensation that refused to leave him all this time.

The man put aside an unfinished letter, which he was writing until now, and rose from the table, rising to all his considerable height. John moved to meet him, and the man approached John as well, going around the table. A second later, two old friends hugged each other.

"John, you mother..." muttered Gilles, "I thought I would never meet you again."

"Believe me, I am surprised no less than you are," John said in reply, after which he squeezed him even more tightly in his arms.

After a couple seconds, the men took a step back, after which, they looked at each other.

"But how, John?" was the only surprised question from Gilles.

"With the help of my friend," John nodded toward the mage.

"Ainz," the aforementioned mage took a step forward and held out his hand to the knight. At the time of the handshake, Ainz found it necessary to clarify "With the help of me... And my Servants."

John did not hear anything special in what was said, but Gilles instantly looked at Ainz with a careful look, catching the subtext hidden from ordinary people.

"John," Gilles smiled at his old friend, "You should probably see a doctor."

John felt completely healthy and Ainz himself could vouch for the quality of his treatment, but the commander instantly caught the message.

"Of course," he nodded and left the tent.

Gilles returned to his seat and set aside the unfinished letter.

"Sit down," he pointed to the chair opposite to him. A second later, when the mage was comfortably sitting opposite to the knight, he looked at him carefully, "And how did you end up here?"

Ainz just sighed at this, getting ready for a partially true story

* * *

Jeanne felt uncomfortable at the moment when her foot stepped on the threshold of the tent. Gilles, her old friend, her closest associate... She had not seen him for so long ...

During this time, her enemy performed so much evil... How will Gilles react to her?

Gilles was for her... Like an older brother. Of course, love was present in this, but not romantic, but a platonic one, family-like, so she was afraid. She was afraid that she would see in his eyes the same distrust as in John's eyes. She was afraid that he would consider her guilty of the things committed by the Witch.

At the moment when Jeanne was inside the tent, her gaze was instantly fixed on the silent knight, who was sitting opposite to Ainz. All the same tall and thin, he looked the same as the last time that Jeanne saw him.

Gilles, after seeing the girl, said nothing. Instead, he rose from his seat, resolutely went to her. The girl rose from the fear inwardly, when the knight towering over her came up to her, and she covered her eyes out of terror.

After a second, she felt him squeeze her in a tight embrace.

In surprise, the girl opened her eyes, only to see the knight sit down on one knee and continued to hug her, covering his eyes.

"Jeanne," he muttered, squeezing her even more, "Jeanne... Jeanne..."

Uncertainly, Jeanne hugged him back, still waiting for the hit, but he only hugged the girl even more, almost crushing her in his arms.

"Jeanne ... Jeanne!" He muttered again. "I knew. I knew it was not true! I knew it was all a lie. That you're not capable of that. That you will come back. I knew, I believed! I believed like you!"

After that, Jeanne finally took the hug of the man and answered him with the same, squeezing him with all her might.

"Jeanne ... Oh Lord, Jeanne!" Jeanne felt a lonely tear fall on her shoulder, "I prayed, I believed, Jeanne! I knew Jeanne, I believed…"

Gilles did not betray her.

Jeanne smiled at this thought.

Gilles did not betray her. Gilles did not doubt her. Gilles believed in her and continued to fight for France.

Without restraints, the girl hugged her friend and, not hiding her emotions, burst into tears.

The last thing she saw was how tactfully Ainz left the tent, leaving the two Servants alone.

* * *

**Emotional Suppression:** _EX (A +++) (Case)_

In Yggdrasil, all undead are invulnerable to any manipulation of the mind or emotions. Skeletons, vampires, zombies, ghosts,...etc, they are all protected from such influences, to the displeasure of the illusionists and succubi, as well as all players who have chosen a similar class or race. However, along with defense, the limits of emotional suppression are different for different undead. While vampires do not have passive suppression of emotions at all, most undead races have a certain amount of feelings that they can experience, for example, ghosts are limited in positive emotions, but they're free in the accumulation of anger, hatred, bitterness and resentment for the living, that, according to the lore, led them to a gradual frenzy with years lived. The undead, to which this restriction extended the most, were skeletons.

Although overlords are not skeleton, they are a distant, lofty branch of skeletons' evolution that went through all stages of formation from brainless bones to the greatest mages of the dead. A skeleton is barely capable of experiencing emotions. However, stepping on the path to becoming a Lich, an undead will additionally lose some of its emotions, sacrificing them for better magical abilities, after which, having retained only the remains of its former personality, it abandons it completely, reaching the highest level of magic among undead, which makes the remaining personality inside it barely capable of any kind of emotional reaction, and it becomes guided only by a cold mind and logic. The only thing that is still capable of evoking any semblance of a feeling in such creatures is their memories, acquired before becoming overlords, in those days when they were still capable of any feelings.

Ainz is unique in the sense that he is able to independently control the manifestations of this skill, however, if activated, the formation of any emotions associated with surrounding events is almost unthinkable.

But it's still possible, as possible as a situation in which atoms floating in the air will randomly be able to collect in a packed pizza box from an accidental collision. In other words, the possibility of this is infinitely small.

But a touch from the Root gives birth to miracles.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**I'm sorry for the delay - but there are two reasons for it - an important one and not.**

**Unimportant - I finally smacked my phone down, which resulted in the pretty neat web on the screen. That happened.**

**And an important one - unfortunately, my Beta got a thing, which resulted in him having minor surgery. Luckily - it isn't that serious, but given his condition and doctor prescriptions - he can't beta nor this chapter, nor the future one - and even after that it will take him quite a time to get back in shape, so...**

**I'm looking for the beta yet again! And I'm looking for it quite desperately since this is pretty much impossible for me to make new chapters without beta-ing (and given, that this version is 3 chapters is lagging behind the real thing, while we are already heading to the end of Orleans, so I'm in need to make both versions even before the end of Singularity) - I'm in real need - not only for the beta, but a someone, capable of beta-ing 7 (or maybe even 8) chapters (3 existing and 4 (or maybe even 5) that would be written this month) before the end of September.**

**Any volunteers? Anyone? Please?**

**I can give a free -chapters to the beta, of course. Unfortunately, I have nothing else to offer.**

**Well, but for those, that are unable - or unwilling - to be the beta - here, I have a Pat reon \rure! It has two early chapters on it - for a 1$! An easy way for anyone to make it through the two weeks of waiting (or much more, in case there would be no beta) - and read two chapters right now.**


	26. Chapter 26

"So..." - Ainz leaned forward, arms crossed in front of him - a gesture he learned from his boss in his past life, "How many soldiers do you have?"

Gilles just poured a little wine for himself, and then, for the sake of decency, he offered some to those present, but they refused. Only Marie Antoinette reached out for a glass, but Mozart grabbed her hand, looking a her with a frown on his face, which only earned him a mischievous grin from her, as she stuck out her tongue. Gilles did not pay attention to that exchange, and sipped a little from the glass, after which, noticing that Jeanne was looking a little disapprovingly at the alcohol, he coughed in embarrassment and set the glass aside.

"Twenty thousand," he finally said, and sighed.

"Twenty thousand?" Ainz frowned a little and looked at John. He claimed that he had fought the battle with the Witch while commanding half the army of France, close to seventy thousand. Even that number was embellished, Gilles had to have at least twice the number he just mentioned.

However, John only sighed and joined the conversation "Is the situation really this bad?"

Gilles only nodded grimly.

"Battles with armies are one thing," the knight winced. "But fighting endless hordes of monsters, day after day, retreating, waging a hopeless war, is completely different. Some of us died, but most simply escaped. Our moral is shattered, the realization of hopelessness... Some were even seduced by the Witch's proposals... I do not know what happened to them now."

After these words, an uncomfortable pause hung in the tent.

"It is clear," Ainz sighed "Everything is clear."

Were these words really clear for Ainz? Of course not.

However, the simple idea that they had twenty thousand soldiers instead of sixty thousand was still bad enough to give him some understanding of his current situation.

Gilles, uttering the bitter truth, leaned back in his chair, after which, he thought for a moment and looked at Jeanne, who had been sitting next to him all this time.

"If our Saint returned to us at this time, it could return the moral to the soldiers". It was almost physically painful for Gilles to say the rest of this sentence, but he had to "But... in the current conditions, after the Witch did so many terrible things…"

The commander tried by all means possible to avoid insulting Jeanne, but she nevertheless sighed a little, understanding the unspoken fact.

For a second, silence returned to the tent before John spoke again "Actually... I have an idea."

After that, when the eyes of all those present were fixed on him, the duke turned his eyes to Ainz. Ainz only blinked back, after which, John, deciding that the mage gave him the greenlight to speak, began.

"Ainz told me this idea," Ainz froze for a second. 'I did?! What could I have told him?!'

"So it turns out that the Witch will not let us, nor this army, be. She will return again, stronger and much angrier than before, with even more monsters. She will not back down so easily. So why don't we use this to our advantage?"

All of those present looked at each other, after which, Mozart, realizing what John was leading to, looked at Ainz and nodded, "Is that so?... In that case, it might work."

'What might work?' Ainz felt completely out of the conversation.

Fortunately, John continued to speak.

"In any case, the Witch will return with a new army," John leaned to the table, "And we will have to defend ourselves and this army... Then why not use this as a justification for the return of the Saint?"

Jeanne, finally realizing what her associate was talking about, squirmed a little in her chair.

"Ah, that's what it is," Gilles nodded to himself too, after which, he thoughtfully nodded, and said "Yes, that might work."

"We do heroic deeds with a devilish plan!" Marie Antoinette clapped her hands and smiled, "I like it!"

'What are you all talking about?!' Ainz just froze, an imaginary drop of sweat crawled down on his forehead 'If I ask them now what they are talking about, wouldn't I look like an idiot?! I would! especially in Jeanne's eyes... I will look completely incompetent and incapable of keeping up with the conversation!...Wait, what if they ask me something about the plan?!'

If someone had asked Ainz a question now, he would have been completely unprepared for it, so he needed to urgently change the topic of the conversation!

Ainz tried to come up with something that would allow him to show that he was still able to participate in the conversation, but as if his luck ran out, nothing came to his mind. As a result, without inventing anything, he decided that even a random statement would be better than mere silence.

"The Witch can feel Jeanne" said Ainz in the end, drawing the attention of the people present, "And she will definitely try to attack her again."

For a second, those present were silent.

'I said something wrong?!' Ainz froze for a second 'Now they will think of me as an idiot!'

"Fantastic!" John suddenly rejoiced "So it will be even better."

'Ha?' the mage blinked a couple times as he noticed how everyone present nodded to themselves, confirming John's words 'Did I say something right?'

"When the forces of the Witch attack, the appearance of the Saint in the midst of the battle in order to save France again and lead her troops into battle will become much more believable. When they see the True Miracle, none of the soldiers will doubt that this is Jeanne, the real Jeanne. In this case, it will be possible to convince people that they are fighting against the evil Witch, who has assumed the form of their Saint, no, it would be easy," Gilles talked a little bit to himself, after which he looked at John, "Fine plan, John!"

"This is not my plan," John just looked at Ainz, and the eyes of all those present shifted to Ainz, who was sitting nearby, "I just took Ainz's plan, which he told me a little earlier and changed it a little, so all credit goes to him."

"In that case," Gilles instantly turned his eyes back to the necromancer, "My thanks to you."

'I never offered anything like that!' Ainz instantly froze again, after which he thought "Or did I?.."

No, of course, a while back, he did in fact mention something taught to him once by Punnito Moe, but it was about gaining trust of people, not entire armies at all ...

"In that case, we know how we can return the fighting spirit to the soldiers, and how to make Jeanne fight openly again" Gilles turned his eyes to John, and then back to Ainz "In that case ... What will you do now?"

Ainz paused for a second, feeling the panic rise inside him before it was strangled by his Emotional Suppression, leaving him only a cold mind.

Initially, he went to this Singularity in order to meet as many Servants as possible, which he could add to his collection. The presence of Mozart, Marie Antoinette and Gilles proved to him that the appearance of the Servants in this Singularity was not an a one-time miracle, as with Jeanne, so it could be done again now.

"We need to find allies," Ainz tried to cover up this thought with an excuse, "We need to go find allies who can match the powers of the Witch's champions."

"Do you think this is possible?" John looked at the mage with interest, while Gilles himself only nodded.

"Quite possible," Ainz sighed, then blinked.

'The sooner I can escape from this singularity, the better,' Ainz sighed. He did not want to look like a coward, but he was already in a somewhat unpleasant situation with a reassessment of his abilities, and he clearly did not want to reveal it or to repeat it.

"Good," Gilles finally nodded, after which he looked at Ainz a little more carefully, "In that case... What about your Servants?"

John, without knowing about some features of the existence of the world around, ignored the subtext left by Gilles, but Ainz understood him.

'What does he want from me?' the guy felt a panic rising from the depths of his mind, but did not let that one appear on his face.

"I'll leave a few..." the mage began carefully, trying to determine Gilles reaction, after which, making sure that he apparently expected this, he perked up, "Those who can help in case the Witch's Servants attack."

"Good," Gilles nodded to himself, after which he turned in the direction of Mozart and Marie Antoinette, whom he correctly identified as a third party in the negotiations, "And you..."

Amadeus opened his mouth to answer, but was instantly shut up by his queen, "I am not very good with all these cunning plans, but I am good with meeting new people, so I will gladly go with Ainz!"

Mozart, who clearly wanted to say something before, looked at the girl, after which, he shrugged at Ainz and Gilles, and leaned back in his chair, as if he were not at all concerned about it.

"Well, in that case, I suppose we have finished discussing the plans," Gilles sighed, "When will you leave?"

Ainz was ready to leave even at that moment, not needing either sleep, food, or rest, being undead, but thinking for a second, he said, "At dawn tomorrow. After the battle, we all need rest."

"Good," Gilles nodded. "I will send a few soldiers who do not ask questions, who can provide you with a short respite. Ser Lansel should suffice."

"Okay, then I'll go after the Servants," Ainz nodded, "_Teleportation_..."

* * *

Closing her eyes, the Witch continued to feel how the cold bandages, smeared with some odorous liquid, slowly cooled her burning wounds, which were in no hurry to heal themselves, despite her nature as a Servant.

The door creaked, after which, several steps could be heard on the granite floor of the empty room where the girl was at the moment. Only one living creature would dare to boldly approached her, especially now, so the girl did not even open her eyes in order to verify the identity of the person who entered.

"Ah, Gilles," the Witch only fidgeted, sitting comfortably on the couch, "Did something happen?"

"Nothing of the kind, Jeanne," came the man's voice with almost affectionate notes in it, "I just came to change the bandages."

"Hmm?" after this, the girl opened her eyes and looked at Gilles, standing next to her with a whole pack of smelly gauze in his hands.

Gilles was a tall man, but very thin, which made it difficult to accept him as a warrior. Of course, the armor and the blade hid his thinness, because of which, in full outfit, he might have seemed a little more impressive than he actually was, but now, being dressed in a huge black hooded robe that hung like a rag on him, he seemed even more fragile than he really was. That fragility, together with his short, slightly greasy, unkempt hair and large bulging eyes gave him the appearance of a somewhat crazy person.

The Witch was not completely undressed, almost all of her body was wrapped in huge bandages that hid all its virtues, but they tightly enough encircled all her bends and contours, so that anyone could easily determine her figure. But the girl did not feel constrained by this with Gilles, even when he looked at her body with love. Because it was not the love that a man could have for a woman, it was closer to a special kind of love that a believer has for his deity, the love with which the creator enjoys the most beautiful masterpiece in the world.

"What did you get?" Instantly the girl lost her patience, "Spill it!"

"Of course, Jeanne," the man smiled at the girl, after which, he began to unwrap the bandages. The moment the first one slipped from the Witch's hand, the disgusting smell intensified, causing the girl to grimace.

"These things stink," she leaned back, "Gilles, could you bring something more pleasant?!"

"I apologize, Jeanne, but all medicine smells bad," the man smiled. "Please endure, and when you become healthy, I will immediately stop doing all this."

"When I will be healthy!" the girl gave a loud mocking chuckle, "I am a Servant! I must be able to regenerate without all your rubbish!"

"Of course, Jeanne," the man smiled even more at that, "But that bitch inflicted some serious wounds on you with her damned weapons, so it may take some time..."

"That bitch..." Jeanne only grunted at it. The memory of the damned girl towering above her returned to her mind.

A short figure with two blades in her hands, leaning toward her face to cut her throat. Not rejoicing and not triumphant, not mocking and not in disgust, not looking forward to it and not sad... Just bored. As if doing her job. Taking another life, not the first and not the last. As if Jeanne was just another... Another minor step in someone's life. Just another victim who fell in battle. Just another casual victim... useless, miserable, unnecessary...

The fire inside the Witch blazed again because of this thought, making it's way through her body, after which, all her wounds instantly exploded in a spectacle of pain.

"Mother fucker!" the girl instantly arched in an arc of pain, clutching her hands into fists, feeling her nails bite into the flesh, piercing the skin "I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!"

Gilles should probably be panicked by this display of emotions, but instead, he only took a step back, letting the girl raise her clenched fist and hit her bed, breaking the thick oak boards with a blow.

"I hate it! I hate it! I hate it!" as if having entered into some kind of rage trance, the Witch struck blow after blow, crumbling her own bed, feeling the pain of incessant fire spreading through her body, burning her over and over again, "I HATE!"

The small sofa could not stand the last, especially strong, blow, finally cracking, its rickety legs parted to the sides, causing the girl to collapse on the floor.

The girl hit cold granite, and as if suddenly waking up, she fell silent. She did not rise or even roll onto her back, just continuing to lie on the cold granite, feeling how it's coldness mixed with the phantom pain from the fire.

"Jeanne?" finally Gilles spoke after she continued to lie motionless on the floor for several seconds, after which, without getting an answer, he took a step towards the girl, "Jeanne?!"

"Gilles," she finally said, however, it was not the voice that Gilles wanted to hear. It was a sharp, slightly broken, angry voice, behind which one could sense barely restrained emotions "Am I weak?"

"What?" Gilles instantly took another step and held out his hands to raise the girl, "No, Jeanne, of course not!"

"Then why did I lose?" the girl made no attempt to get up from her seat, allowing Gilles to lift her from the floor, "Why did I lose, Gilles? Why did I lose again?"

"Jeanne, they deceived you," the man tried to utter reassuringly, "You fought alone against three Servants ..."

"I don't need your flattery!" the girl snapped and abruptly punched the man. She did not use all her strength, but this was enough for the man to take a step back "I am weak, Gilles! I am weak!"

"No, Jeanne, of course not," the man tried to hold the girl in spite of the sudden movement and lifted her slightly, after which, for lack of a better option, he laid her back on the broken sofa, "You were poisoned. It was just a vile killer trick, no more."

"Poisoned, hmm?" the girl seemed to think about this word, allowing the mage to put her back on the sofa, after which, she covered her eyes with her hand, as if hiding them from the light, or from Gilles, after which, she silent again.

In the established silence, Gilles continued to slowly remove the bandages from the girl and replace them with new ones, and when the girl spoke again, she was completely bandaged.

"They poisoned me, haha," the girl smirked at the thought, after which, she removed her hand and looked at the mage, "If you think about it, I have never been poisoned before..."

"Jeanne," the man tried to talk to her, but she seemed to not listen to the voice.

"They tortured me," the girl smiled, "They burned me... But I was never poisoned... Tell me, how many other ways to die do I yet have to experience?"

"Jeanne," he tried to reassure the girl, but she did not even begin to listen to him, continuing to speak.

"Maybe next time they will hang me?" the girl smiled at this thought, as if she was joking with herself, "Or drown me... Oh no, maybe they decide to burn me again?"

Gilles, finally understood that the girl could not control her thoughts at this moment, and therefore was forced to hug her. However, she did not stop at all.

"Or do they chop off my head?" the girl laughed, "Oh, I heard that this is one of the most painless ways to die! One movement, a moment of pain, and you die. You don't even have time to understand what happened."

"Jeanne, Jeanne, Jeanne," the mage continued to mutter, clutching the girl, who continued to hang powerlessly in his hands.

"Or is it the opposite? they will want to enjoy it in its fullest?!" the girl fell into a fit of laughter, "I know, ahaha! First, my hands will be cut off... Then my legs ... Ahahaha! Then they will start skinning alive... Ahaha! And then, when I stop feeling pain, they will crush my head with a carriage... Like an overripe watermelon!"

After that, the girl began to laugh madly, continuing to hang in the hands of Gilles, stroking the girl's back.

At first, Jeanne's laughter was sincere, but gradually, the longer Gilles held her in his arms, the more additional tones began to appear in her laughter. It was as if sobs began to mix in her crazy laughter.

The girl continued to laugh further, until the sobs completely blocked all her laughter, after which, she clung to Gilles, who continued to hug her.

Several times, the girl sobbed, but this did not turn into crying. Instead, the girl clung to Gilles, as if drowning in the last chance of salvation, and continued to hold him like that for several minutes, saying nothing.

After a few minutes, the girl was able to loosen her grip on the man, she abruptly and roughly pushed him away from herself.

"Get away from here, you stink!" Gilles really smelled a little of the medicinal solutions that he used to treat the girl, but Jeanne still remained the main source of this smell, since she was bandaged from head to toe. However, Gilles did not say anything to her and simply took a step back and bowed to her.

"Of course, Your Holiness," he bowed to the girl, and then headed for the exit.

"I don't need your flattery," the girl just managed to throw after him, before the man disappeared behind the door. However, even with his back to ehr, Gilles could swear that the girl smiled to him a little.

* * *

Taking a step out from the room where the Witch was, left alone on the broken couch, Gilles closed the door behind him, and when he finally turned around, he came face to face with the man standing opposite to him, or maybe it was a girl.

"How's Milady's health?" came the charmingly-sweet voice of a guy in front of Gilles, forcing him to instantly go dark.

"Everything is fine," he answered shortly and went on, but Chevalier did not stay behind, and instead went after Gilles, so that he was forced to drop another sentence, "She is stubborn, she will be back on her feet in a couple of days."

"that's just wonderful," Chevalier smiled. "Perseverance is the quality that prevails in Milady, this is what I definitely managed to notice."

Gilles, discovering that the guy continued to follow on his heels, was forced to ask him a question again "What do you want?"

"I'm just interested in the health status of my Milady!" he instantly replied, almost offended by the question "What kind of knight would I be if I don't even care about the health of my Mistress?!"

"Don't play your games with me, Saber," Caster suddenly stopped and turned to face the guy following him, who almost bumped into him. Saber just smiled and waved his hands a little in front of his face.

"I apologize, commander!" he said with a guilty smiled, "As they say, old habits die hard!"

Gilles just frowned at the guy.

"The thing is, I would like to discuss the recent additions to our ranks..." Saber smiled. "Servants summoned this morning."

"Something wrong?" Gilles just looked at the guy directly.

"No, no, nothing like that," Saber immediately waved his hands again. "The guy in the high collar is pretty nice, although a little obsessed... But the second one, and not to mention our most significant add-on..."

"What's wrong with him?" - Gilles looked at Chevalier closely.

"Nothing special, it's just that," Saber sighed, "Since the moment he was called this morning, he has already stripped our army of seventeen people..."

"They will rise again as zombies" Caster dismissed the man's concerns. "So the army will not lose in combat strength."

"Of course not," Chevalier smiled, "But the point is who our new colleague killed... Three men and fourteen women. The loss of men is really not very significant, but the number of women among our troops is very small, so the loss of all the beautiful girls on our side may be somewhat... Sad."

"Sorry for this", he only nodded, allowing Saber to continue the conversation.

"The thing is that I wanted to find out," Chevalier innocently asked, "Could you, or Milady, find a more... suitable use for the our colleague's...power? And although I would not want to part with such an outstanding gentleman even before I could talk to him as a person, perhaps there is an possibility to organize a mission for our colleague... Outside, where he can't destroy all the beautiful girls fighting on our side?"

For a second, Gilles fell silent, pondering the words spoken by the guy, after which he reluctantly nodded. "I will discuss this with Jeanne."

"I wouldn't even dare to dream about anything more," the swordsman smiled and took a step back.

Gilles stopped for a second, after which, he looked at Chevalier. Although he was injured even more seriously than Jeanne, at the moment, he looked as if all his injuries had been a lie, his hand was back in place, he was not holding on to his pierced stomach, and even the small cuts on his body completely healed. All that remains is just the smiling face of a young guy with the beauty of Apollo.

"Of all the people around, only you make me sick," Gilles wrinkled, after which he looked again at Chevalier, "And believe me, if you make me sick, I will do my best to watch you closely."

"Your mistrust hurts me, commander," the guy bowed and took another step back, a little upset, "But I suppose, that is the fate of the spy. I am very sorry that you do not trust me, but if this happened, then I will do my best to not give you reason to suspect me of anything."

Gilles merely grimaced at these words.

"Get out of my sight," he gave the command, to which Chevalier only bowed and hid the next step in one of the corridors located nearby.

* * *

The next day Ainz met the dawn looking at the slowly awakening camp of French soldiers wandering around their service posts.

Somewhere in the distance, a messenger seemed to make his way from one end of the camp to the other with an important message, after which the morning silence settled down again, diluted only by the sound of soldiers yawning.

Realizing that he had no other way, Ainz reluctantly cast the spell.

"Chaldea in touch!" A moment later he heard Roman's voice, overly peppy for the morning hours.

"Roman?" Ainz was a little surprised "Where's the chief?"

"The chief is still sleeping," the man said immediately, a little nervously, as if afraid that the chief would suddenly appear behind his back, chastising him for the futility of his work and the inability to establish a connection between Chaldea and Ainz, "Did something happen?"

"Not really," Ainz sighed, surveying the camp from a bird's eye view, continuing to soar in the clouds, "I just wanted a little help."

"Oh, of course," the technician, doctor and scientist immediately smiled "What kind?"

"Is it possible to use the Chaldean scanner in order to detect Servants?" Ainz asked an interesting question, "The fact is that for the battle with the Witch we will need all possible forces."

"Witch?" Roman said with great Interest.

"A long story," Ainz dismissed. "Is this possible?"

"Theoretically, yes" the technician agreed, "But in practice it will be a little more complicated without the ability to establish a permanent connection…"

At this point, Roman was silent and Ainz vividly imagined how he looked around in search of his boss "The accuracy will be reduced too much. Of course, I can point you to some outstanding points on the radar, but without the ability to say exactly what I am pointing to. Maybe I can determine the approximate location of the Servants, but maybe I will fall on a large group of strong opponents - or even on the Servants who are not friendly."

"It's still better than trying to comb through France hoping for a random meeting." Ainz reasoned with Roman, "so I guess I will take this chance."

"Of course," the doctor agreed, after which, he left the microphone for a few seconds, returning after a couple of moments, "All of France is almost completely dotted with strong signatures!"

Ainz just nodded at this, "Good. Where are the strongest?"

"In Orleans," the technician said without delay.

"This is logical," agreed Ainz, "This is the location of the Witch's base. Where are the rest?"

For a couple of seconds, the man was distracted again, "In Lyon there are sufficiently strong signatures, as well as in Thiers. I cannot be sure that the Servants are there, but it is there that the most powerful signal sources are located."

"Good, thanks," Ainz sighed, after which, thinking about all the problems that Roman went through with his boss because of the inability to contact Ainz, he sighed, "And I apologize."

"For what?" Roman only asked in a blank voice.

"Nothing," after these words, Ainz disconnected.

After a dozen minutes, the camp was boiling again and seething with life, languid faces gave way to fresh and rested ones, voices and sounds began to be heard again, so Ainz decided to go down. Just in case, he also used invisibility and returned to the tent given by Gilles to rest the Servants.

None of the Servants were asleep. Arthuria was dressed in armor, she had apparently calmed down, but still continued to give Ainz strange looks, while Medusa and Cu Chulainn were talking quietly about something at the very end of the tent.

"Lord Mage," Hassan's voice above his ear made Ainz look at Assassin, "I suppose we are ready to depart."

"Good," Ainz sighed, after which, he looked at Marie, who, with tenacity worthy of a better application, tried to undo Jeanne's braid. Jeanne, obviously feeling somewhat uncomfortable, continued to try to get away.

"Good," the mage nodded, after which, noting that Hassan had not left him instantly, he turned to him. "Has something happened?"

"Nothing, Lord Mage," the man said calmly, after which, he was silent for a couple of seconds, "Of course, Lord Mage, I trust your judgment, I just would like to know about your decision about the Servants that you will entrust to the French army."

"Oh," Ainz instantly beamed, realizing that in this conversation he could really justify his decision, "Jeanne is an obvious decision, since she is the central figure of the whole plan. Cu Chulainn and Medusa can heal, which is especially important in the current conditions of the army, in addition, Cu Chulainn is a mage, which means that he has a wide range of utility not only in combat conditions, but also in everyday situations, while Medusa has good senses and does not rely on her vision, which means she is effective in detecting invisible opponents. Of course, Archer would be better in that case. However, since the French army does not need to be afraid of an ambush, unlike our group, I decided to choose Medusa to stay with them. In addition, together, they are capable of fighting a large group of opponents if necessary, and they're strong enough to least hold on until reinforcements arrive in the event of a full-scale attack by the Witch's Servants."

"Of course," Hassan nodded at this, as if it were something taken for granted, "But I'm not talking about them, but about Serenity..."

After this question, Ainz froze.

Why did Ainz choose to leave Serenity in the camp?

Because he was a little afraid of her. But not in the sense in which he was afraid of Arthuria or Hassan, or in the sense that he doubted her loyalty, on the opposite, he was almost sure of her loyalty. That was the problem, Serenity was too loyal, but she was also quite impulsive, and even Ainz, who did not know the secret of interpersonal relationships, could notice her desire to be with her Master for all the time available to her. In other words, the girl was too much for Ainz. Therefore, he did not leave her as a necessary element for the french army, but as an undesired element in his team.

But could he tell Hassan about this?

What would a boss who removes a specialist from the project simply because he did not like him look like for Hassan? Moreover, what if he didn't like the specialist not because he possessed some negative qualities, but rather, because he possessed excessively positive ones? After all, any Servant would appreciate Serenity's loyalty as her primary positive trait. Ainz was sure of it.

Therefore, he could not answer this question with what he really thought.

However, looking at Hassan, he was expecting his answer, Ainz felt another phantom drop of sweat rolling down his forehead.

"Oooooooh" Ainz tried to buy himself some time "This is absolutely necessary…"

"Yes?" Hassan, mocking or not, asked again, "why exactly?"

"Oh," Ainz stalled again. It was urgent for him to come up with an excuse, but absolutely nothing came to mind.

'What can I say?! What can I say?!' a moment later, his panic died out, leaving only one realization: Once, his lie and improvisation in an unknown topic worked with Arthuria, so all he had to do was rely on bluffing one more time.

"I could tell you the main reason for this," Ainz stepped on the thin ice of the bluff, "But why should I?"

Hassan, standing opposite to the mage, did not change expression, but solely because he did not have a face to do so.

"You..." he said, "Don't you trust me?"

"No, of course that's not it" Ainz immediately hastened to reassure him, "And that is why I do not want to tell you about this. I trust you and your judgment and I am absolutely sure that you yourself can easily understand why I chose to leave Serenity in the camp."

For a few seconds, everything froze, before Hassan nodded slowly "That's how…"

"Of course," Ainz blurted out in a smile. He hoped that Hassan would not take his word as a bluff.

"Hm, then..." Hassan thought for a second, "I can definitely determine the reason for this decision."

'He bought it!' The magician exulted inwardly, but the emotional suppression cut off the arising joy within him, leaving only a feeling of little satisfaction, "Of course, Hassan, I believe in your abilities."

"Good, Master," Hassan fell silent for a second, "In that case, it is possible that..."

"Oh, Marie Antoinette," Ainz instantly grabbed the girl who had finally left Jeanne alone and was now wandering around, "Tell me, can you tell me the location of Thiers?"

"Thiers?" the girl thought for a second and smiled, "Of course! I was there only once, but I can definitely get there."

"Perfect!" - Ainz said with exaggerated enthusiasm "In this case, we are going to Thiers!"

* * *

**Physical Resistance** \- a skill that reduces physical damage taken, similar to Magic Resistance. However, despite the extreme similarity of these two skills, while Magic Resistance is a fairly common skill, Physical Resistance is not just a rare, but practically a non-existent skill that can neutralize the main weakness of many magic-oriented Servants - their low Endurance and helplessness in close combat.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Oh God, _DiscereEstVivet_ is the best, that's for sure. He works so fast, that I'm already have not only a new chapter - I have TWO new chapters. But I'm making here only one - but don't worry. Judging by his pure beta-ing speed I would probably have a new chapter in no time - I'm not giving any definite date since this is just asking for bad luck, but ****_DiscereEstVivet _is so fast, that I have my full belief he is going to make it happen with his pure power of fast beta-ing.**

**"But what about 2 new chapters?" - you may ask. Well - I have them. At my Pat reon \rure, of course! Don't worry, of course, one day they all will be on this site for free - but if you want THREE new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ right now at my Pat reon \rure. Three new chapters. Not because I'm greedy - but I do need the money. At least to repair my phone's screen, that is.**

**Also, about making chapters rarer - well... I could do it. Definitely, I could. But I would not. It's a dirty trick I would pull ONLY if I would desperately need money for my living or something. Not just because that would help my Pat reon. Also, even when I thought about it before I decided that I would do something like "one chapter for free once every 2 weeks, new chapters for a 1$ weekly". I never even thought about making free chapters once every MONTH. I thought that this is just dirty.**


	27. Chapter 27

Archer was completely calm after the teleportation to Thiers, not only because of his nature as a Servant, but also because he used to Ainz's magic and its capabilities.

"At least it's quite convenient," Archer was forced to confess to himself.

"Okay, so now the main goal is searching of the Servants, or a large cluster of enemies nearby," the necromancer had announced loudly, after that, he began issuing instructions. Archer, as expected, was chosen to be the first as the possessor of the most useful abilities in this case: long-range vision and high sensitivity to the presence of others, and therefore, after a few seconds, the Servant found himself moving away from his Master at a fairly decent speed, even for a Servant. And while it wasn't that he wanted to escape from his summoner as soon as possible, he couldn't say that he was fond of him.

Archer was watching Ainz closely for the past few weeks. Watched his actions, words, and fights. And did not find anything wrong. It was very strange.

Of course, when Ainz confessed about his necromancy - and his impressive successes in this matter - Archer was the first to suspect that Ainz was hiding something other than the sincere wish to help humanity, and he even expected Ainz to be perfect, kind, loving, all-forgiving, and all-understanding in a way that would even reassure Archer, because then Archer could pinpoint Ainz as a villain.

There are no perfect people. No one - Hero, King, Prophet and Saint is perfect. Only those who wish to be seen as ideal try to act perfect. Therefore, if Ainz turned out to be ideal, Archer would have only had his suspicions about the mage strengthened. Therefore, he hid his thoughts, watching every step Ainz made. But instead of the perfect hero who breaks all the stereotypes about necromancers to the smithereens, Ainz looked like... a humane enough necromancer?

He did not go out of his way to emphasize his heroism or distinguish his character, he did not try to stand out with traits such as a poor music choice or a love of bad jokes. No, His traits were those of a real necromancer. A sociopath and a killer, for whom everything was a resource.

Archer was not wrong in this thinking. In a sense, Ainz carried in his mind the traits that he got from Yggdrasil, a game where every NPC or monster he met was really a source of profit, materials, and valuable experience, in both senses of this the words.

During his time observing Ainz, Archer saw him inspecting the enemy with a cold mind, looking at the french soldiers as one-time disposable puppets. Archer saw what Ainz really was thinking about leaving Jeanne to her inevitable fate, because he only thought from a point of view of profit, the point of view of the person who really could rise to the heights of the art of necromancy.

And yet, Ainz did not abandon Jeanne, he really sought to deal with the problem that arose in the Singularity, and he took care of his Servants, not as a hero, nor as a Saint, but as an ordinary person experiencing ordinary human empathy.

This was the strangest.

Archer was not a true Servant, he did not ascend to the Throne of Heroes through his earthly legends and deeds, but made a pact with the world itself. However, he possessed all the knowledge bestowed by the Throne of Heroes. He knew about the Heroes themselves, he knew about their incarnations as Servants, and he understood that the Servants were the least humane of all existing creatures in the whole world, second only to creatures from outside the world. And, paradoxically, they were not human precisely because they were idolized reflections of humans.

There are no perfect people, and there are no absolutely bad people. No one is born evil or good, and even growing up, no one is able to define each of their traits as solely evil or good. A maniac's love of coffee is not an evil trait in itself, and an obsession with cleanliness is not a good trait for a good old woman. These are just character traits that define a human being.

But Servants are not human. Among the Servants, one could exist who is absolutely good, or absolutely evil, such Servants, who have only good or bad traits embodied in them, are evil or good simply by nature.

Not all Servants are like that, but, for example, a Servant called as a reflection of the legend of the "ideal king" remains the ideal king despite all his actions as a Servant. Even if he experiences human emotions, or shows traits beyond the simple description of "a Servant created from a legend", he still remains a Servant created by his legend. And Ainz was not like that.

Archer could not describe Ainz in a simple sentence. A necromancer who rose to the salvation of the world because he still retained human features, sometimes not ready for unexpected events, but still trying to help his servants because he sees them as people, but still ready to sacrifice them when needed? This was too long of a description for a Servant.

So who Ainz really was?

Archer's first guess was that he was not a Servant, but a true Heroic Spirit. While a Servant is one of the aspects of the personality of a Heroic Spirit, Ainz could be something complete. Not just a certain facet of someone's personality, but a real person. Not a Servant, but a Hero.

Probably, if Archer was a simple Servant, he would have stopped at this reflection. But Archer was not a real Servant. He was the one who came to the Throne of Heroes through a pact with the world.

Concluding a pact with the world, Archer agreed to serve in exchange for strength, to be one of the forms of the Counter-Force, even if it is one of its smallest forms. He received power in exchange for guarding this world, the lousy job to kill those who can no longer be saved for the sake of those who can still survive. And therefore, there was something in him that was inaccessible to ordinary Servants. Archer had an ability that he inherited from this type of job, which remained with him even when called as a Servant.

He could sense distortions that required the intervention of the Counter Force.

And Ainz was like that.

But, paradoxically, Archer could not determine why.

Ainz behaved as he was supposed to. Slowly making contacts, fighting, talking, smiling or arguing, he was nothing like the distortion that he was supposed to be.

This was Ainz's most unnatural feature that Archer could see in him. if Ainz was an unknowable horror from beyond the borders of the universe, there would be more logic and reason than his current behavior shows.

To some extent, this terrified Archer. It was terrifying because he possessed the mind of a veteran, a mercenary, a Counter Guardian, a warrior, a survivor, a broken hero. He collected information, made plans, improvised on the go. He hoped that he understood something about the world around him.

He understood absolutely nothing, not a single thing about Ainz.

He is a man with his problems, principles and goals? Why, then, does he distort reality? Or is he an incomprehensible evil? Then why is he so humane?

And, as if deliberately twisting Archer's paranoia, Ainz made sure that no one could collect information about him in any way. He was surrounded by the most monstrous spells and defenses that one could imagine, unbreakable walls and deadly traps. But there was nothing behind them. Deaf emptiness. Vacuum. An absolutely empty abyss...and nothing more.

The servants around Ainz could believe what they wanted, but Archer understood that a creature like Ainz was something... well..he could not even determine what he was.

Archer's gaze was suddenly drawn by the figure of two girls moving along the road. Both were extremely short, perhaps even shorter than Marie Antoinette or Serenity. From a distance, it was not possible to make out their concrete outlines, they were tens of kilometers away, but looking at them, Archer realized that they were the target that Ainz wanted to find in this place.

Reluctantly, Archer reached for a connection with Ainz. Even if he was an unknowable horror, he was still his Master. And Archer will do everything possible to follow him to the very end.

* * *

Hearing from Archer about finding two new Servants, Ainz was delighted, both by the very fact of their finding, and the fact that their finding did not take too much time. No, it couldhave been even more accurate to say that Ainz found them too quickly, he prepared at least for a few hours, but the mage believed that in this case, he needed to pay tribute to Archer's abilities and, a little bit, to his own decision to not leave him in the camp.

"Thank you, Archer," he answered his Servant, and then instantly used teleportation. The abrupt appearance of the mage near him made Archer take a step back and look at the mage with a wary look for a second, but the necromancer himself did not pay attention to it and only took a step closer.

'No, from such a distance…' - Ainz shook his head. Of course, he saw somewhere in the distance the blurry silhouettes of slowly wandering travelers, but without any class levels of an archer or a stalker - all that Ainz himself could make out was the fact of two people in the distance - 'From such a distance I can't even distinguish them as a Servants.'

Ainz could only sense Gilles' presence as Servants from a distance of a little less than a kilometer, so there was no mystery that he couldn't determine who was walking — so Ainz became even more envious of Archer's abilities.

'This is definitely extremely useful,' he nodded to himself, after which he glanced at the gray-haired guy standing next to him. He just glanced back and returned to observing the targets.

'Still, the Servants are amazing,' Ainz admitted to himself. It would not be surprising if he found among them someone stronger than himself... No, most likely many Servants should have been much stronger than him. In addition to their abilities, they were not only warriors - but also real veterans, masters of the battle, with whom Ainz himself could hardly ever compare - nevertheless, he remained an ordinary person.

The memory of the battle with Dracula came to mind. Of course, Lancer was strong... In a way. That is, Ainz would not want to meet with him, definitely if he had just started the game. Dracula was a worthy adversary for the mage of about... Fortieth level? Maybe forty-fifth. However, the mage of the fortieth level, of course, would have a few trump cards in his sleeve, which Dracula never showed - only a few abilities - but maybe Ainz simply did not see them? Perhaps the reason was that Dracula was incorrectly called up by the Witch - or did he simply consider Ainz as a non-dangerous opponent to the very end - or maybe he did not want to fight in full force? It was difficult to clearly predict why Dracula turned out to be so... Ainz did not want to use the word "weak" because he understood that the Servants were one of the strongest creatures in the universe and he probably just did not have time to demonstrate his strength - however, in any case, even if Dracula lost the battle, it only meant that Dracula was not the strongest of the Servants... No, most likely due to the fact that Dracula was a fictional character, he was simply at the very bottom of the levels of strength of the Servants - and other Servants were many times stronger and more dangerous than him.

Immediately the recollections of Tabula telling Ainz that Dracula was actually based on the story of some real person came to his mind, but the mage waved it off - it is unlikely that this had to do anything with his current thoughts.

Whatever it was, while thinking, Ainz did not notice how the travelers gradually reduced the distance - and after some time the mage could already make out that the moving ones were very short, like children - and were dressed in rather colorful clothes, which said in favor of the fact that they were Servants - and the question arose in the head of the mage. What should he do next?

Acquaintance with Jeanne happened for him... In a somewhat strange and unique way. Mozart and Marie Antoinette intervened in the battle that had already taken place, due to which the establishment of contact seemed to happen by itself. The meeting with John took place after his salvation - and also in somewhat unusual conditions - and his acquaintance with Gilles happened after John introduced him. In other words - Ainz has not yet met anyone just like that, by chance, on the street - and did not try to get to know them.

"What to do?" Ainz thought for a moment. If he ended up in his old world, then a man who suddenly met him on the street would have seemed extremely suspicious to him - although if this man, in order to appear less suspicious, suggested he go to his office - Ainz would panicked only more.

"Maybe send someone from the Servants?" - Ainz paused for a second. In his world, bosses very often dumped such work as a meeting of potential workers on the shoulders of their deputies, so Ainz could have suggested that it was still possible. However, at the same time...

Ainz glanced furtively at Archer as he continued to watch the two Servants. No, definitely not, he is not able to do this with such pressure! What if his Servants consider him an incompetent boss because of his actions, decide that he is dumping all the work on his subordinates - or even worse, what if they find out that Ainz feels uncomfortable while meeting new people?! No, Ainz definitely couldn't allow this!

Therefore, with an inward sigh, the mage smiled and took a step forward, slowly moving towards the two wandering Servants.

Approaching the people moving towards him took him a lot of time - during this time, the mage was able to imagine several possible dialogues that he could have with them - but none of these options was ideal. Ainz could find himself dozens of answers to any of the said phrases that would destroy his entire line - that is why, gradually, as he approached the Servants, the necromancer became more and more nervous.

'Good afternoon, girls…' - he said the phrase in his mind, trying to sound confident at least in his thoughts - 'Of course, you don't know me…'

'No, this is a bad option!' - Ainz felt panicked, after which the suppression of emotions calmed him again - 'Perhaps you will not believe me, but…'

'Another bad option!' - suppression of emotions prevailed over Ainz again - 'The fact is that I know you are Servants…'

Ainz also rejected this option as he did with the next one - and another one - and, before his mind could suggest the option that the mage could hold in his head longer than one phrase, Ainz discovered that he was with two Servants in plain sight.

The first thing that struck the mage's eye when he emerged from his thoughts was growth. Both girls - and the Servants were just girls - turned out to be extremely short, almost children. Maybe they were not from elementary school, but everything that Ainz could give them is fourteen years old - or sixteen, if you take into account that Ainz was always not very good at determining the age of people.

The first girl, moving ahead, was dressed somewhat frivolously for Ainz's ideas about schoolgirls. Ainz could not call her clothes anything besides a miniskirt of dark red color; moreover, this skirt did not fit her legs, but, on the contrary, held its shape from all sides like a dress, so Ainz felt like he would see something he was not supposed to see with her every next movement. Considering, however, that the girl was not dressed in a full-fledged top, but rather in leather dressings, rather emphasizing the most interesting places of her body than hiding anything, it was especially uncomfortable for Ainz to look at the girl. Fortunately for him, a detail was found in the girl's appearance that caused the magician to be distracted.

A tail.

And it was not a small tail with a tassel - but a black, rather massive, scaled tail of a reptile, furthermore, bifurcating, and therefore in a strange way similar to a snake tongue. However, this was not the only interesting feature of the girl's appearance.

Quite long crimson hair converged on her back, just below the shoulder blades, framing a childish face, barely touched by puberty, with large turquoise eyes, allowing Ainz to see the horns. And these were not the little cute little horns of the imp — no, they were massive black demonic ones — or perhaps dragon horns, rising from the sides of her head up, adding twenty more centimeters to her growth.

The girl moving next to her did look much more decent, she was dressed in a turquoise yukata with huge sleeves, additionally hiding half of her body and not showing her figure at all, with the exception of thin hands, in one of which she held black and gold fan, richly decorated with an ornament, with the help of which at the moment she covered her face. However, Ainz could see her long silver-gray hair, descending to the middle of her thigh, and the golden eyes in which the smile splashed. As the horns.

The girl, moving a little behind, also had horns - but unlike the horns of the one ahead, these horns were white and very small, neatly located on the sides of her head, so that with a quick glance they could even be mistaken for some strange decoration.

Gradually, drawing closer to the two, Ainz was able to hear their dialogue.

"...one more word and I swear by everything I have, I will kill you!" - Red one, as Ainz noted for herself, was clearly unhappy with something and absolutely did not bother to control the volume of her voice.

The White one spoke much quieter, so Ainz could not hear the response line - but he was quite able to see the reaction to it.

"SHUT UP!" - Red one unexpectedly turned around and took a step towards the White one.

"Or what?" - the White one just grinned, removing the fan for a second to show her smile, and then opened it again, hiding her face.

"ARGH!" - shouted powerlessly into the void with her head up the Red one and then rushed forward with a quick step towards the already approaching Ainz.

"Good afternoon, girls..." the magician began the prepared phrase, however, the Red one, not even listening to his words, simply crashed into the mage.

"GET AWAY!" - she snarled, then shoved the necromancer to the side. If Ainz was a human, then at the best he would have gained a several broken ribs and a couple of meters of short flight to the ground after such a collision, but he only swayed, taking a step to the side.

"Can't you stand the truth?" - moving after the girl, the White one said it calmly, just passing by Ainz, without even giving him a look.

Ainz, while finding such an action at least uncivilized, followed the Servants.

"I apologize, but..." the magician said this calmly, still forcing the two to pay attention to him.

"STAND AWAY, DIRTY PEASANT!" - the Red one, stopping in place, instantly went to Ainz, annoyed by what had happened even more.

"Oh, this is not a very convenient turn..." - the magician stopped for a second, thinking about what action he should take.

The Red one, who was next to the mage, however, did not hear his thoughts and already raised a fist to strike, but was stopped.

"Stand down, crazy," - the White one rolled up her fan for a second, after which she looked at Ainz a little more carefully.

"Shut up!" - the Red one reacted very painfully to this, but the White one ignored such a remark, only once again looking at the magician. He smiled, being glad at least of such events, and bowed a little.

"As I say, good afternoon, girls," - Ainz smiled at the two Servants, but they did not let him continue again.

"You," - the White one, finally, having examined the magician to the end, looked into his face, "You aren't from these place - are you?"

"That's right, girls," - Ainz smiled and nodded slightly, not forgetting to bow to the Red one.

"Hmmm, really?" - the White one took a step towards the magician, after which she stopped in front of him.

"Hey, what's going on?" - the Red one was indignant at the instant development of events - "Do you know him?"

"No, unfortunately we are not familiar," - Ainz smiled at the frisky girl, - "But I was going to fix it."

"Then get away!" - the Red one jumped up briskly, after which she turned to the White one, - "Damn filthy peasant!"

"You are so slow-witted that this is honestly a little bit frustrating," the White one pretended to fan out, "The fact that he does not run away from these two… things on your head already indicates that he is not just a peasant."

"That's right," Ainz smiled, after which, not finding a better option, he tried to explain the situation, "The fact is that I am on a mission to search for Servants."

"So another one from the Witch?" - the Red one instantly looked at Ainz in disgust, and then turned away - "Tell her that our answer is the same. Let her run to the four winds of heaven."

"Of course," the magician nodded. "But I am not a servant of the Witch. I am her opponent."

"Oh, really now?" - the White one reacted calmly to this, after which she looked around the mage again, - "And who in this doomed world is ready to fight the Witch?"

Deciding to add a little impressiveness to his words, Ainz said - "The French Army."

"What?" - the Red one just grinned to this - "Are they still alive? I thought they all were killed under Charite."

"During Charite, they suffered losses," Ainz was forced to agree, "However, they are still alive and continue their struggle."

"Struggle indeed" - the White one fanned herself several times, - "Hmm, in that case, as I understand it, would you like to involve us to this fight?"

Ainz just nodded.

"Yeah, of course," the Red one only grinned at this and turned around on the road again, waving her goodbye, "Not interested."

"My fellow traveler, of course, is kind of stupid," the White one did not miss the opportunity to prick her, watching how the Red one twitched from her mention, "However, she is right. We do not want to fight the Witch."

"Oh, that's how..." Ainz paused for a second. It's not that he expected he could so easily convince other Servants to fight on his side, but at the same time he also did not want to hear a negative answer, "Why?"

"And why should we?" - the Red one only grinned at it, stopping for a second, - "Your war - you fight."

"How I would not like to agree with this fake dragon," ignoring the cry "WHO DID YOU CALL A FAKE?!" the White one only sighed, "But she is right. This is simply not our battle."

"Ah, that's how..." - Ainz thought for a moment, "But, in that case - why did you end up being called into this world?"

"Who knows?" - White one only smiled, hiding her smile with a fan, - "But not for that - that's for sure."

"Hmm..." Ainz thought for a second. What could he say to them in such a way that he could convince them and force them to fight in a war that they considered foreign? What could he offer - if they were called without the Master, and therefore did not need his support to continue their existence?

Ainz lost in thought; however, no one was going to give him the opportunity to come up with the right answer. The Red one, having stopped to pay attention to the silent magician, simply went ahead, after which the White one, leaving him a farewell smile, went after her. Ainz, unconsciously, moved after them. The first one to draw attention to this was the Red one, who recognized the sound of the man's steps after the ten meters past.

"What else is not clear to you?" - the girl just sighed and turned to the magician, - "The Witch has won - you have lost. Now get out. Or should I explain it more lucidly?"

"Please don't bring this to bloodshed," Ainz tried to instantly minimize the conflict.

"Bloodshed, hmmm?" - the White one stopped after that, after which she looked again into the eyes of the magician, - "Are you not afraid of us at all? We are Servants."

"Yeah," the Red one only grinned, "I am a dragon - I can break you with one blow!"

"Dragon, pff," the White one only burst out, then closed her face with a fan.

"I know," Ainz only nodded at that, "But I have already met the Servants in our camp."

"In the camp?" - after these words, the Red one was surprised in earnest, - "Do these weaklings finally have someone strong?"

"Ah, that," Ainz thought for a second, not sure if he should tell all of it to those who had not even agreed to fight, "Yes, they did."

"Hmm, okay..." the White one thought about it, after which she looked around the magician, "And who is this - a man or a woman?"

Ainz still felt insecure about this, so he answered evasively, - "Men and women."

"Oh, there are several of them at once!" - the Red one intervened in the dialogue, finally going up to the speakers, forcing the White one to just look at that disapprovingly - "Fine! Who are they?"

"Unfortunately, I can't tell you that." Ainz just shook his head.

The White one did not react to this, clearly anticipating such an answer, but the Red one, not getting what she wanted, only looked at the magician with hostility.

"It seems you haven't understand who you are talking to, peasant!" - the girl took a step back, after which she punched her open palm with her fist - "We are Servants! Speak - who are they!"

Unfortunately, her speech would have had a greater effect if the White one's fan had not landed, immediately after that, on her head, between the horns, striking her with a soft pop-sound.

"Shut up, the fake dragon!" - the White one pulled the fan back to herself after that and looked at the mage - "Hmm... And was there someone… like a traveller among the called men?"

"What?" - Ainz pondered the question for a second. What did she mean - "like a traveller"? This definition was too vague to answer it unequivocally.

"Like a traveler," - the White one, however, tried to carefully interrogate the mage, - "Simple clothes... Slightly lost sight... Maybe he said that he once stayed in a temple…"

Ainz was only thinking about it, while the Red one was looking at her fellow traveler.

"Kiyo..." - the Red one tried to say something to the girl, but was instantly interrupted.

"Shut up, fake!" - the White one roared at the girl, after which she looked at the mage expectantly.

'Simple clothes, a lost sight…' - Ainz just thought about it. Hmm, if you consider the cloak as simple clothes, the only one who resembled this description was Archer. Of course, he did not talk about any temple - but on the other hand Ainz did not communicate with him all this time, so that he could easily just never talk about it.

"Hm, then," Ainz said thoughtfully, "Maybe this man is still in the camp..."

"HE IS THERE?!" - Ainz was suddenly significantly shaken when the White one lifted him by the chest - "WHO IS HE?! WHO IS HE?!"

"I can't tell you this," Ainz just said calmly, looking at the girl whose eyes didn't have any prudence, "The fact is that you..."

"DO NOT YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!" - the White one once again shake him, and then again and again, turning Ainz into a dummy toy with a dangling head, - "TELL ME QUICKLY WHO IS HE?!"

"I can't tell you this," it was not was not very comfortable for Ainz to talk in such situation, but if he was silent, the result could be even more tragic for him.

Instantly, the White one threw him off her hands like a sack, and then hung over him. Of course she was not tall and was too pretty to be menacing - but now nothing even hinted that she was calm just a minute ago. On the contrary - there was a monster, blazing with a fury, with a fire raging in her eyes. Even her small neat horns gleamed ominously, as if they reflected the glare from her golden eyes.

"Kiyo, why are you..." - almost frightened, the Red one watched the White one's actions, who didn't even pay attention to the words of the Servant.

"I will devour you right now," there wasn't a trace left of the girl's old sweet voice — now it sounded more like an ominous growl of a Cerberus, "There will be no even bones left of you to bury - even a dust. I will kill you - I will tear off your hands and feet, rip off your skin alive and crush your head with a heel - if you do not tell me right now - WHO IS HE?!"

"Hold Species," Ainz used the best paralysis spell he could at the moment. After a second, the girl whose hand he touched froze, losing control of her body. The Red one, seeing this, took a step back, after which a long red spear, ending in a spiral top, instantly materialized in her hand.

"What did you do?!" - She demanded an answer, immediately pointing a spear at the mage.

"I just decided to stop your friend before she would do something stupid," Ainz peacefully raised his hands, then slowly dropped them, breaking the spell. Kiyo, instantly gaining control of herself, immediately recovered and slightly dusted herself off.

"Hmm, I apologize for my unexpected outburst of emotions," the girl bowed to Ainz, "However, as I understand it, you won't tell me who is this man in the camp?"

To this, the magician only shook his head.

"And you are not as harmless as it might seem," the girl just dusted herself off after these words and looked at the mage that spread his hands, "Hmm, in that case - really, I have no other choice."

Ainz prepared for the girl's new actions, but she only looked at him and bowed, "Swear that the man you mentioned is fighting on your side."

Ainz did not name a specific person, but he still decided to nod at it, - "I swear."

There was silence for a second, during which the Red one continued to nervously glancing at the two speakers.

"You are not lying," Kiyo said a moment later, a little surprised, after which her pupils dilated, "You are not lying. You are really not lying."

"Of course," Ainz nodded. He used to keeping his word - and never lie - if it was not about his enemies, or during the battle, of course, - "I do not lie."

For a second, Kiyo fell silent, after which she suddenly sniffed. This was such an unexpected action for Ainz that he blinked from the sound.

"Anchin…" - Kiyo said this, and then sniffed again, - "Anchin... Anchin, you still came back... You came back for me!"

After that, as if the power had disappeared from the girl's legs, she instantly fell off - and if it weren't for Ainz, who had caught her one second before falling to the ground, she would surely have hit her head. After that, however, Kiyo unexpectedly squeezed the mage in her arms.

"Anchin... Anchin... Anchin!" - She continued to sob, trying to hug the mage stronger. Ainz felt at this moment somewhat uncomfortable, but nevertheless reciprocated hesitantly the girl's hug, "Anchin! Anchin! Anchin!"

"Kiyo..." the Red one took a step towards the girl she had seen in such a pitiful state for the first time.

Ainz just continued to hold the girl in his arms, feeling that her tears were soaking his clothes.

So, for several minutes, the situation was stabilized, after which the White one nevertheless pulled away from the magician and brushed away the tears from her face.

"Well, I understand," the girl sighed, finally pulling herself together, after which she looked carefully at the magician, stepping away from her, "In that case, apparently, I really have no choice."

After these words, Ainz tensed for a second, but this was not required.

"I agree," Kiyo nodded, after which she looked at Ainz, a little surprised, "I agree to join you if you take me to this man."

"Kiyo, are you crazy?!" - the Red one was indignant at the decision of her companion.

"Shut up!" - But in response to this Kiyo only shouted at the girl, after which she turned to Ainz, - "Those are my terms. Do you agree to them?"

"Of course," Ainz just nodded to that, after which he turned his gaze to the Red one, "I would have brought you to this man anyway - if you become our ally."

"This whole world has gone crazy!" - the Red one clutched her head, after which she looked at Ainz - "Well, in that case - I, apparently, have no choice too."

The Red one twisted her spear, which never disappeared after the initial summoning, and then made an elegant curtsy, twisting the spike in her hands in the manner of a pole — "Elizabeth Bathory, the great countess in front of you! Rejoice!"

"In that case - even if this unsuccessful fake dragon has introduced herself - I'm afraid it would be impolite for me to remain silent," the White one made a small bow, "Kiyohime is at your service."

"Thank you," the magician also nodded in response, "Ainz. Ainz Ooal Gown."

"Well, in that case - since all the questions have been settled..." Kiyohime sighed. "Take me to my Anchin."

Ainz nodded and extended out his hand for a teleportation spell.

'Kiyohime... It's from some kind of legend, isn't it?' he thought for a second before the spell - 'I think I heard about it once... However, Elizabeth Bathory?.. This name seems familiar to me too - but where have I heard of it before?..'

* * *

Kiyohime took a step toward Archer, that looked frowningly at her in response, and then slowly moved around, trying to look at him from all sides. Archer, bound by order, only stood still, feeling how the girl was examining him as if he was a museum exhibit.

Kiyohime circled around Archer at first from the one side, then from the other one - then carefully looked him up and down, and, in the end, approached the Servant and, just in case, sniffled the air. Archer did not know how he would react if she tried to lick him or do something similarly disturbing, but before this Kiyohime pulled away from Archer and then shook her head.

"There is a slight resemblance, but..." the girl shook her head again, "You are not Anchin."

After that, Kiyohime took a step away from Archer and turned to the mage, "You could not know this - and you did not lie to me, however... This is not the person I was looking for."

Ainz nodded to Archer, that was just glad to disappear from the scene, leaving the mage alone with the girl.

"It's not him," the girl shook her head again, "it's not him at all..."

Ainz was not sure what he had to do in this situation - so he chose, as it seemed to him, the only reasonable tactic - he hugged the girl. She didn't reciprocate - but she didn't move away from the magician either, which already looked like a small victory for Ainz.

"No, it's nothing, I understand," the girl only nodded sadly to herself, "It was foolish to hope that I could meet him just by chance..."

Ainz could not say anything, so he just let the girl deal with her feelings. Kiyohime, though, after waiting a few seconds, nevertheless gently pulled away from the Ainz, wiping the traces of the tears on her face.

"In any case, you have kept your part of the deal - and I appreciate it," the girl smiled. "In that case, I suppose I have no choice but to keep my own. I will fight for your cause - and, in that case, I believe Elizabeth will too."

"Thank you," Ainz nodded to this, after which he felt a pulling feeling, which meant an attempt to establish a magical contact. The mage nodded to the girl, that she luckily understood correctly and moved away from the necromancer. Waiting a few second, until Kiyohime got far enough away from him, he took the call.

"Master," Hassan's voice sounded the same as always, "We found another Servant."

"Great..." - Ainz nodded to himself - "I will teleport now."

"Wait, Master," - however Hassan suddenly objected, "This is Chevalier d'Eon."

"Huh..." - Ainz paused for a second.

"Yes," Hassan nodded. "He says he wants to give us information about the Witch."

* * *

**Physical Resistance:** _B+_

It is difficult to name a thing from the ordinary world - even if it could hurt the Servant at all - capable of inflicting enough damage to bypass resistance at this level. Only the most powerful weapons invented by men - the weapons of the last chance and the doomsday - are capable of posing a threat to the owner of such a rank of defense; and even among them, only the most powerful, whose strength is measured not in thousands of tons, but more - are capable of reaching the body of the mage at all - however, minus the received damage, even such an attack will at best turn into a small push from a child received by the athlete. Taking into account not only this skill, but also other ways of protection - such as other skills, equipment, spells and used items - humanity is doomed in the event of a collision with such an enemy. As for the Servants - of course, there are those among them who can overcome such a level of resistance - however, due to such a reduction of damage from the attack, other abilities of the mage and his quite impressive reserves of Endurance - it is difficult to predict what physical strength the Servant should possess, so that he can be considered even a theoretical threat to the owner of a skill of a similar rank.

* * *

**Hello there!**

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Really, he works so fast that nothing special even happened in my life - I literally had no time to do and\or expirience something by the time he betaed the new chapter. Like, damn, I have no words. Really it's all thanks to him.  
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	28. Chapter 28

For a second, Ainz froze.

"Chevalier?" - the mage blinked several times, trying to understand what was said - "What does he want?"

The words "Chevalier had information about the Witch" were clear to Ainz. Though he did not understand the motivation for Saber's act.

"Hassan?" The mage reached for Assassin. "Have you contacted him?"

"No" - a negative answer came from the Servant - "I found Saber, who was in the open in the middle of the road, after which I gave him the opportunity to feel my presence - and he announced that he would like to give us some information, if he could meet with my Master. After that, I transfered the information immediately to you, Lord Mage. "

"Good," Ainz nodded. "In that case, retreat from Saber's position at least for a kilometer - after which I will move to you along with the rest of the Servants."

"Of course," Hassan nodded, and then disconnected from Ainz, leaving the mage alone with his thoughts.

Could Saber's proposal be a trap?

"No," Ainz shook his head. "Could it not be a trap?"

Ainz could not answer this. His whole mind, all his experience shouted to him that this was a trap - but a trap for what? Maybe Saber planned to attack them? No, that would be stupid in the current situation - after Ainz and his Servants demonstrated that they were able to fight the Witch on an equal ground he would need all the firepower the Witch possessed in order to have at least some chance.

Maybe he was planning then not to a battle, but usage of some particularly strong ability? During the days of Yggdrasil, many players - even Ainz Ooal Gown itself used similar tactics, luring opponents into the open and then launching several powerful attacks over the area to destroy the enemy in one blow. Yes, this was the most logical behavior for Saber - perhaps, seeing the strength of the Servants and Ainz, he decided to play the bait in order to lure them - and kill them with a single blow. In this case, two questions remained - regarding the Servants used in ambush and Chevalier himself. The first one was particularly difficult - in the time of Yggdrasil, there were many builds and mobs specializing in attacking from far distances, so an attack even from a distance of ten kilometers was possible - while some really special abilities or equipment, such as _Ahura Mazda_, were capable of causing its effect throughout the game, so there was no obstacle for them... In this case, there was a question about Chevalier himself. Was he protected from attack - or did the Witch decide to sacrifice one of her Servants in order to destroy Ainz? This question bothered Ainz, because depending on the answer to it, he needed to choose the most correct strategy.

Turning to Bathory, Kiyohime and Archer, Ainz used the teleportation spell, and then instantly appeared next to Hassan. Assassin, noticing the appearance of new faces next to him, only nodded to Ainz - "Lord Mage."

"Hassan," Ainz also nodded in response, after which he turned his gaze to the horizon, where in the distance there was an obscure cloudy spot that was Chevalier, "Are there any other Servants around?"

"No, Lord Mage." Hassan only shook it negatively, causing Ainz to frown.

'So they are hiding…' - the magician nodded to this thought - "In that case..."

"_Summon Undead: First_" - according to the formula of the spell, the mana of the mage instantly began to take shape. This form was not even ten percent as impressive as in the battle with Dracula - instead of the grave cold, only Archer, who was the most sensitive to magic, felt a light cool breeze, after which a small black haze began to take on the shape of a human body. Although this feeling was here only for a second - a moment later, black puffs of smoke formed a skeleton. An ordinary human skeleton, which immediately took an awkward step forward.

"Necromancy..." an instant voice was heard over his ear and Ainz turned to see Bathory's face twisted in a grimace of contempt and disgust. Her fellow traveler, Kiyohime, although turned out to be much more tactful and only covered her face with a fan, also, it seems, did not approve of the actions of the magician.

'Definitely, Necromancers are not liked in this world either,' Ainz sighed. This was not a surprise to him - necromancers were also pretty much hated in Yggdrasil, since almost all necromancers had negative karma, which is why they were a priority goal for PK, second only to players who chose a heteromorphic race. In addition, a player with negative karma could not be taken into a team by players with positive karma, of which the majority were in the game, since the NPC's and the guards reacted negatively to them, refusing to give quests or even attacking them straight away, because of that the necromancers were not respected throughout the game, so that he was nevertheless ready for such an attitude - although it seemed strange to him - 'Necromancers are extremely useful - is it really just because they are working with the dead? Why then a completely different attitude towards clerics or doctors - they also often deal with the dead... I completely do not understand.'

Of course, this was not the case at all, but the fact that in the new world necromancy was strongly associated with numerous victims and dark rituals. In addition, the need for deaths and corpses to experiment for necromancers often forced them to act in extremely dirty ways, up to unleashing wars - because of which prejudice against the necromancers was more than justified - however, Ainz himself, of course, did not know about it.

"_Undeath Slave Sight_," Ainz used the following ability, after which he felt a new picture from the eyes of the created skeleton began to appear just in front of him.

"Hm, then I'm going to meet Chevalier in this guise," the skeleton said unexpectedly, causing the other Servants to flinch and look at the bones of the human.

"Of course, Lord Mage," was the only answer from Hassan, to which Ainz in the body of a skeleton only nodded and, turning around, moved to meet Chevalier.

Chevalier met the approach of the unknown skeleton calmly, waiting until the undead would came to the distance of the conversation.

"So, there really are undead among yours too," Saber smiled, throwing a comment somewhere to the side, after which he looked calmly at the mage in the body of the skeleton. "Are you a messenger?"

"No," Ainz answered through the skeleton's body, "I'm listening to what you wanted to say, Chevalier d'Eon"

"Are you afraid of traps?" - Saber smiled, - "Of course, this is the most logical move that I could expect from you. My respect for your caution."

To this Chevalier took off his hat and waved it in appreciation, to which Ainz did not react in any way, continuing to remain in the body of the skeleton.

"Well, then, in that case, I believe that I should make my proposal," Chevalier sighed, "I have some information regarding the Witch — as well as some information that will be personally useful to you."

"I'm listening." Ainz just stared at Saber even more attentively, but he only shook his head.

"No, not so fast," Chevalier shook his head and put forward a finger, "First, I need guarantees."

"Guarantees?" - Ainz thoughtfully looked at Saber, - "For what?"

"My safety, of course!" - Chevalier looked at Ainz uncomprehendingly, as if he was saying some kind of stupidity, - "I need guarantees that after I give you current information I can leave independently from the results of our agreement and you will not follow me, just in case or to kill the lonely Servant."

"I would not do such a stupid thing anyway," Ainz sighed. "There is too much chance of falling into a trap."

"Oh," Chevalier was surprised, then smiled, "My respect for your forethought and honesty. In this case - I demand one more guarantee. If I give you two different data, wouldn't it be logical to receive two reciprocal courtesies?"

"I'm ready to listen to what you want to say," Ainz nodded in the skeleton's body, but nevertheless refused an unequivocal agreement with Saber's proposal, making him smile.

"I don't want to die," Saber simply said, "I've seen you in a battle, and from the results of the clash, I understand that you can defeat Jeanne — or the Witch, as she is called among her foes. When she dies, her Servants will follow her. I do not want such a fate - therefore I propose a contract. When the Witch dies, you will make me your Servant, after which you will take me with you."

"Reasonable," Ainz nodded. Fear of death has always been a very powerful motivator for people, so something that Chevalier said was completely logical and reasonable - "However, it will depend on your actions. If you die during the battle or while fighting my Servants…"

"In that case, the fault is entirely on me, I understand that," Saber nodded. "In that case, I suppose this deal was made?"

"Perhaps," Ainz nodded at this, after which he looked at Saber, "And now I need information."

"Of course," Saber nodded in response, "Regarding information about the Witch... The fact is that, as you may have noticed, my Milady is quite a vengeful and impulsive mistress, so it will not be a surprise for you to find out that she often collects prisoners whom she later tortures and throws into cells in her cities, leaving them to die for her fun after."

"Yes, I know about that," Ainz nodded in response, remembering John.

"In this case, I must say that she periodically visits Vichy," Chevalier sighed, "However, Vichy is still a city that has not been destroyed or plundered. Perhaps this is the only city other than Orleans, where Milady maintains at least some semblance of order."

"Hm," Ainz nodded, but Chevalier hadn't finished speaking.

"The fact is that Vichy contains Etienne de Vignolles, a former associate of Jeanne," Chevalier sighed, "And perhaps the only person - besides, of course, you — whom Jeanne is afraid of. By the decision of Deputy of Jeanne, instead of executing him, she decided to entice him to her side - but Etienne refused this up to this point. Once she tried to do this with John of Alencon - however, his refusals forced her to send him to death. With Etienne, the situation is similar: the only difference is that Milady's patience has not ended for now - however, this moment is not as far as one may think. Most likely, in the next meeting or two, Milady's patience will end - and she will order Etienne to be executed in public. However, such a person will be extremely useful to you - and to me. If you can free Etienne and publicly defeat Milady and her Servants - or at least make them retreat - you will be able to raise a revolt in Vichy and attract significant forces under your banner."

"Thank you," Ainz nodded. This information required reflection, but it was definitely useful in order to sow doubts in the ranks of the Witch... In those ranks that were still alive, of course. Perhaps, in this case, he would be able to call a certain number of people to battle with the Witch, to which the army would become not only a distraction, but also a force that could at least deal with the many wyverns and the undead in the service of the Witch.

"Good," Chevalier finally sighed. "But it's not so simple. The fact is that there are several Servants in Vichy who, in the case of an open attack on Vichy, will simply kill Etienne."

"Then it needs to be pulled off covertly..." Ainz sighed. "I understand."

"It is good that you understand this," Chevalier sighed. "However, there is little time left for this. After the unsuccessful fight with you, Milady planned to visit Etienne tomorrow - and, considering that she would be quite angered after losing - Etienne's resistance would be perceived by her extremely poorly..."

"In other words, you say that it is necessary to rescue Etienne today?" - Ainz looked at Saber.

"This is a possible option, but it will be best to rescue him tomorrow," Chevalier shook his head, "The fact is that if you manage to rescue Etienne - even if you fight the Servants of Milady - this can be perceived quite ambiguously. However, if you manage to take the Dragon Witch herself out…"

"Hm, I understand what you're talking about," Ainz looked at Saber, "Are you offering your powers to fight her?"

"No," Chevalier shook his head, "To battle with her will be the end for me — using her Command Spells, she will simply make me commit suicide — which is the last thing I want to happen. I am ready to help with infiltration, but I will not fight with Milady, at least, until the very last moment."

"I understand," Ainz nodded, after which he remembered, "What about the second information?"

"Ah, that ..." Chevalier sighed. "You need a dragon fighter."

At that moment Ains froze for a second.

"And her dragon is flying here now," Chevalier sighed. "My goal was to find you and hold you up until the attack — which I successfully managed."

At that moment, the skeleton looked at Chevalier, to which he shook his head - "Not so fast - you promised me the opportunity to calmly leave this conversation - and since you are not me - I trust your promise. I will contact you a little later regarding Vichy."

With these words, Chevalier made the final bow, after which he turned and headed away. The skeleton, having existed for another second with Ainz's mind inside, then crumbled to dust.

* * *

"A dragon is moving toward us," Ainz announced this news before Archer could express it, "A real dragon."

All the Servants present instantly understood the seriousness of Ainz's words.

Dragons have always been the strongest - and this was true not only for Yggdrasil; in the world where Ainz was now, dragons were also the strongest, most dangerous and powerful of the opponents - the battle with Saint Martha served as evidence of this. Even having called only the shadow in the form of her own Noble Phantasm, she was not only able to confront, but practically win the battle with two Servants, Archer and Hassan, who also used their trump cards - and even after her defeat using tactics designed to eliminate Martha, if the intervention of Marie Antoinette had not occurred, she could have defeated both of them even after her death. In other words, the appearance of a real dragon in full force meant danger - even in the current battle,even if there are seven Servants and Ainz present on their side - none of them was going to underestimate the danger that the enemy represented. At least almost no one.

"Fine!" There was an exclamation from Bathory, who only took a step forward, waving her tail in anticipation," A battle between two dragons — what could be better?!"

"I would not want to fight in this battle, so the battle of two dragons is postponed," Kiyohime just threw a phrase, and then turned to Ainz, "Although what happens next is completely up to you."

"We must fight now," - even before Marie Antoinette appeared in the field of vision of the mage, he could hear her voice full of righteous indignation - Mashu and Mozart walking behind her only looked helplessly at the girl, burning with great fury - "If we don't destroy the threat now - it will turn towards the army - or even worse, innocent people!"

Ainz could not help but acknowledge the truthfulness of the girl's words, but it could not be said that he was too concerned about such a development - on the contrary, it would be even better if the dragon were confronted with some other soldiers, since Ainz could then assess the dragon's power and abilities.

Though, with any other opponent, he would certainly follow the lead of Marie Antoinette and face it in battle - even if the opponents were Servants... Even five Servants - he could fight them. But if a dragon was his opponent, he still considered it necessary to prioritize his safety and the information gathered.

However, Ainz himself did not have time to speak out before his thoughts were voiced out by a somewhat unexpected ally in this situation.

"Although I rarely disagree with the decisions of my queen - unfortunately, this is such an occasion," was what Mozart said, before turning to Marie Antoinette, "Mari, in the current circumstances, to battle with a dragon is complete madness, especially given the reinforcement from other Servants and the Witch herself. The goal of the Witch is us - or rather, our allies, so that the Witch will continue to pursue in the event of our retreat - she will not attack the army, since she considers it unworthy of her attention - otherwise she would attack the army long before. She will continue to hunt us."

"But what about the city!" - after these words, Ainz looked at the distant houses, barely distinguishable from a distance. When he asked Marie Antoinette to help with teleportation he did not teleport to the very walls of the city, but only moved to a distance from which he could see Thiers, so he could only make out distant silhouettes of the city. It was impossible even to Archer to distinguish between hanging banners and people from such a distance, so they could not say how the city looked in detail - however at the same time, the absence of rising smoke and destroyed stone buildings spoke in favor of the fact that the city was either taken long ago by the Witch herself or, which was unlikely but still possible - is still free, so theoretically the Witch could afflict her grudge on it. However, once again, Ainz's thoughts were articulated by a somewhat unexpected ally.

"To battle under such conditions is suicide," Archer said, stepping forward, drawing the attention of all those present, "Even three Servants against one dragon do not guarantee us victory - not to mention the Witch herself and her Servants. The most logical action to take in this case is a retreat."

"But there are people!" - Marie turned to Archer, completely ignoring Ainz, - "People that we... that I have to protect! How can we leave them simply because we could die?!"

"Enough!" - Arthuria's voice thundered like lightning, silencing those who spoke, while making Ainz and Mashu that were already silent - even more silent. Marie, having heard the exclamation, only turned to Arthuria - but instead of sympathy or understanding she saw something completely alien to her eyes. Contempt, - "A true King must understand when he is obliged to accept the battle, and when he must retreat in order to fight another day. One who does not understand this simple truth is not able to be a King... Or a Queen."

"But..." Marie Antoinette began almost pitifully, and Mashu tried to support her words, but Arthuria's cold gaze silenced both of them, turning the timid speech of support from Shielder into a silent hitch.

"A true King sacrifices a lot in order to achieve his goal," Arthuria's gaze was cold and hard, forcing even Ainz, who haven't said anything and even supported her idea, to shrink, not to mention Marie Antoinette, "He who is not capable to realize this is not worthy to be the King of his people."

After that, Marie Antoinette as if wilted, only nodded slowly, allowing others to decide their fate. Ainz, of course, sympathized with the girl - she reminded him of Bukubukuchagama somehow. A defender and protector of the weak, she was ready to come to the rescue of any of Ainz Ooal Gown - however, she understood when a battle was impossible to win and did not try to fight in an unwinnable war. Therefore, Ainz, while sympathizing with Marie Antoinette, nevertheless used the teleportation spell.

* * *

"This is definitely a trap," was Archer's verdict when he heard from Ainz about Chevalier's proposal. Ainz himself also agreed to this, confirming the Servants' conjectures.

"It is most likely that this is a trap," the mage managed to think it over. Secret covert operation in the enemy's den by a trusted Witch champion, who declared himself a traitor? It definitely looked like a trap - it could have been more suspicious only if Chevalier himself had suggested an operation in the fortress under the guise of prisoners - "However, the information he provided are nevertheless crucial. If Etienne is really kept in Vichy, then we cannot simply ignore it - he will be extremely useful for the French army."

"It is true," Archer could not disagree, "However, what is the point of reinforcing the army? Yes, they can distract the Witch's troops, opening the way for us inside Orleans - however,, the current number of soldiers is enough for this purpose. The return of morale to the soldiers could be justified if they are able to fight the Servants, but - even if the army tripled, even if we raise a riot - this would not allow the troops to fight them on equal terms."

Ainz fell silent on this, but instead, Hassan intervened in the conversation.

"Perhaps this is so," Assassin said calmly, "But in this case, the morale of the soldiers is not as important as the unrest that they would cause . Even if the army itself is not able to fight the Servants - the Witch has already shown that she does not only wants to destroy, but also capture cities - which means that she will have to suppress the rebellions. And for this, she will use not only dragons and undead - she will have to send her trusted lieutenants - her Servants. As the Witch herself has already shown, she cannot use teleportation, which means that the Servants sent to these cities will not be able to return in time for the battle in Orleans. Even one Servant who is absent during the assault of the fortress will be of great help, which cannot be ignored."

"Don't you consider this a trap?" - Archer looked at Hassan carefully, to which he only shook his head.

"No, it's definitely a trap," Hassan sighed, "I give it a ninety percent chance of it - but at the same time, if it's not a trap, then we cannot ignore such an opportunity. Moreover, even if it is a trap, then the victory over the ambush will have a certain effect on the Vichy population too."

"I don't think Chevalier will agree to a dozen Servants going undercover," Archer shook his head. "If the ambush forces are too large, then those sent to this mission will die."

"Yes," Hassan easily agreed with this statement, "Therefore, I believe that we should sacrifice those Servants whose loss is not critical."

"And who do you want to sacrifice?" - Archer looked at Hassan coldly.

"Me," Assassin immediately answered.

After listening to the dialogue, the Servants and Ainz fell silent after such a calm, prudent decision.

"I'm most suited to missions of this type," Hassan nodded to his words, "And my fighting abilities are minimal at the moment. I have no other Noble Phantasm, besides what the Witch knows already, and I am not suitable for open battles with the remaining opponents - my loss is most insignificant in the current conditions."

"Hm," Archer couldn't argue with that logic, and was silent for a second, "Then Serenity..."

Ainz wanted to confirm this, but instead, Hassan only abruptly interrupted the Servant's reasoning - "Serenity is absolutely necessary for the future plan."

"Hmm?" - Archer glanced at Hassan, - "And why?"

To this Assassin only looked at Ainz, who felt a surge of panic.

'Don't tell me that I should tell you about the real reason why I left her in the camp!' - the magician felt a drop of sweat run off his forehead, but for him the miracle happened and Hassan only calmly turned calmly to Archer.

"It is necessary for the plan of the Lord Mage," after which the views of all the Servants crossed at Ainz, "If he did not consider it necessary to share this plan with you, he definitely had reasons for this."

Ainz nearly shrugged when Archer's cold gaze stopped at him for a few seconds before he nodded. "Well, let it be."

'I am saved!' - Ainz's second of contentment was instantly stopped by the Suppression of Emotions, but he still retained a deep sense of satisfaction in his soul.

"In any case," Archer nevertheless tried to argue, even feeling a reasonableness from the words of an Assassin, "Even so, as you said, your abilities are not suitable for the battle with the Servants of the Witch. You cannot defeat them all alone."

"Yes," Hassan nodded, acknowledging the truthfulness of Archer's words and fell silent, forcing the entire impromptu discussion to plunge into silence.

To help Hassan, other Servants were needed - those possessing a certain power, a certain skill in secrecy and capable of sacrificing themselves in the event of a battle - and therefore not being Ainz.

"I can go," Ainz turned his attention to Bathory, about whom he had forgotten a little, and then looked at her impressive horns that protruded above her head.

"It's almost painful how stupid you are," Kiyohime muttered quietly into her open fan, after which, at the moment when Lancer turned to her with an indignant face, ready to express everything that she thought about her friend, smacked a folded fan in her face, - "You have huge horns and a half-meter tail. Are you sure you're suitable for stealth missions?"

Bathory became silent about this, either from outrage for such a contemptuous attitude towards herself, or from embarrassment for the proposed idea.

"Good," said Archer, "In that case..."

"I'll go," Ainz's gaze shot to the side to find Marie Antoinette there.

"What?" - it seemed that even Mozart was dumbfounded by such a decision, but he nevertheless tried to gently convince her, - "Mari, maybe…"

"No," she said clearly, and Ainz could see a firm determination in her eyes, "I will go."

"If I could not fight the dragon — I must try to do at least something for my people," after that Marie turned around, looking around at everyone present. "My fighting abilities are not the best, but at the same time I possess a strong Noble Phantasm capable of defeating the ambush. It's also easy to disguise me and my voice is suitable for covert operations as it can charm other people. I am perfect for this job."

Archer looked at the girl and was forced to nod slowly. "Well, maybe..."

"In that case, I'm afraid that I also have to go," said Mozart as follows, "If this is the will of my queen."

"Amadeus, you shouldn't ..." Rider tried to say something, but was instantly stopped by the Caster's finger on her lips.

"I have also made my decision," Mozart smiled, after which he looked at Archer and then, as if the commander in this situation was Ainz, at the necromancer, "My strength is insignificant, but it will be useful in any battle as a support — besides, to me it is also will not be difficult to masquerade as someone else."

"Good," Archer said next and sighed. "In that case, I suppose I myself is also the most suitable for this mission. So four in total."

Turning his eyes to Ainz, which made the mage to remember that he was actually the commander of the operation, Archer nodded. "In that case... Master?"

Ainz hesitated for a second, but, having determined that Archer definitely understood his job and probably even chose the most suitable candidates needed for the infiltration, nodded.

* * *

Jeanne continued to look at her standard as if she had seen it for the first time in her life, again for the last few days. No, of course, she was familiar with the drawings, shapes, every scuff and scratch on her own weapons, but at the same time it seemed to her as if she had never seen her spear. It seemed as if she had never held it in her hands, inspiring the people of France to greatness - and yet it also seemed as if she had always done so. Such was the life of the Servant - especially of a Servant who had lost his strength and memories. And at the same time, if she had simply been called as a Servant, even if incomplete, she would probably not have pondered these questions.

"I have received information from the Master," Cu Chulainn appeared suddenly, peering inside the tent, where Jeanne was currently looking at her banner, forcing her to pay attention to him, "Apparently, some big operation is planned, after which we should expect the Witch's attack."

"Good," Jeanne tried to nod confidently, but judging by the fact that Cu Chulainn only looked at her sadly and disappeared, she didn't get it as convincing as the girl herself would have liked.

Jeanne continued to watch for several seconds after the disappeared Cu Chulainn, after which she turned her gaze to her standard.

Too weak.

This was not belittling her abilities or an act of self-flagellation. That was a fact.

She was too weak.

Of course, she was called up incorrectly, completely not in the quality in which she had to fight - but this remained a fact.

Jeanne was a Saint. At least everyone around her always called her it. Saint of Orleans, Holy Maiden, Savior of France. The symbol of victory.

Is that all?

She was only a symbol - and that was all she was?

Jeanne had to fight the Witch. Fight against her, as befits a protector of people. To defeat evil, as the Holy One should.

But she was too weak.

Even now, while the Witch was doing her atrocities under her guise, Jeanne sat in a camp. She did not wait for a moment to strike - even in an attack on the army she was... Not useless - but still not strong enough. All that was necessary from her was to appear when the forces of the Witch arrive at the camp, and then allow the other Servants to fulfill their mission and defeat the monsters of the Witch, stealing their glory for herself.

Even now, the mission to attack the Witch fell on the shoulders of her ally, Ainz, who had provided her with all his strength, a plan, and even a meeting with her old friend. Her entire mission depended on Ainz. Her entire mission was carried out by Ainz. In that case...

Was this still her mission?

During her life, Jeanne did not consider herself a Saint, she always called herself a servant of God, a simple girl that once heard the words of the Lord. But being called as a Servant, she called herself a Saint. She considered herself a Saint, as if it were natural. As if she really were a Saint. The Saint whom people called her.

Such was the life of a Servant. Jeanne could consider herself all the same Jeanne, which she was during her lifetime - but she was not. She was not Jeanne - a girl from Domremy, the one that played with the village boys, swinging sticks like a swords and calling herself a knight. She was the one whom the people of France saw in Jeanne d'Arc — Saint, savior, hero.

Who, then, was the Dragon Witch?

Jeanne considered herself a Saint - a sinless maiden, the savior of France. She was the image of whom she created. A Saint in whom there was not a drop of evil, not a drop of darkness or hatred. The perfect Saint.

But was there really no darkness in her?

She fought in the war. She saw blood, death, pain - burnt villages and hanged peasants. She saw what she didn't want to see. But did she see everything?

War is terrible - violence, hunger, pestilence, betrayal, death - too many things accompany war to ignore them. But it seemed to her that she... was not involved in this.

She was a Saint after all. The symbol of France and the savior of Orleans. Noble Saint. After all, she did not want blood. She did not want death. She did not want robberies, looting, despair on the faces of the soldiers who saw her approaching army. She didn't want that. But could not prevent it. For France, she was a heroine, but for England she was a nightmare.

A great army full of loyal warriors - excellent commanders who understand the intricacies of war - and an imminent victory, which meant the death of soldiers - colleagues, friends, fathers and sons.

Was the Witch what Jeanne, the Saint could not see - but ordinary soldiers did? Fighting in a distant war, carrying out the orders of their king, for his ambitions and dubious cause? Have they seen her like that - a Dragon Witch? A terrible monster, as if it had come out of their nightmares — a city destroyer, a killer of people leading an army of horrors, led by crazy champions dedicated to her alone?

And even if they saw it - did Jeanne herself see it? She always considered herself a simple girl - but could she just not notice the bloody trail stretching behind her? Could she just consider herself standing above these horrors? Could she just lay the blame for everything on the shoulders of her soldiers, of her comrades-in-arms, of her friends? Could she really consider herself to be one who is not concerned with the death of the english people - could she considers herself a Saint?

Noble Saint, in which there is no place for vice, horror, anger, pride, cowardice?

And did she continue to consider herself it now?

She was a Saint - but what does it really mean? The Holy Grail considered her a Saint, the Throne of Heroes considered her a Saint, her people considered her a Saint. But what was the truth really?

Jeanne again looked at her so painfully familiar and unfamiliar standard, and closed her eyes.

* * *

**Physical Resistance: B+** _(Case)_

Resistance to physical damage is one of the basic parameters for Yggdrasil characters, one of the basics indicating the ability of a player or NPC to withstand damage done without using magic. Theoretically, the existence of characters without resistance to physical damage is, of course, possible - however, in practice, physical resistance is even more necessary than magical one, since no matter how common magic is among players and game mobs, physical attacks has always remained an opportunity available to any character outside of its characteristics, abilities, classes, races and levels.

In the world of Servants, such a skill is also theoretically possible, but unlike magic resistance, it is incredibly rare. Although theoretically most of the Servants have at least some insignificant resistance to physical damage due to their equipment, armor in particular, at the same time, even a fairly small level of such resistance associated with skills or even Phantasm is a rarity, the prerogative of the greatest spirits such as Siegfried or Achilles.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best,.  
Do I have anything else to say?  
Well... No.  
**

**BESIDE THE FACT that**** at my Pat reon \rure I have 3 new chapters right now! Sure thing, one day they all will be on this site for free - but if you want THREE new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ right now at my Pat reon \rure.**


	29. Chapter 29

Hassan continued to grimly look at the slowly approaching banners on Vichy's gate, feeling the rickety cart creaked under his weight.

"We're getting closer," Marie Antoinette, as if to just state an obvious fact, said it and then leaned over a cart wall to Mozart, who was holding the reins, looking at him.

"Rider, don't attract more attention to us than necessary," Archer said frowningly, after which he wrapped himself tighter in a cloak from someone else's shoulder, "We are already quite suspicious."

Rider, obeying the man's words, returned to her seat, after which she straightened her dress, "It doesn't fit me."

"Mari, this is not clothes created by your tailors - of course, it will not be designed for you," Mozart just lazily looked at his own shirt and a pair of worn pants, and then sighed, "At least they washed it."

Hassan was not particularly against such a decision, but did not share the views of his fellow travelers. He could get rid of an entire peasant family without dropping a drop of blood on their clothes, after which they could pick up their cart without resistance, but instead, Marie Antoinette offered her ring for such a junk. Hassan was not against making deals, but in this particular case it seemed to him that a golden ring decorated with a ruby was still worth more than peasant clothes and a half-dead horse with a rickety cart in addition, even if the peasants at least offered to wash their clothes and feed them dinner. Fortunately, Assassin himself did not need to change into someone else's clothes because of his skills, which hid him from prying eyes. Unfortunately, this method was not suitable for masking the rest.

The gates gradually came closer and closer - unlike military fortresses they passed before, they were open wide, but no carts full of merchant goods or people on foot moved through them. There was practically no people on the streets inside the city itself too - only sometimes residents of the city timidly looked around and slipped out, immediately escaping the streets into the doors of another building.

"Fat Duck Pub" - Hassan read the name of the place that the random traveller on the streets chose and shook his head - " In spite of whatever happened, this trait will always remain with people."

"Hold!" - the voice of the guard was heard when the wagon had already entered the city, after which Hassan saw a man dressed in chainmail appearing from a small gatehouse - "Who are you?!"

"Peasants", - Mozart was the first to speak with the guard, forcing the guard to pay attention to the guy, - "We are going to this city."

"And for what reason?" - the man casts a suspicious look at the cart, pausing to look at Archer - "Not the best time for festivals."

"Yeah, it's not," Mozart agreed, sighing, after which he looked into the guard's eyes, "Yet we have nowhere else to go."

Understanding flashed in the man's eyes, after which he examined Mozart once more, not looking at him much, then Marie Antoinette, then again carefully looking at Archer, nodded in his direction,- "And this one?"

"We picked a traveler along the way," Mozart answered again, after which he looked at Archer himself, as if evaluating him, "He says that he also has nowhere to go."

"Can't he speak for himself?" - the guard took a step towards the man wrapped in a cloak.

"I have nothing else to say," came Archer's voice, as tired as possible, "I have nowhere to go and nothing to do. They brought me here - it means I will look for happiness in the city. If I can't find it - I'll go to the next one."

The guard once again carefully glanced at him, - "Are you carrying a weapon?"

"Would be - if I have one," Archer answered to this, after which he opened his cloak a bit, allowing the guard to see the absence of a sword on his belt, and then snapped back.

Once again, with a disapproving glance at the man wrapped in a cloak, the guard shook his head, "I really need to check you - but for what? What good will a weapon bring you in this city?"

"Okay, you may go," the guard finally waved his hand, then turned around and slowly began to walk back to his gatehouse, without even looking at the cart.

"It's even worse than I thought," the voice of Marie Antoinette was faded, so that without even looking at her, Hassan could have guessed that she continued to look after the leaving guard.

"Wyverns on the walls," Archer noticed this instantly, and then said quietly, "Every two hundred meters. The guards are trying to not get close to them, they are afraid."

Mozart only nodded at this, after which he slightly spurred the horse, forcing the horse to move forward.

The streets of the city were deserted, but not because there was no one left in the city - Hassan himself occasionally saw the faces of people in the openings of doors and windows looking at the daredevils who ventured to enter the city of the Witch.

An instantly a fine detail caught Hassan's attention - turning, he managed to notice how Mozart grimaced.

"Any problems?" Archer looked at Caster, noting the same as Hassan, but Amadeus only waved off.

"A terrible symphony," the man shook his head, after which, without looking at the Servant, he sighed, "I hear them. Sweeping steps in the rooms, restless sighs, muffled conversations. A Symphony of despair."

"Do you hear them?" Archer bowed his head. "From who exactly?"

"All of them," Caster answered simply. "The whole city."

For a second, Archer fell silent, "And you haven't said this before, why?"

"This will not distract me from the mission," Mozart just nodded, not turning. "This is just a condition that I learned to live with."

For a few seconds, Archer continued to look at Caster, after which, realizing that now he could not do anything with Mozart, he only sighed, "Let's hope you hear the ambush then."

Amadeus did not say anything, only continuing to control the horse.

The Servants went through the streets silently, observing only the rare travelers wandering somewhere, slowly walking down the pavement. Despite the fact that the buildings around were not destroyed, in many places the windows were completely boarded up, making it impossible to look into them, which made the city seem completely empty and abandoned. However, this was for the best - having made his way to the indicated Chevalier church, Mozart stopped his cart, and then rose from his seat. The other Servants followed him, including Hassan, who jumped first, instantly hiding in the building's shadows. It was not required for him now - but old habits die hard.

Fortunately or not, the Chevalier's kept his promise - the church was really empty, and d'Eon himself, already feeling the Servants approaching, was sitting on one of the benches, examining his sword. Nodding to himself, Assassin left the church, after which he stood next to Archer.

In order not to appear before d'Eon, who could detect the Servant - Hassan slapped Archer twice on the shoulder, giving him the sign that the agreement with Chevalier was valid without leaving his concealment,. Archer just nodded at it - "Well, let's move forward."

Mozart and Marie Antoinette also nodded in response, moving forward. Hassan, having waited a few seconds before Archer went inside, entered after him.

"So you still decided to trust my offer," Chevalier nodded to the Servants who appeared, and then sighed, "If my Milady trusted me as much as you..."

None of the Servants reacted to this, so Chevalier himself was forced to only nod to himself, "Yeah, right..."

"In any case," finally rising from the bench, Chevalier walked around it and looked at the Servants who arrived, but his face instantly changed, as soon as he saw the two that were ahead, "My Queen and... Mozart, is it you?"

"Glad to see you again, Chevalier d'Eon!" - without giving Chevalier a chance to speak, Marie jumped forward and hugged her old friend and knight, - "How glad I am to meet you again!"

"My Queen!" - dumbfounded for a second from such a sincere manifestation of emotions, Chevalier nevertheless pulled himself together and hugged the girl in response, - "I never thought that we are destined to meet again. As I see it, you are still fighting for the good of France."

"As are you, my Chevalier!" - the girl smiled, after which, for one last time, squeezed the man in her arms, took a step back, continuing to sparkle with her smile, - "Oh, we need to discuss so much! You have no idea how many more dresses and clothes I have to dress you up in - and shoes! And jewelry - how much more awaits you!"

"Yes, my Queen, of course..." Hassan was able to see that Chevalier, after the wardrobe was mentioned , felt a little awkward. Most likely, despite the joy of the meeting, the prospect of being a mannequin in the service of the French crown still did not suit him, - "But first, a duty. I'm afraid we will not be able to return to this... Noble deed yet."

"Of course, Chevalier," the girl smiled, "But we will definitely do it again!"

"Yeah, I look forward to it." This time his smile came out a little taut.

"At least I'm not the only one who will suffer from it now," Mozart said quietly, after which he extended a hand to Chevalier who shook it, "I am glad to see you in good health, Chevalier."

"Likewise, Amadeus," Chevalier finally shook the man's hand, after which he looked at Archer, who removed his hood, "And this..."

"And this is our friend," Marie-Antoinette smiled, "Get to know this wonderful gentleman, Chevalier!"

"Ah, of course," taking a step, Chevalier held out his hand to Archer, "Chevalier d'Eon."

"Nice to meet you," Archer answered with a handshake, "I saw you in battle."

"Oh, I saw you too," the guy smiled at it, after which the handshake became a little stronger, "It will be nice to fight side by side with you."

"Thank you," answered Archer without a single note of gratitude in his voice, after which he stepped back.

Hassan, who remained invisible, naturally, was ignored by Chevalier.

"So it's three..." Chevalier nodded several times. "In that case, it will be easy to guide you through the corridors without being caught by a guard. Good."

After these words Chevalier headed to the standing pulpit, after moving around it he touched something inside the pulpit, forcing it to slowly move to the side. There was a hole under the stone pedestal.

"Ta-dah!" - the guy smiled, after which he took a step back, continuing to look at the opened hole as if he was proud of it, - "The secret passage from the castle to the church is an ageless classic!"

"Thank you, Chevalier," Marie Antoinette smiled at him, after which Hassan, slipping past Chevalier, instantly ended up below. What awaited him was a long and rather narrow corridor, practically unlit - however, oiled torches were still stored in several stands, so this should not be a problem. Looking around with a quick glance, the man did not find anything suspicious and in one powerful leap appeared again on the surface, after which, rounding the speaking Chevalier and Mozart, as well as Marie Antoinette buzzing around them, he again signaled to Archer. To this Archer only nodded imperceptibly.

"We have to go," Archer said finally, after which Mozart and Chevalier nodded at each other.

"Okay, I'll go ahead," Chevalier nodded. "The tunnels are quite branched. It would be foolish to get lost a step away from the target in the current situation."

Hassan, realizing his mission, again jumped into the hole with the goal of being ahead of Chevalier and preventing him from leaving all the Servants behind.

Instantly after Assassin, the others also went down inside, after which Chevalier reached for one of the torches and, sharply striking them on the wall, achieved a spark that set fire to the torch.

"Welcome," he smiled and moved forward. Hassan moved ahead of Saber, trying to control his steps to determine at what point he decides to turn. Fortunately, Chevalier himself continued to move along the catacombs exclusively forward, without turning at all.

After a dozen minutes on the move, when steps appeared in front of Hassan, Archer said, "I feel a Servant."

"Yes, one," Chevalier said calmly, "an Archer, very dangerous in a long-range battle, but at close range it is much weaker. The main thing is not to let her shoot - in this case, victory over her will be simple."

"You don't give us the names," Archer remarked calmly.

"As you are," Chevalier turned for a second, smiling at the man, and then continued to move forward.

Hassan had to climb the stairs before he finally saw what was ahead. A large, massive locked door studded with iron.

This time, Hassan did not have the opportunity to be ahead of Chevalier, so he was forced, using his inhuman dexterity and strength to jump ,in one leap, onto the nearby torch stand. Fortunately, it was nailed to the wall and withstood his weight without the slightest creak.

"Hm," Chevalier said at that moment, after which he took a step toward the door.

"Is something wrong?" - Archer asked, to which Chevalier shook his head.

"No, but I did not close the door behind me," Chevalier said this, after which he went to the door and pulled it. Fortunately, it was not locked, - "How strange…"

At that moment, Hassan felt a moment of unease.

This time he did not have the opportunity to be ahead of Chevalier, so having waited until the rest of the Servants entered, he made his way last,then bypassed Chevalier again.

"Prison cells," said d'Eon, after which he moved forward between the rows of standing cells. They were all empty but the sour stink of moldy straw and spoiled food instantly struck the Servants' nose.

"Disgusting!" - Marie Antoinette was indignant, - "What a terrible smell!"

"I'm sorry, my Queen," Chevalier bowed. "Plese, bear with it a little bit - It's not for long."

"One can only hope " Antoinette sighed, after which she glanced at Chevalier, who had just nodded to that and moved forward. However, this time the walk was short-lived.

Suddenly, Chevalier froze in the middle of the corridor after only a few steps, because of which Marie Antoinette almost stumbled into his back.

"What happened?" - Marie Antoinette looked anxiously at Chevalier, whose face was concentrated for a few seconds before he cursed.

"Damn it!" - Rider wanted to scold Saber for his words, but he managed to speak out earlier, - "The Witch is already on the way to the city. I thought that she would arrive in two hours!"

Archer only frowned at Chevalier at that. "What does that mean?"

"That means you have to get out of here yourself," Chevalier grimaced. "The Servants of Milady have no excuse to not welcome her appearance."

Archer only frowned at this, and Hassan completely agreed with him. It looked more and more like a trap.

"There is a turn to the right, to the end of the corridor and then to the left," Chevalier grimaced. "He's in the third cage. You won't be immediately felt by the other Servants in the casemates, but you should not try your luck - you need to take him out of here so that he does not die by chance during the battle - after which, I think, the Witch will attack you."

"Yes," Archer only nodded, after which Chevalier put the unnecessary torch into the holder standing nearby and quickly went off into the distance, turning left at the next turn.

Hassan, only having observed how Chevalier moved forward, waited for Archer to go forward and moved himself, holding himself a little ahead. Mozart and Marie Antoinette also followed him.

Almost immediately, they turned a corner to the right, after which they continued to move along a long corridor between the rows of cells.

"Mozart," Archer suddenly said in the middle of the corridor, to which Caster just nodded. "Good."

Hassan did not have time to think about what they had in mind when suddenly Archer struck. In his hands appeared his two faithful blades, seemingly cutting open the empty space behind him.

'Not empty,' Hassan instantly realized at the moment when the air at the site of the blow suddenly sprayed with drops of blood, after which the empty spot disappeared, rippling, turning into a human figure.

"You are the worst Assassin I've ever seen in my life, you know" Archer instantly issued a verdict when the silhouette finally took the form of a man in a cloak with a high standing collar.

"I apologize," the man took a step back and smiled, not paying attention to the long cut that was bleeding on his chest "I suppose the reason was that I was not used to hiding during my killings. Our long separation made you even more beautiful, my Queen. Admit it - did you like how I executed you last time?"

"Charles Henri Sanson," Marie Antoinette's face turned pale at the moment she realized who she was meeting at that moment, "King's executioner and executioner of Kings."

"And Queens," the man smiled, "Well, then, in that case, I suppose our little farce was uncovered."

Hassan knew his mission in this case, so he did not see the further development of events. A moment later, the Assassin rushed forward to the specified cell - and contrary to possible expectations, he indeed found a person in the specified cell. Of course, the cage was locked, but the iron bars were not an obstacle for the Servant, so Hassan's hands touched the door.

A sound-piercing arrow pierced Assassin's lung. To his credit, it was worth saying that avoiding this attack was impossible due to the fact that immediately a dozen arrows pierced the wall behind him. Hassan, attacked in this way, instantly lost his stealth, manifesting itself in reality to the delight of his opponent.

"I admit, I felt stupid shooting an empty corridor," the girl's voice sounded even somewhat cheerful, "However, I am grateful to d'Eon for being able to notice you — otherwise it would be an unpleasant surprise for us all."

"Archer," Hassan said this at the moment when his gaze was still able to identify the attacker.

The girl at the end of the corridor was beautiful - even if her beauty was somewhat unpolished. She was wearing a dress - a sure sign a Servant - and her hair descending to the lower back could not be defined as having some specific color, since part of them was turquoise, part white, and part pinkish - and held in her hands a huge bow larger than herself. However, the most outstanding detail of the girl was also located on her head - but it was not her hair at all.

"Assassin," the girl smiled back, after which she instantly charged several arrows.

* * *

Mozart's music instantly took shape in reality, turning into an attack spell. Sanson managed to dodge this attack at the last second - but he paid for it with another deep cut made by Archer.

"Assassin got into battle," Mozart said this instantly when he heard the moment when a girl tens of meters from him pulled a bowstring "The prisoner is also there."

"Damn it," Archer bounced off for a second, letting Sanson take a step forward - receiving a blow from the completely unchildish strong hand of Marie Antoinette, "We have to get the prisoner."

"So it was a trap after all," Mozart said it calmly, "Mari - take the prisoner."

"Amade..." the girl tried to be indignant, but was instantly interrupted.

"We don't have time for bickering," Mozart said as calmly as he could in the current conditions, using one spell after another, but firmly enough to prevent the girl from protesting, "The prisoner is more important."

Marie Antoinette only nodded, and then rushed away.

"My Queen!" - Sanson rushed after her, but was immediately thrown away by Archer.

"Don't worry about her. Worry about us," the man said, delivering the next blow.

* * *

Marie rushed forward, ignoring the last attack of her executioner.

The mission turned into chaos in seconds. Indeed - because they brought Hassan, who was in hiding, with them, why couldn't their opponents do the same?

Marie nearly crashed into a wall in a bend to look at a long corridor full of old metal crates. Somewhere nearby the sounds of battle were heard - from two sources. Apparently, Hassan still managed to take the archer somewhere in the next passage - however, Marie could not take the risk and linger even for a second. Now she had to save the captive - after which she would return to the fighters and help them to defeat Charles.

Thin girlish hands grabbed the steel gate, and then with an unbearable sound to the ears tore it off the hinges, throwing it to the side, making the iron rumble on the stone floor - however, the man inside barely reacted to this by moving his head slightly.

Jumping inside, the girl was dumbfounded for a second - what lay in front of her could hardly be called a man. It was just a slaughtered, blood-soaked piece of meat, still barely preserving its human shape - and yet alive. His wheezing whistle of breath still rang out in the room - however, it would have been a miracle if he could ever get back on his feet.

But such little things did not interest the girl - she still had to save him - after which they could cure him in the camp. Sure they can. She was sure of it.

The girl grabbed the man in her arms - a surreal picture in which a girl, just over sixteen, could pick up a huge, muscle-bound man in her arms, after which she threw him on her shoulder and turned to rush off.

Instantly the narrow point of ablade rested against the girl's throat.

"Chevalier..." Marie instantly recognized the traitor, even before she could see him. "You betrayed me."

"I serve France, my Queen," the guy said calmly. "Not you."

The next moment, the blade twitched again. Perhaps if Marie was not holding the captive in her hands, she could have bounced back — however, under the current conditions, at a similar distance, everything that happened was a foregone conclusion.

The girl managed to jerk to the side, but the narrow sword of Chevalier entered the flesh of her defenseless neck as if not encountering any obstacles in the form of the famed strength of the Servants, after which it jerked to the side, cutting half of the girl's neck and carotid artery, due to which blood poured from Marie's wound as an unstoppable flow.

"Damn..." she only managed to utter before the next blow knocked out her breath, forcing her to bend over the ground, gasping for air — however, she never dropped the unconscious man on her shoulders.

The next leg kick knocked the girl on her back, after which a small boot pressed the queen to the ground.

"I am sorry, my Queen," Chevalier bent over Marie Antoinette, and she managed to notice a shadow of regret flashing across his face, "I will finish it all with the next blow. I know that Sanson would have done a more beautiful job - and he really wanted it, he dreamed about your neck - but I'm afraid I cannot fulfill this desire."

After this, the Chevalier raised his sword again, in the manner of the executioner's sword, and Marie Antoinette clearly understood.

She can't be saved. Again.

For a second, the girl closed her eyes before she heard beautiful music. For a second, it seemed to her that she found herself in heaven and heard the voices of angels before the pain in her neck forced the girl to open her eyes in order to look at Chevalier.

"Ah, Mozart," he said without moving, "I must admit that I had already forgotten about you."

"Big mistake," came the cold voice of the girl's faithful friend, after which the blow literally swept Saber away, pressing him deep into a stone wall, which crackled plaintively under the force of the blow.

"Mari!" - the man leaned over the bloodied girl, whose consciousness began to faze from the bleeding, but she nevertheless waved her head and pointed to the prisoner lying nearby.

Mozart just smiled at it, and then pointed a finger at her. For a second, it seemed to the girl that she again heard angelic music - after which her consciousness cleared up and the pain in her neck subsided. Unfortunately, the girl understood that Mozart did not have the ability to cure in the full sense of the word, which meant that this effect was temporary.

The girl rose from her seat, after which she rushed to the prisoner and picked him up again.

"And you are still beautiful, my Queen," said Chevalier, who finally managed to cope with the restrictions imposed on him by Mozart. "Putting the good of the people above your own."

"I'm fighting for France, Chevalier," the girl shot him an angry look, to which Saber only grinned.

"Like all of us, my Queen," grabbing his sword, the man held a feint in his hands, checking his balance, "Like all of us."

Rider did not pay any more attention to this, rushing away - and Chevalier did not follow her. He ran into another foe.

"Amadeus, my old friend," the man smiled, pronouncing Caster's name, "I must confess that I don't remember that you possessed such strength in the past."

"Music gives me strength," Mozart looked at his acquaintance with a challenge.

"Oh yes, the magic of Orpheus," Chevalier shook his head a little to the side, "I forgot... After all, you studied it during your life... It seems because of it you even abandoned your real goal, right?"

To this, Caster only frowned even more, after which he answered with a spell.

* * *

"You are weak for a Servant, aren't you," Sanson dodged the next blow, after which he counterattacked. The weapon in his hands did not suit an Assassin, in any way - but suited best for the executioner. The terrible cleaver in his hands could not even be called a sword in the full sense of the word - it was only a huge blade, held on a short handle. a Guillotine blade.

"But I'm not wounded yet," Archer said calmly, after which he continued to attack further, striking blow after blow. Sanson managed to get away from them - but only for now - "Or do you think that an Assassin with the presence concealment of your level is the one to talk about the weakness of the Servants?"

"Oh, are you talking about my little misfortune?" - Sanson only smiled at this, after which the monstrous weapon in his hands flashed, striking a blow at Archer, which moved his two faithful blades to the path of attack. The brute force of the weapon cracked the floor under the man's legs, but the blow did not touch the body, - "In that case... How did you get the idea that I had not completed my task?"

For a second of Archer's consciousness, soft, beautiful music touched him, after which his feelings screamed. Archer only had to turn around, after which his pupil dilated, "Oh fuck..."

The next blow knocked Archer out.

* * *

"I admit, you have become stronger," Chevalier praised his opponent. The tabard with three lilies on his chest was destroyed by the very first spell, due to which nothing now covered either his tattered shirt or the body hiding under it, so it was now possible to determine with certainty whether Chevalier was a man or a woman. However, such details did not interest Mozart at the moment - "I am sure that if we had fought at the moment of our life, you would not have survived even ten seconds."

Mozart looked many times worse than Chevalier. His clothes were torn and cut, and his body was covered with numerous bruises, some completely superficial, like scratches - and somewhere they continued to bleed mercilessly - but he only smiled, - "I thank you for the compliment - and for the fact that we only encountered in battle now."

"Of course," Chevalier smiled. "Otherwise, the battle would have ended too simply."

Mozart barely managed to make out the next movement of the enemy. A magical shield that appeared for a second delayed the blow of Chevalier, however, the sword was still able to break through the hastily created spell, slashing the man on the shoulder, causing a few drops of blood to fall to the ground.

"Tell me, Chevalier," Mozart created another spell, after which he jumped back at the same time as a burst of music rumbled like the clang of plates and Chevalier's position exploded in fire, "The Witch didn't come to this castle, did she?"

"It doesn't matter what I'll say if you have already learned not to trust my word, does it?" Chevalier smiled, appearing almost unscathed from the fiery flare - only his hair fell off at the edges. "Moreover, even if she was not here, she will definitely arrive soon after noticing your attack. Ten or fifteen minutes, I think."

"Bad," Caster said simply, after which he attacked again.

"Hope to run away now?" - Saber evaded the next spell, which took the form of several stakes rushing forward, and then closed the distance between him and the mage, flashing a blade in his hands.

"Yes," Caster did not deny the obvious, dodging the blow that this time passed right next to his head, cutting off a lock of hair.

"Then you need to hurry," Chevalier nodded a couple of times, after which he dodged the next spell with a pirouette.

"I understand," Mozart nodded, after which he froze for a second. Chevalier, waiting for the new trick, stopped, after which, realizing what was happening, he rushed forward - but it was already too late - "**Requiem For Death**!"

For a second, it seemed as if the whole world became deaf and all the sounds were gone. Chevalier managed to take another step and bring the sword for a decisive blow in an absolutely quiet world before falling to the ground.

Something alien and unnatural sounded in his ears. Sounds that cut reality itself were disgusting to all of his nature and at the same time as beautiful as the feeling of flying for a suicider, observing the approach of the earth, may be. Something seemed to break his mind into a thousand pieces of broken glass, and then let them through his veins, forcing his mind to give rise to impossible thoughts and unknowable forms that destroyed his whole idea of the existing.

It seemed as if his consciousness was in this agony forever, from the creation of the universe to its very end, but at some point the unnatural music ceased to sound in his ears and Chevalier was able to open his mind, wiping his mouth from the things that his body vomited out at the sound of violence against reality.

Mozart was nowhere to be seen.

* * *

Marie Antoinette continued to run through the castle, not paying any attention to the panicking servants and the guards trying to pounce on her, feeling her strength gradually leave. Mozart's spell has already weakened, because of which the girl felt herself weaken with every step. She could barely make out the road, crashing into the walls - often with the goal of making the shortest and most direct way out.

"Just not now..." - the girl continued to run forward, feeling her legs becoming heave with every meter - "Not now... Not now..."

Marie Antoinette felt that she was close to the exit, but it seemed as if her body had stopped listening to her completely and every step now were an incredible burden for the girl - "Almost... Almost..."

The girl crashed once more into agroup of guards, but instantly her gaze was nevertheless rewarded with the view of the street that had opened before her, sparkling behind the door, "I made it! I made it!"

Just a dozen adult men tried to hold her back - and under normal conditions, the girl could have thrown them away with one move of her hand, but now, when she even had difficulty blinking, the iron armor and steel grip became an insurmountable obstacle for her - "Almost... So close..."

The girl tried to jerk, forcing several guards to recoil from unprecedented strength, but she could not rise again - "So close..."

"Get away!" - One spell was enough for tens of people to immediately recoil from Marie Antoinette in horror - "Run away!"

After that, Rider felt her body being lifted into the arms of the man and pressed to his chest.

"Archer, take the prisoner!" - came a familiar voice from the man.

"Amadeus…" - the girl smiled through the upcoming dream, - "You're still here…"

"Shut up," came the man's voice. Overwhelmed and nervous, the girl nevertheless distinguished anxiety and care in it, - "Be quiet... Now they're getting you…"

"It's alright," the girl smiled. "It's not scary to die for France..."

To this, Caster did not answer. The girl only heard his intermittent breathing and felt a sway from the man's run. Somewhere around her the wyverns were wailing and howling all over the city, soldiers fled - and ordinary people too.

Suddenly, she heard a sharp wheeze, after which Caster, who had run before, froze in a half-step. The girl felt a few drops fall on her face.

"Amadeus?" - the girl was still able to open her eyes for a second, looking at Mozart's face. He looked terrible - there was still a deep wound on his cheek that continued to bleed, and his hair randomly lay on his head, clinging with sweat and blood - but the man only smiled at the girl.

"Everything is alright," the man put the girl almost calmly onto a drawer next to him, and then turned around. "Wait a second, I will be here in a second."

The girl was only able to see how the man turned away from her, noticing the plumage of a long arrow that entered Caster's back, after which a drop of blood slid down her forehead.

"Amadeus..." the girl held out her hand, however, the man had already disappeared from her field of vision, "Good... Luck..."

Then she closed her eyes.

* * *

Ainz expected the need for emergency teleportation, but at the moment he appeared next to Archer, he realized that he did not think about the level of urgency.

At the moment when he reappeared in reality, a half-ruined city appeared before his eyes, not reminiscent of the deserted Vichy it was an hour ago, with broken roofs and houses torn apart stone by stone. On the streets lay corpses of wyverns and people who had been tormented by creatures that had torn off their leash, fires blazed everywhere and battles rages on, where it was not clear who was fighting and with whom. Ainz had never seen riots in his life, but listening to the stories from Punnito Mine, he imagined something completely different. What he saw now did not look like a revolution - it was like a gigantic fight between gangs, enough of which he had seen in his life.

Archer looked bad - his clothes and cloak were torn and numerous wounds covered his body - however, it was still incomparably better than the prisoner's condition, which looked like a bleeding piece of meat.

"Where are the others?" - Instantly asked the magician, to which Archer just waved his hand to the side and fell to his knees, trying to catch his breath.

Ainz did not like the current situation, but he still waited a few seconds before repeating the question, "Where is everyone?"

"There," Archer sighed again, "The battle with them dragged on. They should be here in a minute and also…"

"The Witch is on the dragon," Ainz finished Archer's sentence, glancing up at the sky, where the Servants were felt.

The Witch was practically invisible from such a distance, but Ainz could easily make out the dragon itself.

The monster was huge. So huge that Ainz could not even correctly estimate its size - it looked more like a huge transport plane than a dragon - it was not less than a hundred meters. Hundreds of meters of muscles and hide, covered with black scales of armor and huge horns, growing along the whole body of the creature. On the chest of the huge black dragon was a drawing resembling a huge white cross, glowing with pure white light, like a star.

"Judging by the look, he is not lower than the eightieth level..." - Ainz noticed this offhandedly, and then blinked - "But it can be stronger. The battle with him is impossible for now."

At that very moment, he saw Mozart fly out of one of the nearby buildings. He looked even more miserable than Archer - his body was pierced by arrows in several places - and he flew out not with his magic, but breaking through a wall, because of which, flying a dozen meters, he hit the pavement and remained in place.

"You are not so strong, Caster," the newly appeared girl, holding a bow in her hands, immediately attracted Ainz's attention — but only because in her hair he could see two big cat ears, "Although your Phantasm... It's still ringing in my ears... But Chevalier called you the most dangerous of all. Apparently, the bastard do make mistakes sometimes."

"_Napalm_," Ainz used the spell, that was already proven as useful, after which the girl, caught in fire, made a cry and instantly bounced back.

"Mozart!" - Ainz managed to move to the mage before he rose from the ground and waved.

"I'm fine," the numerous wounds continued to bleed, but the man just brushed a lock of hair from his forehead and looked at Ainz, "Where is Mari?!"

"I don't know," Ainz answered honestly, after which he looked at the sky, where the dragon turned from a small silhouette into a huge monster, already approaching a rising wyverns cloud above the city, "We need to leave."

"Where is Mari?!" - Mozart bursted with emotions, after which he looked at Archer. He, as if suppressing an urge to vomit, rose from his seat.

"Hassan should have taken her," Archer said this instantly, after which he glanced at the dragon. "There is no time, we should leave!"

"Hell, Mari!" - Mozart turned to the side to see the familiar silhouette.

"I have a low Presence Concealment, but it was enough as you can see," Sanson, who appeared on the roof of a neighboring building, smiled, "**La Mort Espoir**!"

The power of the Noble Phantasm of the executioner was not directed at Caster or Archer. No, the Assassin was waiting for his moment. His goal was the Master - Ainz himself.

It was as if darkness and evil itself were gathering together around the figure of the magician, forcing him to become the executed man watching the lowering blade of the guillotine - after which a blade arose over him. It was a blade sharpened to the highest point of sharpness, not designed for battle or murder. Only for execution.

In an instant, the blade of the guillotine fell, making a final verdict - after which the cold metal touched the necromancer's neck.

And scattered with many iron snowflakes.

At the moment when the blade touched the body of the magician - as if something had gone wrong. A second of confrontation turned into the sound of rattles and crackling - after which the steel in contact with the flesh crumbled powerlessly.

"Impossible..." Sanson paused for a second, watching what had happened, before Ainz reacted to it.

"Napalm," he used a spell, forcing Assassin to immediately retreat, enveloped in fire, "Hmm, I wonder what was his ability?"

"This is La Mort, the embodiment of the guillotine of the French Revolution," Caster answered him, lifting himself a little from his seat, "A tool that punishes convicts and criminals, an instrument for eradicating evil."

"Oh" - Ainz suddenly realized that he had walked on thin ice - 'That is, this is an ability that acts against the owners of negative karma ?! It's strange, why didn't it affect me then? I have the lowest karma possible for a player...'

Ainz was right, as Mozart also. Unfortunately, none of them possessed the complete information necessary for a correct understanding of what happened.

However, such things were of little interest to both at the moment, so the magician only looked away to look at the streets of the city.

"Damn him!" - Archer's vision allowed him to look at the approaching figure first, - "That is Hassan!"

Hassan was not far behind in the number of injuries from both Servants - his cloak was lost and the bandages from his hand were removed, which meant that he was at least ready to use his Phantasm - however, instead, Assassin's huge Cursed Hand held something.

"Mari!" - Mozart instantly recognized the figure in the hands of Assassin, but his joy was short-lived.

"God, you are persistent!" - Chevalier's voice was full of almost mocking joy, - "Great, great! It is the saviors of France that we need!"

Chevalier ran along the roofs of the houses, periodically making jumps that were impossible to a human, trying to catch up with Hassan. In other cases, this would be almost impossible, but Hassan was seriously injured and carried Marie Antoinette in his hands, because of which his speed of movement was drastically reduced, so that Saber gradually caught up with him. Hassan understood this himself, because of which he chose the solution to the problem. If he got rid of Marie Antoinette now, then he could have escaped from the blow, but he preferred another option.

Stopping for a second, Hassan determined the direction - after which he sent the girl on a flight with one movement of his hand. Hassan had a fairly significant throwing ability, which is why Mozart instantly caught the injured Rider, but this also meant that Hassan stopped.

"And here I am!" - Chevalier was on the road behind Hassan at the same second, breaking his shoulder with a sword. The Assassin swayed a little ,in pain, but tried to strike back.

"We should leave!" - Archer said this again at the moment when he saw how a huge dragon began to take air into his lungs for fiery breathing.

Ainz doubted for a second, but Chevalier cleared his doubts.

"Oh no, not so easy!" - he smiled, after which the blade in his hands lit up. Ainz remembered his Noble Phantasm, but he didn't use the same trick this time.

"**Fleur De Lis**," Chevalier smiled, "**Gorgeous Splendor of Blooming Lilies**!"

Instantly, the world froze, as if in order to admire the blossoming flower.

Instantly, Chevalier's body seemed to flare up with light that illuminates the world around him. The radiance spread in all directions and all the Servants froze. It seemed as if the radiance of an angel had opened to them - the endless beauty of Chevalier made them all forget about everything that happened to them - and what would happen.

All but Ainz, who was completely immune to all kinds of charm.

"Hassan!" - he managed to shout, but Assassin could not answer him. The dragon in the sky, stopping to gain air, exhaled at the moment when his cross on his chest lit up especially brightly. Ainz just sighed.

"Sorry, Hassan," the magician closed his eyes. "_Teleportation_."

At that moment, Ainz and the rest of the Servants left the stage. Hassan was left alone.

Chevalier interrupted the action of his Phantasm a second later, after which he jumped back. It only took a second for the Assassin to recover.

However, after a second, a stream of dragonfire struck the city, setting fire and destroying an entire block to the ground.

Assassin, Hassan of the Cursed Arm, died.

* * *

**Denial of Life** \- This skill is a skill that springs from and denotes the nature of the undead. As such,this skill is responsible for the entire existence of the undead as a single creature and for all abilities and features that it possesses based on its species, such as living using negative energy, a sense to detect life, perfect vision in the dark, protection from dark magic, curses and other abilities that makes the undead themselves as a being.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
Do I have anything else to say?  
Well... Yes!  
**

**For the unnamed guest who framed me for manipulating readers, creating disgusting filler chapters, writing the way he didn't like and other such deeds of unimaginable cruelty - I have only one thing to say.  
****...  
Lol. **

**Also, we are heading to the end of Orleans really fast - but not really, since here, at fanfiction, we have a LOT of chapters to go (about 7 or 8), which will probably mean... Quite some time. **

**BUT AT MY**** Pat reon \rure I have 3 new chapters right now! So it means that Orleans will end there soon - 3 or 4 chapters. Sure thing, one day all chapters will be on this site for free - but if you want THREE new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ right now at my Pat reon \rure.**


	30. Chapter 30

"Say it again - who are you?" - it seemed as if John was absolutely calm, but anyone could feel the barely restrained anger in his voice, which made the huge man in front of him shiver under the sheer pressure of John's voice.

"Henry, son of a blacksmith..." he repeated once more, so John, hearing the same response as the few times before could not restrain himself and hit the table next to him, making the table to creak plaintively.

"Devil!" - he said, continuing to beat on the oak boards, - "Devil! Devil! Devil!"

"John!"" - Gilles de Rais shouted at him, after which John, having brought his hand up for the next blow, stopped.

"Leave," he dismissed the big guy in front of him to jump out of the tent instantly, after which he became silent for a second.

"Chevalier deceived us all," Ainz sighed and looked at his hands.

"HELL YES! He created a trap in which we didn't gain anything - no, even worse- we lost one of your champions in it, one of the few champions capable of fighting the Witch!" - it seemed as if finally saying it out loud infuriated John more, - "He created a trap - and goddamn Hell - this one turned out to be successful!"

"John, please, calm down," Gilles said calmly, but instead of stopping, the man in front of him only froze, and then sighed.

"I'll go get some air," John took a few quick steps, and then left the commander's tent.

"Don't be angry with John," Gilles said, after which he sighed and reached for a glass of wine, "The attack of the Witch happened... Not as successfully as we had hoped."

"Yes, I know," Ainz sighed, "A thousand dead and as many wounded."

"Yes," Gilles sighed once more and took a generous sip of wine. "We did not plan that other Servants would participate in the attack."

"I know " Ainz sighed. After the failed rescue attempt, he would not move directly to the camp - he was afraid of a chase from the Witch, and especially from her dragon. So he teleported randomly several times, after which he hid, then watched the city with his magic. Unfortunately, his observation of the city did not bring him any special information, except for the fact that, having been brutalized by the operation that had already been considered unsuccessful by the Witch and the unrest that had begun, she just ordered her dragon, due to which it, without any distinction between who were allies and who were enemies, simply burned the whole city, along with all the guards, wyverns and civilians. At the same time, due to observing the city and fearing the possibility of a chase, Ainz was unable to protect the French army camp at the moment its attack by the Witch's Servants, because of that the battle took place without him - all that he knew was exclusively from the words of Cu Chulainn, Medusa and Serenity. They told him a very sad - but probably logical story.

The Witch really was pissed off by the failure of her ambush, as Chevalier had said - however, the attack on the French army did not happen with the goal of destruction - but of intimidation. In addition to the army itself, many undead and wyverns, two Servants also took part in the attack - and in addition to the already familiar, to him, Carmilla a certain mage entered the battle too. They did not pursue the destruction of the Servants remaining in the camp — all they wanted was to bring the Witch's wrath to the soldiers. And they did it.

The original plan was that when any enemy would try to attack the army, Jeanne would appear with the other Servants and then shield the soldiers from the assault - however, as it turned out, even a few minutes of delay in responding to the attack would bring a large cost to the army.

While Carmilla did not possess the abilities capable of a large scale massacre - the second Servant, the mage,was more than capable.

"Caster was not identified?" - Ainz said, not expecting an answer, and Gilles shook his head, after which he poured himself a second glass of wine.

The mage was capable of some kind of summoning - and the monsters he summoned did a good job of emptying the camp. Jeanne arrived immediately at the moment when the Witch's punitive operation attacked the camp, but by the time she was able to strike, hundreds of people had already died. The Servants of the Witch, having achieved their desired result, did not even continue to attack, only exchanged blows several times with the Servants of Ainz - and the allies he have- and then fled, leaving their monsters to be torn to pieces by the French army and Servants.

On one hand, such a result could even be considered a success- the soldiers of France accepted their inevitable death, seeing the monsters, appearing from the dark, led by the chosen champions of the Witch, which meant that the intervention of Jeanne - the real Jeanne, the Saint - looked like a miracle to them. Salvation. This was enough to make them believe both in the authenticity of Jeanne and in the possibility of surviving this battle - however, not enough to achieve anything more.

After Vichy was burned down by the Witch and then the French army lost a thousand people in one attack - this meant only one thing.

"We can't wait for reinforcements anymore," Ainz nodded with clarity of the situation, to which Gilles, having drained the second glass, only nodded frowningly.

"In that case," Gilles, without ceremony, poured himself a third one, "What is our plan?"

Ainz slowly began to get used to the fact that for some reason all the people around him were asking for plans from him, so he thought.

"When will the Witch attack again?" - the mage looked at Gilles, to which he only shrugged.

"Who knows?" - he took a sip - "Maybe in ten minutes, maybe in ten days. If you want my opinion - the Witch will try to recuperate, calculate her losses and gains, after which she will gather a new army and then strike again. Approximately? Three to four days. At best, a week."

"In other words, we have virtually no time," Ainz nodded unhappily. If they could save Etienne, seed unrest in the camp of the Witch and inspire the soldiers to battle - they could afford to wait another week or two, but in the current situation, each subsequent attack by the Witch will only take more and more lives. In other words, they had to act.

"In that case," Ainz sighed. "Raise the army. We must storm Orleans."

"Yes," Gilles sighed at that, "But at best, it will take a day — an army of this size is extremely slow. It will take time to raise it and bring it to the Lair of the Witch."

"I know," Ainz nodded. At least he hoped so. "I know of another place where the Witch's Servants could be."

"Hmm?" - Gilles raised an eyebrow.

"Lyon," Ainz nodded to himself, "Lyon. We will infiltrate Lyon, after which we will return to the army with what we managed to find there -and then, attack the Witch."

"Hm, there it is," Gilles drained his glass, "The final battle that we have been waiting for."

"Yes," Ainz looked at the Gilles. "The time has come."

"Good," Gilles nodded. "Tomorrow we will have to organize the soldiers. I think that your Servants will be able to put the wounded back on their feet overnight, so tomorrow morning we will begin the offensive."

"Yes," Ainz sighed. "And I have one more thing left to do."

* * *

Marie Antoinette continued to look towards her tent. Reflexively she rubbed her neck, where not so long ago there was a mortal wound, after which she looked up to the ceiling.

"So Ainz is also a wonderful potion maker," the girl sighed, "Unlike me."

The girl turned to the side of the entrance when she heard the sounds of plate boots rattling on the ground, but instead of the guard expected there, she saw only Arthuria entering the tent.

"Ah, King Arthur," the girl tried to smile, but instead she was only able to create a faint grin, "Come on in, but I don't think I can entertain you with a conversation."

"I know," Arthuria took a step inside, after which, instead of sitting in a chair nearby, she took a few steps, and Marie Antoinette felt her bed creak under the weight of the girl, "But I came anyway."

"Perhaps, it was in vain," Marie Antoinette had no strength for the usual idle talk, so she only turned away from the knight and stared to the side.

There was silence for several seconds, during which thoughts continued to spin in Rider's mind.

"He knew what he was doing," a voice suddenly came from Arthuria, it was so unexpected that Marie twitched in response.

"What?" She asked, believing that she had incorrectly heard what was said, but Arthuria only nodded.

"Hassan," Saber explained. "He knew what he was doing."

For a few seconds, Marie Antoinette only silently blinked her eyes, and then abruptly turned away.

"I don't want to talk about it," the girl said, after which she stared at the wall again.

"But you should," Arthuria said calmly.

There was silence for a second before Saber heard a polite and calm, yet incredibly strained voice, - "I do not want to talk about it."

"Do you think that it is better to think about your deathwish alone?" - Arthuria said it calmly, after which she glanced at Marie Antoinette, who jerked as if from a whiplash.

"I don't want to discuss this with anyone," she said again, this time with pressure, not holding in her voice the politeness that had been before, "Neither with Mozart, nor with Ainz, much less with you."

"Who else then should you discuss this with?" - Arthuria tilted her head to the side, after which, without waiting for an answer, she continued, - "Hassan himself spoke about the need for this mission - and he was the one who spoke out about the possibility of sacrificing himself…"

"Enough!" - at this moment, Marie Antoinette's hand crashed into Arthuria, but it didn't even make her sway, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

Each word of the girl was accompanied by a blow, delivered to Saber, but instead of forcing her to retreat, the swordswoman only continued silently to endure the attacks.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" - Marie Antoinette continued to shout this despite the fact that Arthuria was already silent for a long time,- "JUST SHUT UP!"

After delivering the last blow, the girl felt her energy leaving her body and simply crawled onto her bed.

Arthuria continued to stare silently at the girl, who fell powerlessly onto her bed.

"You care too much about the loss of one person for someone who called herself aQueen," Arthuria mercilessly sealed, "A True King is obliged..."

"SHUT UP WITH YOUR TRUE KING!" - Marie Antoinette rose from her seat, looking at Arturia angrily, eyes to eyes, - "DO YOU EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A QUEEN?!"

For a second, Marie Antoinette broke off and went limp, - "So many people died because of me... So many people…"

Arthuria continued only to silently look at Rider, lost in thought.

"My husband, Louis..." The girl sighed. "He was executed before me. They executed him as well as me. He was not to blame for anything - he was kind, honest and open-minded, he indeed was. He did not even participate in any scandals - it was because of me. My decisions and my actions incurred the anger of the people on him... And he was executed."

"He was executed," Marie Antoinette grinned unhappily, "Then they executed me — and my son... I have no anger at those who executed me — but I cannot understand why did they die? Why did my son die?"

Arthuria only continued silently looking at the girl, who sighed and closed her eyes.

" Why are you silent?" - She grinned sadly. - "I know why he died. He died because he was my son - he also died because of me…"

"If it weren't for me, they would still be alive," Marie-Antoinette sighed, "Lots... Lots of people would still be alive. If not for the revolution that started because of me, they would all be alive. My actions, my attempts led to a revolution - and after me, after my husband and son, there were others. Danton, Robespierre, Lavoisier... Tell me, King of Britain - if there was an opportunity - would you not dare to return to the past? To prevent all the bloodshed?"

Arthuria was silent for a few seconds before she spoke, "No."

"What?" - For a second, Marie Antoinette doubted the girl's words.

"No," she repeated once more, "My goal, my desire is to allow Britain to live forever. Let her survive in the past and future, let her survive everything that was before and will be next. It's my goal."

"But the people?.."- as if confused, Marie Antoinette asked, - "Innocent people…"

"Let it be so," Arthuria snapped coldly. "So be it. If my country needs my head, so be it. If they need human blood - let it be. If I have to sacrifice everything I have - my knights and subjects - so be it. This is the way of the King."

For a few seconds, Marie Antoinette was silent.

"You're a monster," she said.

"I am the King of Britain," the knight answered calmly, "And the lowest of the servants of my country. My goal is the prosperity of Britain. And if necessary, I will sacrifice everything for this."

Rider could not understand what was said, just continuing to silently look at Saber.

"We are Servants," Arthuria said, glancing at Marie Antoinette, "Not Heroes and not Kings. We are Servants. We are just soldiers fighting for an ephemeral purpose outside of our time, outside of our legend and outside of our country. We fight and we die. Hassan was the one who proposed this plan - he was the first, who offered to sacrifice himself. He realized that he was less important- and therefore sacrificed himself. He did not die because of you - he had a choice. He could sacrifice himself or you. And he made the right decision - a decision that I would have made - or you - if you were in his place. He judged his strength and his need - and he made a decision. He sacrificed himself for you."

For a second, Arthuria fell silent, after which Marie Antoinette heard the sound of metal. Turning around, she was ready to be hit - but instead, she felt someone ruffled her hair.

The girl looked up to see how Arthuria, removing her plate glove, continued to stroke Rider's head.

"You are ready to sacrifice everything - even yourself - for what you think is right," Arthuria once again ran her hand through Marie's hair, and then put the glove back in place. "In that case, not allowing others to do the same will be too hypocritical."

After that, Saber suddenly fell silent for a second again and sighed, changing her face a little, - "Come on. Our mission is not over yet - apparently, the Master plans to leave in the night."

* * *

Mashu could even say that she liked the abilities of senpai - his ability to teleport allowed him to save a lot of time on moving, because of which all the time that had passed in the singularity fit in just one week. Although the sheer amount of what had happened to the girl, seemed as if more than one month had passed in the Singularity itself - it was definitely much more eventful than her previous life in Chaldea, exclusively filled by research rooms and medical rooms...

"We are in Lyon," senpai's voice sounded next to her and the girl turned to Ainz. Although, perhaps, it was wrong for her to call someone like Ainz, senpai - he was her Master and was clearly much stronger and wiser, which is why putting them together in a group was even somewhat offensive to Ainz. Of course, Ainz himself did not speak out about this - however, Mashu suspected that it was unpleasant for him to hear such form of address. On the other hand, he himself allowed her to call him that...

"Or what remains of it," Archer said calmly, forcing Mashu to be distracted from her thoughts and look at the territory surrounding her.

The city around her had little resemblance to a city - these were just ruins. Numerous destroyed buildings, no longer burning, only some were still smoldering, creating an oppressive atmosphere in the slowly approaching night,causing one only want to hide in a corner and fall asleep, covered with a blanket. No, Mashu was not afraid of the dark - however, the atmosphere of the ruined city is extremely depressing, as if the enemy was still waiting for them somewhere around the corner.

The girl shrugged and looked at Ainz.

"Archer," he immediately turned to the main information gatherer, "Can you see anything?"

"In such darkness, my vision is not very useful," Archer just shook his head t, "Perhaps I can see something if I come closer — or if there is at least a little light."

"Hm," Senpai thought about this, and then sighed. "I can use several spells, but their range will not be enough for your vision. Other ways... it's impossible for now."

"It's a pity," Archer stated, after which he sighed, "Then I can do nothing."

"This is bad," Ainz sighed. He possessed the passive ability of all undead, night vision, but without Archer's abilities, it was now useless,- "Then all that remains for us is to do is to wait. At dawn, try again - if, in that case too, you cannot find anyone - we will have to return to the army empty-handed."

"Good," Archer nodded, realizing his mission. "In that case now..."

"Now we're setting up a camp," Ainz sighed and looked at Mashu. She, realizing that she was the only one who still needed sleep, tried to brush it off.

"It's all right, we can continue the search," she tried to say, but Ainz himself only responded.

"Night searches are too dangerous," the magician sighed. "In addition, to carry out searches at night we would have to split up, which would make us a target for attack, while the Servants, although there is no need for sleep, could benefit from it .

"Maybe then it's worth returning to the camp?" - Mozart gave a sound idea, but Ainz just shook his head at it again.

"Our goal is to find the reason for what exactly in Lyon is giving a strong signature as soon as possible, and then retreat - in this case, we need to wait for the earliest possible time and return to the army. In this case, it would be best to be here at the moment when it just begins to get brighter, so that Archer could find our goal."

"Archer, hmm," Amadeus only looked at Archer, and then backed away, "Good."

Mashu looked for a second at the silent Marie Antoinette and Arthuria, but it did not look like they were about to say something, so the girl backed away, feeling as if she had said something stupid. Of course, she acted as if she were the only Servant for whose sake everything was done...

'What nonsense…' - Mashu shook her head - 'Why did I think that it was because of me…'

'Perhaps because you would like it to be true?' Came the voice of her subconscious, which sounded for some reason like the voice of Serenity in her mind, to which Mashu just shook her head.

"Mashu?" - Ainz suddenly turned to the girl, startling her - "Is something wrong?"

"No, no, it's all right!" She shook her head, after which she turned her gaze to the camp that appeared out of nowhere, "And this..."

"A spell," Ainz explained simply, then turned away from the girl.

'And yet…' - the voice of Serenity was heard in the girl's head, but she only waved it away and slowly moved to the bedroom intended for her.

* * *

Archer was the first to be chosen as a sentinel, who would later be replaced by Mozart, then Ainz - after which, at the first dawn hours, Archer would replace them again in order to determine whether his vision could help him in these conditions. So now Archer was supposed to be the first as nightwatch.

Archer once again walked around the camp, watching the already asleep Servants, after which he focused his eyes on Ainz's tent. He did not sleep, but also preferred to rest for the night. Archer could not have guessed why he had done this, but he suspected that Ainz would not answer him honestly anyway, so Archer ignored the wizard's actions and returned to his watch.

Without any problem, he jumped onto a nearby tree, then leaned against a trunk and looked at the church standing in the distance on the hill of the destroyed city.

He felt the Servant.

The signature was weak - as weak as that of Jeanne - but he clearly felt that the Servant was in the church. He felt it.

And did not say anything.

Archer did not want to talk about it. Should not have.

For a second, Archer's mind noticed something odd in his reasoning, after which Archer froze and strained a little, shook his head. Why shouldn't he do this? Why didn't he want to do this?

Archer closed his eyes, continuing to think. He did not tell Ainz about the Servant because ... Because...

Quiet music and a melodious voice touched Archer's mind again, cooling his seething consciousness. He did not say anything because... Because...

Gradually, the voice, touching only his mind, grew louder - instead of a quiet, barely legible singing, it was now slowly, gently whispering in his ear.

Oh yes, that's why he didn't tell Ainz about the Servant because...

The singing became louder and louder, because of which a quiet, barely perceptible whisper on the verge of consciousness slowly turned into a voice. A voice that spoke to him.

He should not have told Ainz about it because he should have...

The voice that spoke suddenly fell silent - after which a trembling passed through all the bones in his body at the moment when an order was heard in his head.

He should not have told Ainz about the Servant he had found because he had to kill Mozart.

Archer nodded to himself, after which he quietly jumped from a tree, preventing a single sheet from moving and suddenly froze.

Is he? Kill Mozart? Why?!

The voice in his head fell silent for a second, then twisted into a grin and echoed in his soul with an indescribable rattle. Archer clutched at his head, trying to calm his mind, after which, when the voice in his head again subsided - he sighed.

He must kill Mozart because he must do it. No other reason or justification is required for this. He just has to do it.

The quiet singing audible only to him continued to sound in Archer's head, which he slowly took one step forward - then the second - and the third. He moved silently - despite the fact that he was not an Assassin - for his long life as a killer and Conter-Guardian, he learned to fight discreetly, leaving no traces and never showing himself to the enemy.

Slowly he walked through the camp, hearing how a voice on the verge of his consciousness, turned into quiet music, whispered to him.

The first tent is Arthuria's. The second - in it is Marie Antoinette. The third is what he needs.

Archer took an inaudible step, followed by another and another. To admit, it would be difficult for him to make the other Servants stay out of the camp at night, but Ainz's offer greatly helped him in this regard.

'Stop!' Archer froze. 'Make him stay out of the camp at night?'

The voice in his head fell silent, after which his soft whisper turned into melodious singing again - and Archer, feeling that the incorrectness of his actions evaporated completely, moved forward.

He threw back one side of the tent's door, and then looked inside. Mozart slept on the bed in his usual clothes, breathing slowly. Archer nodded - good. It will be done quickly.

Archer slowly took a step, allowing his familiar swords to materialize in his hands without a single sound, after which he took another step towards Caster, which did not even budge when Archer approached. Good.

Archer took the last step, being next to the bed of the mage, after which his right hand slowly brought the blade to Mozart's throat. One hit - and it will be done.

Archer pressed the mage's throat with a blade, and then froze. But he did not freeze in doubt - a quiet voice swept away all his doubts. He froze because he could not move.

"It's very naive and presumptuous," Mozart didn't even open his eyes, while uttering this phrase, "I said that I hear everything. And the thundering of your boots, too."

After that, Caster's fist crashed into Archer's face, throwing him to the side - however, his paralysis did not completely disappear, due to which the body of the Servant flying off to the side froze in the same position in which it fell to the ground.

"And I also could hear your battle in Vichy," Mozart said it calmly, rising from his seat, "Like your loss."

The voice in Archer's head seemed to stop hiding - and exploded a howl of a thousand agonizing screams. Archer, unable to tolerate such a howl, twitched, but Mozart's spell held him securely.

"Oh, I heard how another one intervened in your battle," Mozart sighed and extended a hand to Archer's head. Archer instantly twitched, trying not to let Caster touch his forehead, but Mozart grabbed Archer with both hands, - "Another Assassin - and his disgusting singing."

The voice in Archer's head agonized, however, whatever Mozart tried to do, he certainly did successfully, which is why the pain in Archer's head gradually began to subside, and the squeal became quieter and quieter.

"That voice," Mozart grimaced. "Three notes missed — such a terrible singing."

Suddenly, after these words, Archer's mind froze, after which the obsession subsided. Damn it, then, in Vichy!

"Hush," Mozart stopped Archer for a second when he tried to move. "I know. A third man intervened in your battle and took you under his control. And he - and his fake singing - is still here."

Archer felt Mozart stepping back from him, after which the spell that bound him before disappeared. Amadeus chuckled.

"Fake singing, hmm..." came a voice - another voice. Archer could instantly recognize this voice - it was he who sounded in his head all this time - "That's a bold statement, human."

"I'm just a human, of course," Mozart took a step back and smiled, "But I am still Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Child of God. And all music obeys me."

The figure that appeared on the threshold of the tent was human, without a doubt. He was a beautiful young man - he was thin, handsome and even to some extent feminine. His feminine features, long hair, gathered in a single tail, and thin hands, along with thin-rimmed glasses on his face, made him graceful - and even to some extent divine. If not for the mask that hid half of his face.

Part of his face was hidden behind a disgusting mask - it seemed as if it was made of leather and iron and did not compliment Assassin's features, but instead emphasize its ugliness, imitating a mutilated skull.

"What can a person like you know about art?!" - his face that looked at Mozart was transformed into a grimace of contempt and anger, disfiguring his face.

"A lot," Mozart smiled. "For example, about you, Phantom of the Opera."

For a second, all the speakers froze, after which the Phantom broke into a smile.

"Ah, it means that I was still revealed - and my little prank with the puppet failed," he smiled. "Good. In that case, let it be so."

Archer, who finally came to his senses, felt his blades in his hands again, continuing to watch the Phantom that only smiled.

"Well, in that case," the Phantom spread his arms to the sides, as if announcing, and spoke, "**Christine, Christine**!"

The Phantom's words turned into form a second later, after which Mozart felt as if he was again in the middle of a stage - in the middle of the opera. However, this time he was not in the role of a musician,which is familiar to him - it seemed as though he was participating in the performance itself. And the role that was assigned to him was by no means the main character.

"Singing, haha?" - the speaker's voice was distorted, as if a ghost was speaking through a malfunctioning microphone, because of which the echoes of his words sounded throughout the camp, "So I will let you all enjoy my voice, **Surely My Love Song Shall Resound Even Through Hell**!"

It was not like Mozart's Noble Phantasm - his ability embodied Music That Can't Be Written. It was an insidious Phantasm, the power of which could not be underestimated - a terrifying choir of impossible voices and nonexistent sounds, violence against reality. In contrast, the ability of the Phantom of the Opera was not so alien in itself - although this did not mean that his Phantasm was in any way weaker. No, because the Noble Phantasm of the Phantom of the Opera embodies all the victims who died at the hands of the Phantom of the Opera - but, of course, not those that were created in the opera in the form of faceless characters. It was the embodiment of all the deceased singers and musicians - their unsung songs and unwritten melodies, sounds from the other world, from hell itself - carrying the horror and chaos of an unfinished play of life.

Anyone who heard this song would die - bursting into the consciousness of unfortunate victims, this music destroyed the very part of life, penetrating into the mind of the target, destroying their soul and body. Servants throughout the camp, hearing this music, had to instantly fall in agony, feeling the blood flow from all the pores of their body, bringing them suffering.

However, the Phantom, instead of lowering his face to see the affected Servants, suddenly felt a prick of pain. Looking down, he could only find a blade stuck between his ribs, and Archer, holding the blade.

"Ha?" He unexpectedly blinked, after which he stared at Mozart with an incomprehensible look, which only smiled at him.

"I'm just a simple musician," he smiled, "But still I am God's Child. Music - even the one like yours - obeys me. All I had to do was drown it out to prevent anyone from hearing these sounds. No more and no less."

"Ha?" The ghost looked at him blankly, after which he took a step back, allowing the two blades that remained in Archer's hands to slip out of his body, "Oh, in that case..."

"_Hold Species_," Ainz's spell bound the Assassin instantly, causing him to freeze, "Good."

Ainz's spell possessed catastrophic power - it was able to interrupt the movement of all muscles in the body of a Servant - including the respiratory ones. Prior to this, using aspell to bound the Servants, Ainz did not take this opportunity. Now? Perhaps the time has come for that.

The Phantom of the Opera froze - and suddenly realized that he was suffocating.

The nature of a Servant is amazing - the weapons of modern times were not able to inflict any damage, neither a blade, a firearm, nor even a strategic weapon. However, at the same time, such natural and ordinary things as strangulation or falling from a height were still dangerous for them. And therefore, now the Phantom of the Opera froze, feeling, that now he was choking.

Ainz took a step toward the Assassin, carefully examining the him.

Phantom of the Opera, hmm... It seems he heard about this one before - hmm, didn't Touch Me talked about him when he could get into some elite theater - or something like that?

The Phantom froze. How is this even possible? Together with Chevalier, they organized such a wonderful ambush - to use Sanson as a false Assassin, after which, when he is left alone - to strike and gain control over the mind of a Servant. Then - it was all so simple then... All of them could be cut one at a time, but Chevalier insisted that the captured puppet destroyed Mozart first - and the damned Mozart discovered his actions...

'Damn Chevalier!' - The Phantom of the Opera cursed to himself - 'He set me up!'

Ainz sighed and then put his hand forward, preparing to destroy the enemy Servant.

'Damn Chevalier! Damn Chevalier!' - the Phantom continued to think to himself. He was suffocating - and his death was as if inevitable. But not now.

The Phantom froze.

But not now.

The Phantom of the Opera was disgusting - his body and face were terrible, disfigured, disgusting and unnatural. This is how his image entered human consciousness - because part of his face was hidden behind an ugly mask - because, having exposed only a part of his ugliness to the public, he could hide his much more ugly features from the eyes of the onlookers.

But now he needed this ugliness.

Suddenly Ainz froze when something in the form of the Phantom subtly changed. It was as if some small but significant detail had caught his attention - while he knew that the victim of the spell was supposed to die from strangulation - something seemed to have triggered the instinct of the old veteran in him - and the mage rushed back.

"Get back!" He shouted, forcing Mozart and Archer to jump away from the already considered dead enemy, so the other Servants, that only now arrived, froze.

"Ah, you are not bad," the Phantom's voice suddenly sounded, but instead of the usual melodic, even feminine voice, it was a low, vibrating voice at the very limit of audibility "Very good."

The Phantom of the Opera was still paralyzed, so his face did not move - however, a voice still came from him, which caused Ainz to freeze. The light swaying of clothes on the body of the Assassin attracted his attention - and the rich experience in the destruction of the most disgusting and unnatural forms of life, coupled with the instinct of an old player, made him stop speculating.

"_Magic arrow_!" - he used the weakest spell available to him, which made the Phantom to sway when a clot of pure magic crashed into his body - however, the Assassin only continued to stand. Ainz achieved his goal - causing the cloth on Assassin's chest to burst, allowing Ainz to see the unnatural.

"Good," the huge, unnatural mouth on Assassin's chest blurred into a smile, "Good."

"Damn it!" - Ainz knew what such transformations usually meant. They meant the second phase of the battle with the Boss - so the magician instantly canceled his spell, after which he prepared for battle. The binding magic in this case was useless - no, even worse, it allowed the Servants to prepare a new attack.

However, the Assassin only swayed at the moment when the magician's binding ceased to act on him, after which he turned to him, "Thank you."

After that, the Assassin moved- but not forward, as one might expect - but somewhere to the side. For a second, Ainz was surprised - before he realized. The ghost was rushing toward Archer.

Archer managed to react to the Assassin's movement - he moved both his blades to take the blow - however, the second hand of the Phantom of the Opera darted to his face. For a second, something else distorted the Phantom's appearance - after which, instead of a thin, almost female hand, a clawed palm crashed into Archer's chest, turning into five blades where the fingers should have been.

"_Napalm_," Ainz reacted instantly, after which Assassin was caught on fire, but it didn't affect him much. Jumping back, he retreated to the far corner of the tent, after which, not paying any attention to the next spell, he threw himself through a cloth dissected by sharp claws. Archer, staggering, fell to the ground, coughing up blood.

"Don't chase him!" - Ainz gave the order to Marie Antoinette, who was already preparing for the chase,- "He is luring us into a trap."

"Archer," he turned to the Servant, after which he took a step towards him. Archer just waved his hand, spitting the accumulated blood in his mouth.

"I'm fine," Archer completely ignored the blood running from deep wounds and closed his eyes, "There, on the hill, in the church... Another Servant."

After that, Archer tried to breathe, but could only cough up blood yet again.

"Archer," Ainz just sighed at it, after which a bottle of red liquid, familiar to those present, appeared in his hand, "Drink it..."

"Regeneration will cope with this," Archer tried to brush aside what was offered to him, after which he opened his eyes, looking at the mage, "I don't need your medicine."

"Maybe," Ainz agreed, "But I still will offer them - and insist on it."

Archer fell silent, after which a sharp cough caused him to spit out bloody foam.

"Don't try to play friendly with me," Archer spat out viscous blood and again looked at the necromancer, "Necromancer."

"Sure thing," Ainz sighed, and then carried the bottles of blood-red liquid away from Archer. Archer sighed a little calmer, after which a few drops sharply hit him.

"What?!" He opened his eyes indignantly, seeing Ainz shaking the bottle, the contents of which he threw out onto the Servant. Archer was indignant for a second, but the magician only sighed.

"Still, they act like that," he said, after which he looked at Archer. Archer nevertheless looked at Ainz, but after a few pats on his body he discovered that even though the blood and torn clothes did not disappear - his wounds were healed, so while spitting blood again - he did not find more in his mouth.

Somewhat indignant, Archer looked at Ainz, to which he only sighed and nodded.

"I'll stay on guard," he said, "But you still need to rest ... Archer, you especially."

The Servant was about to argue, but looking at the magician, he sighed and closed his eyes.

"I can see in the dark," the magician explained, "And I don't need to sleep, so I can do my job. If the Servant is still here, then we have nowhere to rush to now."

After that, the Servants, nodding several times, slowly moved to their tents.

* * *

**Denial of Life:** _EX (B)_

Since this skill is the skill responsible for the existence of the undead as a creature, it was required to be of extremely high rank - however, with one important refinement, the Overlord, the highest rank of mages among the undead, is obliged to have an even higher rank. Despite the fact that, in essence, this skill is responsible for various abilities, such as protection against black magic or vision in the dark, the fact that this ability is responsible for possessing negative energy is also important. While all undead exist through negative energy, the Elder Liches - and their higher brethren, the Overlords - are able to seep negative energy through their touch or even presence. In other words, at this moment, since Ainz is completely suppressing his ability and this feature - in connection with his new body - this skill is only responsible for the ability to exist as undead and for passive features - protection and vulnerabilities. At the same time, if Ainz did not suppress this skill, his presence would exude such an amount of negative energy that even a single touch would be enough to turn a living person into a moderately strong undead, and his ability could turn even thrice consecrated silver into rotten trash in seconds. Even a Servant could not easily tolerate just one touch.

Even his presence would create certain problems, since dead corpses would rise up as brainless zombies within ten seconds in his presence - and living people would most likely die at the same time.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
**

**About Ainz paranoia and avoiding a fight with Servants. You see, Ainz is very cautious and he will never venture into the fight with the opponent that can be stronger than him. Of course, Servants are weaker, but it goes like the loop. Ainz avoiding fights with Servants - Ainz can't see Servant's power - Ainz assumes they are strong - Ainz avoiding fights with Servants. Of course, it will change - but it takes some time, really.**

**About Ainz being pissed about Hassan - well... You severely overestimating Ainz empathy there. That thing will be addressed later. But for now I have to say only - he doesn't really care about his Servants that much. Yet.**

**And yes, dragons are the strongest in Yggdrasil, that was said a few times in the works - and they are the single foes that, in canon, still can make Ainz wary.**

**Other spells - Ainz can't use his strongest spells. Napalm is the most trusty one in this condition, being the great mix between offense\fire\AOE properties. And if it works - why should he use other subpar spells with a similar effect then?**

**Also, now English and Russian parts are even. What does it mean? Well, it mean that these fast updates once every two-three days are over. It's now again weekly updates. Though the next chapter will also be really fast - if it goes smoothly it will be Saturday, and after that, it will be weekly yet again.**

**BUT AT MY**** Pat reon \rure I have 3 new chapters right now! So it means that Orleans will end there soon - 3 chapters before it will end. Sure thing, one day all chapters will be on this site for free - but if you want THREE new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.**


	31. Chapter 31

"It's finally dawn," Ainz noticed the moment when the first ray of the Sun touched his eyes. - "Good".

Having watched over the Servant camp and the remnants of the city that was once called Lyon all night, Ainz never saw a single suspicious movement around. No, perhaps it would be more correct to say that Ainz considered every gust of wind suspicious - however, nothing around him looked more suspicious than the whole current situation - therefore he did not react to the sometimes rustling trees or distant ruins, which is the only thing that remained in the place of the once bustling city, from the influx of fresh air. At least he did not attack them in panic.

Slowly, Ainz went down from his flight, canceling the flight spell near the ground, after which he landed on his feet and stretched, massaging his stiff limbs several times. Of course, he was undead, so something like fatigue was impossible for him - even such a meaningless and joyless exercise as constantly inspecting the surroundings were not so bad for him without the ability to feel tired or any strong emotions. He could do this for whole days - however, at the same time, he still did not like to do such things, so when he went down to the ground, Ainz gladly stretched a couple of times, after which he headed towards the Servants.

In fact, Ainz did not even expect an attack on the camp that night - he still believed in some rationality from his opponents, so he knew that they would not risk organizing an attack immediately after a failed assassination attempt - however, at the same time, Ainz was not so stupid as to leave the camp without any protection.

"Archer," he said from the doorway, after which the Servant, who was previously sleeping — or was just resting — instantly opened his eyes, after which he got up from the bed created by magic.

In fact, Ainz could have created a much more impressive mansion - however, almost all magic of a similar level was either designed for personal use - or it was extremely noticeable, like a mansion that appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the field - anything else was of a higher rank than Ainz could currently use.

Archer, rising from his seat, only nodded to the magician, and then walked past him. Ainz nodded at this.

Other Servants followed - Ainz chose to wake each one personally.

Memories of how his boss sometimes woke up workers by shouting at the night shift made Ainz grimace unpleasantly. He definitely did not want to do such a thing in this world.

Mozart, Marie Antoinette, Arthuria - lastly Mashu. Including Archer and Ainz - that was all the people in the small company. Of course, there were still Servants with the army - however, with the exception of them, at the moment the entire company of the magician only consisted of six people.

'Hm, six is quite a lot,' the necromancer recalled his gaming adventures. Six people were usually enough for a battle with a normal boss - if he correctly recalled, when they captured Nazarick the battle with Asura also took only six of them...

The thought about Ainz's old comrades made him breathe with nostalgic warmth for a second, after which the magician took a step into the tent to Shielder.

Unlike all the other Servants, who were just waiting for a call to awake and continued to lie in their clothes, sometimes even armor and next to their weapons - Mashu was the only one who accepted the offer of sleep in the proper way - the girl was sweatily dreaming, and her armor and shield stood to one side, leaning against a lonely table. A bed, a small stool that served as a bedside table - on which Mashu's glasses rested - and a lonely table with two chairs - that's all the decoration of the created camp.

"Many of my colleagues lived like that..." - Ainz stopped for a second, then looked around - "All that is missing is a chair with a virtual reality helmet and a connector - and the similarities will be complete..."

The thought that he forced his Servants - in fact, his subordinates - to live like the subordinates of his past boss, made Ainz sigh with embarrassment. Fortunately, the suppression of emotions cut off such a manifestation of emotions before his embarrassment could turn into shame - and Ainz took a step towards Mashu's bed.

From the approach of a man, the girl wrinkled her nose a little and turned around, but did not wake up, because of which Ainz was forced to call her, - "Mashu."

The girl replied to this with even greater grumbling, after which the blanket with which she covered herself slipped a little, exposing the girl's shoulders. Ainz automatically looked at the girl, after which he suddenly discovered a new fact for himself.

"She is quite voluptuous..." - Ainz blinked several times, and then turned away - "No, no, I'm not looking there!"

The embarrassment was instantly suppressed, after which the magician was able to breathe and speak again, a little more insistently, - "Mashu…"

The girl turned around a bit more before turning to the magician and slowly opening her eyes.

"Huh?" - the girl slowly opened her eyes, after which she yawned and stretched, - "Senpai... What is it?"

Ainz watched this for a few seconds.

'The children are really wonderful,' he remembered about Yamaiko, after which he extended his hand to the girl. She did not have time to do anything, as the magician's hand was on her head - after which, with a slight movement, Ainz ruffled Mashu's hair.

"Get up," he smiled. "We have to go."

"Huh?" - the girl seemed to just realize that Ainz patted her on the head, and then nodded, - "Yes, of course…"

Ainz got out of bed and managed to turn around when Mashu suddenly realized that all this time she was lying covered with only one blanket.

"Senpai, don't look!" - the girl shouted, but Ainz has already taken a step away from her tent, leaving the girl to lie alone.

'Maybe he should have stayed?' - Serenity's voice, full of malice, sounded in Mashu's head to which Mashu herself just waved it off.

Ainz, coming out of the tent, was greeted by all the other Servants, who looked at him expectantly.

"As Archer said last night," after that the magician looked at Archer that nodded to him, and continued, "In this city, in the church on the hill, there is a Servant. The signature is weak, but it is still a chance that we cannot miss."

The Servants nodded at this, after which Ainz heard the tent's door flapping at the moment Mashu jumped out of it - already ready and carrying her huge shield in her hands.

"Good," Ainz canceled the spell, after which the entire camp instantly disappeared, as if it had never been here, "We are going there now - as a single group. Each one remains in the field of view of at least two others, no one moves away more than fifteen meters."

The Servants only nodded at this - only Arthuria objected at Ainz at that moment - "Is this really necessary?"

"I prefer not to take any chances," the sorcerer sighed, then slowly moved forward, allowing the Servants to follow him.

Not that the mage himself was afraid of an unexpected ambush - however, he really preferred not to risk it. The reason why he did not go after the Servant at night, when it was discovered , was precisely this fact. Being in enemy territory - and after a nightly assassination attempt, Ainz could not see Lyon differently - it was always full of risks. If the enemy had placed traps with teleportation circles - or have several powerful assasins - the advance at night would be suicidal for them - so Ainz chose to use all the advantages available to him. Even considering that he spent the whole night observing Lyon, it did not give him the necessary confidence - therefore, the magician was moving slowly, waiting for a possible ambush at every turn. Fortunately, it was not there. Unfortunately - this only stirred Ainz's paranoia more.

The path through the ruins of the city was passed silently - because of which what in reality would only take a few tens of minutes stretched out to hours of painful expectations, but in the end Ainz was still able to climb the steps to look at the lonely church on the hill.

The church clearly saw better days - its walls were charred in many places, and a small church square was burned to the ground. Fragments of stone lay on the stone road - part from the church itself and part from the destroyed gravestones that were scattered along the way to the chapel.

Ainz just nodded at this, and then moved forward.

The church was supposed to have a grand entrance, similar to a castle gate, but one of the doors was completely absent, instead it was lying near the entrance, and the second was kept attached only on one loop, squinting. As he approached, Ainz tried to open the door, which it could not tolerate, it tore itself off the hinges and fall on the rocky road with a screech.

This at least provoked a reaction - a groan came from inside the church, after which Ainz heard a voice.

"Well, this means I won't be able to run further..." - the speaker's voice was deep enough, but the fatigue and doom in his voice hid all the positive things it could have, "Good... Then come on — I want to take a couple more with me!"

"We did not come here to fight," Ainz was the first to step on the floor of the church, trying to not step on the piled benches and their scraps lying around, "We are the one currently fighting with the Witch, and we came here in the hope that we will find an ally."

"Witch?" - the voice suddenly fell silent, - "Well, then you found an ally."

"But..." - Ainz heard a slow, irregular step, so even by that sound alone it was possible to determine that the speaker was moving with difficulty, limping every step - after which a man appeared from behind one of the columns, "I don't think I can offer a lot of help right now…"

The men who appeared was quite tall- however, his muscularity and huge mane of silver-gray hair made him appear much larger in the eyes of the observer. The large steel pads on his shoulders, sharply knocking out against his black clothes and a huge two-handed sword in his hands made his appearance truly huge.

On the man's chest was a huge cross of white light that pulsed measuredly to the beat of his heartbeat.

'Hmmm, I already saw this cross…' - Ainz remembered - 'On the chest of the Witch's dragon…'

"And who dared to fight the Witch?" - the man smiled, after which he took another lame step to the magician.

"Ainz," the magician decided not to get into the explanation, after which he looked around the man. He looked perfectly healthy, albeit a little tired - but he barely walked, limping on one leg, - "What is the matter with you?"

"Curse," the man briefly explained, after which he looked at the Servants accompanying Ainz, "And they are... Servants, I suppose ?"

"Yes," Ainz nodded. "We were called here to fight the Witch — and at this moment the army had already begun moving towards Orleans for the final battle."

"So you can do well without me," the man sighed. "I would have helped you in the battle - with joy... However, I'm afraid I'm not able to fight right now."

"Curse, huh?" - Ainz thought for a second. His inventory was full of all kinds of things created to remove curses, but most of them were disposable items - moreover, they acted on curses of different strengths. He would not want to spend one of the rare things on removing a weak curse — however, at the same time, if he had spent one of the weaker ones on removing the curse — and then curse would become stronger — he would still be wasting the item...

"Jeanne can remove the curse from you," Ainz suddenly was distracted by Mashu's voice and looked at the girl. She caught his eye, instantly embarrassed, - "At least she said so…"

"Jeanne?" - the man looked at the girl.

"Jeanne d'Arc," Ainz looked at the guy, waiting for his reaction, but to this man only nodded.

"Yes, that would be good..." the man smiled. "In that case, of course, I will go with you."

"Good." Ainz nodded.

"Oh yes," the guy said, and then nodded. "I apologize for not introducing myself before. Siegfried."

'Ha?' - Ainz froze, and then said out loud, "Dragon Slayer Siegfried?"

"I see you have heard about me," the man nodded. "It's a loud title, but I'm really the same Siegfried."

'Wow, there is Siegfried here!' - Ainz was surprised - 'Siegfried was strong in the game - when Ulbert was killing heroes he said that the battle with Siegfried was one of the most difficult - the only thing worse was only the battle with Merlin and that girl... Scratch? Scutach? Something like that…"

"Good," Ainz answered after a second of thought, "in that case ..."

"Master," Archer suddenly said, "A Servant is moving toward here."

"Assassin?" - Ainz turned to Archer, but he only shook his head.

"He's not hiding at all, he is moving on a horse," Archer nodded "In a hurry."

"Good." Ainz nodded, then looked at Siegfried. He just shook his head, saying that he did not know anything about it - "Then we will wait for him."

Quickly enough, Ainz noticed a spot that appeared in the distance - the rider was moving at a speed clearly exceeding the speed that a normal horse could move, but at the same time he was not hiding at all - and was not like anyone that Ainz had met before, so he decided to still meet with them.

A few minutes later the man appeared in front of Ainz - easily climbing the stairs to the church, the man jumped off his horse, patting it a little, then turned to the Servants.

Ainz carefully looked at the one that appeared - he was slightly shorter than Siegfried and did not have the same impressive hair - but still he was tall and his long brown hair could probably reach his lower back. The person who appeared was dressed in armor - bronze-colored armor that turned into a snow-white cloak, and a strange-shaped blade rested on his belt - as if the blade had not tapered to the end, but was completely straight - and even seemed to be completely blunted.

"A man in red," he instantly recognized Archer, after which he turned his eyes to Marie Antoinette and Mozart, "A girl and a magician. Yes, it seems I arrived to the right people."

To this Ainz took a step forward, - "Greetings. My name is Ainz."

"I apologize for being rude, but I prefer not to give my name now," the man looked at the magician. "I'm afraid we don't have time for courtesy. It's getting closer, the…"

"Dragon," Archer finished his thought, then turned to Ainz.

"It seems that after Vichy she's not leaving us now," Ainz sighed.

"Vichy," the man who appeared, immediately noticed the word, "So it was you in Vichy?"

"Not really me, but it's true," Ainz sighed. Vichy passed for him... Very unpleasantly - so he did not really want to remember it.

"So you are the ones who fought the Witch?" - the man looked at Ainz, to which he nodded, - "In that case…"

The man bowed a little, his right hand in his heart, "In that case... I would like to join your battle."

"Oh?" - Ainz looked at the Servant - "Really?"

"Yes," he nodded again. After Chevalier's actions, confidence about such contracts was undermined, but Ainz had no choice but to nod, "Good... In that case, we are backing off."

"What?" - unexpectedly asked Marie Antoinette, - "But what about the dragon?!"

"That is precisely why we are retreating," said Ainz nodding to his own words, "To battle with it now is something I would like to avoid by all means."

"But what about the army?" - The Rider was indignant, - "If the Witch directs the dragon after us, then the whole army will be in jeopardy."

"Yes," Ainz was forced to admit the truthfulness of the words of the girl, "However, in that case, we can join our forces to fight the dragon, collecting the full number of Servants. To battle with the dragon now is impossible."

"If a dragon possess such a danger - then it alone can destroy the army!" - Marie Antoinette took a step forward, - "We can not let it do this!"

"We have no other choice," at that moment Ainz heard the dragon roar and was able to discern a moving figure in the clouds. This time, the dragon also carried a Servant on it - however, Ainz could not distinguish who it was from that distance.

"Yes," said Arthuria unexpectedly, forcing everyone else to look at her.

"What?" - said Ainz, glancing at the girl.

"The dragon can be distracted," the girl said it calmly, "if we leave a Servant or two to fight him, he will not be able to attack the army after the battle."

"It's a suicidal mission," Ainz shook his head.

"Yes," Arthuria nodded. "Therefore..."

"I'm volunteering!" - Marie Antoinette took a step forward, distracting Ainz from his thoughts.

"Mari..." said Mozart, trying to calm the girl down, but suddenly someone objected to him - no one other than Arthuria herself.

"No, let it be so," Arthuria nodded. "In that case... I will stay too."

Ainz looked at the girl, who only nodded calmly, "We need at least two Servants with strong Phantasms to injure the dragon. Me and Rider are the best candidates for this."

Ainz paused for a second, then slowly nodded. "This is a suicidal mission, no retreat and last-time save. Are you sure you agree to this?"

As if confirming the words of the magician, the dragon in the sky roared loudly, but Marie Antoinette and Arthuria only nodded.

"Good," Ainz sighed. "Good, then..."

The remaining Servants took a step towards Ainz, who cast a last look at the two girls and nodded.

"_Teleportation_," he used a spell and instantly carried the Servants. Arthuria and Marie Antoinette were left alone.

* * *

Marie Antoinette watched the dragon approach slowly, gradually beginning to distinguish the outline of the Servant standing on its back.

"That is Sanson," she finally said, managing to discern the man in front.

"I understand," Arthuria nodded, after which she silently stared at the sky, looking at the approaching dragon. Marie Antoinette also looked up, continuing to stare into the sky.

For a few seconds they both spent it in silence, watching the outlines of the monster gradually grow, which had already gone down to the city and now continued to fly low, almost scratching the skeletons of the destroyed buildings with its belly.

"Why?" - unexpectedly, Arthuria was distracted by her voice. Turning, she saw Rider staring at her intently. "Why did you decide to stay?"

"Because I needed to," Arthuria answered calmly and turned around, considering the dialogue completed, however, Marie Antoinette did not back down.

"And what about the conversation about the True King?" - the girl turned around. - "You spoke about the need for sacrifices and that the True King should retreat from the battle, which he cannot win?"

Rider fell silent for a second, after which Arthuria shook her head a little.

"The King must retreat from the battle when the battle is pointless - even if he can fight," the girl sighed, and then looked up to the dragon, "And the King must fight when the battle is necessary - even if he cannot win."

Silence reigned for a second, after which Marie Antoinette looked up.

"Thank you," she smiled.

"It is not because of you," Arthuria answered coldly and turned away, "I was the only candidate with sufficient strength and a powerful Noble Phantasm that could support you - while you remained the least efficient member of the squad. That's all."

"Yes, I know," Marie-Antoinette nodded and smiled, "But anyway, thanks."

For a second Arthuria fell silent, after which she nodded, "Of course."

After another second, the roar of the beast again broke the silence, after which the dragon wrapped a hook around two Servants, allowing the executioner to jump from his back.

"Well, well, well..." - Sanson smiled only upon landing on the ground, "Your Majesty — we meet again... It seems that this is really destiny - I will become your executioner yet again."

"Charles Henri Sanson," Marie-Antoinette nodded briefly to the Servant, "I would like to say that I am glad to see you again, but I cannot lie straight to your face."

"Well, what are you, Your Majesty," Sanson smiled and took a step forward, "It always seemed to me that I brought you the calmest and quickest death. Believe me, I didn't prepare for any execution as much as for yours - I personally sharpened the guillotine to make your last moments as quick and painless as possible. Admit it, you liked this method of execution."

"Sanson," Marie Antoinette sighed and shook her head, after which the executioner finally turned his gaze to Arthuria.

"Ah, Your Majesty - as I look, you brought a retinue with you," Sanson smiled at Arthuria, and then nodded respectfully to her, "It seems that this time I will also have to execute someone other than you... Perhaps this is what people call fate."

"I'm not here for you," Arthuria looked at the executioner coldly, after which she turned her gaze to the dragon, who landed nearby, "But for his sake."

"Oh, for the sake of Fafnir?" - the guy smiled, - "Of course, how could I forget - such a sight can really attract the attention of the people."

"Fafnir?" - Arthuria turned her gaze to Sanson - "The legendary dragon of Scandinavia?"

"My lady, all dragons are legendary in one way or another," the executioner smiled at her, "And all of them, one way or another, come from different places — however, yes, you are right. This is really the legendary Fafnir himself - the power of my Master allows such things."

"Good," Arthuria nodded. "In that case, I will be proud that I was able to kill another legendary dragon."

"Lady," Sanson smiled at these words, "I have no doubt in your strength — just as I do not doubt in the strength of Fafnir. You will always be given the chance to battle - however, the outcome of this battle will not be the one you may desire."

"In this case - I will still take the chance," Arthuria nodded at this, after which a moment later she disappeared in a quick, continuous movement, to which the dragon only growled.

"My Queen," Sanson smiled at Marie Antoinette, "So we are left alone again. Tell me, are you ready for your execution? I am ready to wait."

"Sanson, my friend," the girl sighed, then smiled, "Why wait? I am quite ready."

"I'm glad, My Queen," the Assassin bowed to the girl for the last time, and then rushed forward.

* * *

Ainz was in the middle of the army camp at a time when the last troops had already gathered their belongings and began to line up in marching order. The messengers rushed through the camp, not noticing the magician, so he sighed, and then went straight to the commander's tent, where he could see Gilles shouting something to his squire, after which he looked at Ainz. He smiled for a second, seeing there was a replenishment in the form of Servants, after which, not finding two familiar faces, he looked at Ainz - "And the other two…"

To this Ainz himself only sighed, - "They will not come."

To this, Gilles only sighed sadly, after which he nodded, "I understand."

"We need Jeanne," Ainz looked at Siegfried. "There is a curse that must be lifted."

"Good, of course," Gilles nodded. "The army is almost ready. If you need Jeanne, then most likely she is with John, at the head of the army."

"Good." Ainz nodded at this, then turned to the Servants.

"I will accompany Siegfried," Mashu instantly volunteered, after which she went to the imposing guy, who only smiled guiltily and leaned on the girl's shoulder, after which he slowly limped forward.

The man who did not give his name also nodded at this. "I will join them if Jeanne needs my help. Unfortunately or not, but I was also called as a Saint by humans."

To this the man nodded and also went after Mashu.

"Then I will go to inform the other Servants," Archer nodded, after which he instantly disappeared from the tent.

Gilles, taking a look at this, also took a step, - "It is necessary to send an army - otherwise these guys will ruin everything again."

Ainz sighed at this, and then turned, expecting to see behind him only an empty tent, but unexpectedly found a Servant there.

"Ah, Mozart," Ainz completely forgot about him in this hectic, after which, realizing that Caster was lost in his thoughts, he called him, "Mozart..."

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry," he shook his head instantly, as if dropping unnecessary thoughts, and then turned to Ainz, instantly smiling, "Is something necessary?"

Ainz was silent for a few seconds, after which he sighed, "If you need..."

"No, no, nothing," he immediately waved his hands, as if nothing had happened and he remained all the same Mozart, as always, "It's okay, I understand."

"And yet," Ainz sighed, after which he looked at Caster. He, seeing this look, only waved his hands.

"Losing her the second time, after we have become Servants, is not so painful," the man smiled. "I will survive."

Ainz was silent for a few seconds.

If he ended up here with his friends - after which there was a need to leave one of them - could he react calmly to this?

No.

The answer came to Ainz's mind instantly.

No.

Never.

He would have put the army at risk, he would have gone into a hopeless battle, he would have stayed with them - whatever may happen, but he would never have abandoned his Ainz Ooal Gown.

"Mozart," Ainz sighed once more, realizing this simple truth, "I... No, I cannot say that I can feel what you feel - but I understand you."

"Come on," Mozart once waved languidly and sighed, "I understand the need for this, and I understand the necessity of such an act. Mari... Mari always sacrificed herself for the sake of others - perhaps this was the reason why she attracted people so much."

Ainz froze for a second, not knowing what he had to say, after which Mozart made his way to the chair next to him and sat down on it. Ainz was always bad with comforting people, so he could not say anything in the current situation - however, once Bukubukuchagama told him that if a person is sad, the worst thing that can be done in this case is to remain silent.

"Did you love her?" - Ainz sighed at this, but Mozart, who first prepared to sharply negatively wave his head, stopped, then slowly turned his head away.

"What difference does it make..." Mozart sighed and smiled, "Our lives cannot be changed other than what has already taken shape - so what use is this question?"

Ainz sighed at this, after which he himself moved to the nearest chair and sat down in it.

"Maybe..." unexpectedly, Caster continued, after which he looked up somewhere, "Perhaps if she were not the Queen of France - and I was not God's Child... If she baked pastries - and I worked as a minstrel at the square... Who knows?"

Ainz did not know what he had to say to this, so he asked what seemed appropriate to him - "Is this all for the sake of France?"

"Of course," Mozart smiled, "Mari always did everything for France..."

He leaned back in his chair, and then closed his eyes.

"You know..." he suddenly said after a few seconds of silence, "Once upon a time I saw her for the first time... After a performance. I was just a child - and so was she... We first met - and I saw her. She was in a blue dress - one of those that is adorned with fresh flowers - I was in a small frock coat made specially for me by my parents... I then saw her for the first time... I was awestruck - and I promised to marry her when she grows up…"

"Stupid, isn't it?" - Mozart smiled and opened his eyes, looking at Ainz, - "Children are pure - they do not know about human stupidities - about people and classes, about kings and queens, about duty and responsibilities... Of course, this did not happen - this could not happen."

Ainя looked at Mozart, but he only waved his hands.

"You don't have to feel sorry for me," the man smiled. "She married a good man. She loved him and loved her children more than her life. At that time, I was carried away by music... Orpheus' magic - to be more precise. I was absorbed in it as much as a person could be absorbed by his calling - to the point of madness. I have fallen in love with the miracle of music... Then I found a good girl - and I loved her, I dedicated poetry and sonnets to her that no one else saw - she witnessed the birth of my greatest masterpieces and supported me in my most difficult moments... I had six children - believe me, I would not have had six children with a girl whom I would not love. We lived in perfect harmony - and Mari lived with her beloved husband."

After that, Mozart fell silent, allowing Ainz to slowly breathe.

"But you did not forget her," he said in complete silence, to which Mozart only slowly closed his eyes.

"No..." he finally said, "I haven't forgotten."

* * *

"And you have become stronger, My Queen!" - Sanson smiled, jumping away from the next blow.

"I am always ready to try for the sake of France, my dear executioner!" - the girl smiled, gracefully moving away from the next blow of the huge blade in the hands of Sanson.

Somewhere in the distance a mournful roar of a dragon was heard, after which the roar deafened both Servants for a second.

"Oh, and she is strong!" - Assassin looked back a second to see the discarded dragon - and Arthuria, although she was wounded, was far from losing.

"Of course," Marie Antoinette rushed forward, but her next blow was laid aside, "She is stronger than me — you — and, perhaps, your dragon."

"Stronger than Fafnir?" - smiled Sanson, delivering the next blow, - "This is an extremely flattering praise received from the Queen herself!"

"You flatter me, Sanson," the girl smiled, after which she dealt a particularly strong blow, sending Assassin on a flight. The same one, finding himself in flight, after a second later landed on his feet, blocking the next blow of Marie Antoinette.

"My queen, not a drop of lies," the executioner smiled, "Only sincere admiration."

"In that case, Sanson," the girl suddenly jumped back, "Would you like to admire me even more?"

"Oh, My Queen," Sanson smiled as the girl got ready, "So you are ready to end our fight? Ready for the climax? Ready for execution?"

"Of course, my dear executioner," the girl smiled for the last time, bringing a smile to Sanson's lips.

"So let it be so," Sanson nodded. "I will do everything quickly."

"I have no doubt about that," the girl finally said, after which she extended her hand forward.

A moment later, Sanson realized that he was icebound.

'No, this is not ice,' Assassin corrected himself immediately, realizing what was slowly absorbing him 'It's crystal.'

Crystal grew under his feet, gradually fettering his movements.

"And let France be forever!" - the girl smiled, after which the crystal instantly formed a shape under her feet.

It was a beautiful horse - as if made of pure morning light - it easily took a step forward, after which Marie Antoinette was at one moment on the back of the stallion.

Having torn from his seat, the horse immediately rushed forward, after which Marie Antoinette, sitting on his back, smiled.

"**Guillotine**!.." she said with a smile, after which the crystal, which had previously swallowed the man's legs, accelerated instantly, turning Assassin into a cocoon.

The embodiment of the beauty of Versailles... The embodiment of the luxury of the royal court... The embodiment of the Champs Elysees and the views of Montmartre...

The embodiment of France - the shining pearl of Europe - and the embodiment of the soul of Marie Antoinette...

Beautiful France of her dreams.

Her view of the beauty of her life - and the future of generations that will come after her.

That is what Her Noble Phantasm embodied. The pure beauty - and the pure soul of the girl, that when even stepping on the scaffold - apologized for stepping on the shoe of her executioner.

This power could afflict people like Excalibur - and possessed the power of all France behind her.

But…

"**La Mort**," the executioner said at the moment when the crystal touched his hands, "**Espoir**..."

The horse of Marie Antoinette took another step forward, and then suddenly froze. A second later, the decapitated body of Marie Antoinette fell from it's back.

It was all over instantly. The executioner's blade hit the girl, having executed it's target.

La Mort Espoir really was the epitome of the guillotine of the French Revolution, the executioner's guillotine and the power of the rebellion. And therefore, it was not a tool that destroyed evil.

Perhaps if Sanson did not have to personally execute Marie Antoinette, Louis Sixteenth, Charlotte Corde - and many other people who found themselves on the chopping block not as criminals, but as political opponents of the revolution - then Sanson's Phantasm could really destroy evil. However, instead, the guillotine in the hands of the executioner found its other purpose.

The destruction of those who should be destroyed.

It was still a tool for executing criminals, but now it has been tarnished by another purpose to be a judge over people.

It was a tool of execution, which primary goal was not to destroy evil - but those who were recognized as evil. Those who were ready to die for their truth.

In other words, it was an attack that did not base its strength on how evil a person is, but on how much he himself recognized himself as evil. In other words, in order to cause damage, such an attack first had to touch the victim's consciousness.

Ainz was protected from such things.

In other words, if you consider this as numbers, then Ainz's karma could increase the damage done to him by a similar action a thousand times. However, Ainz's mind defense meant that the base damage from a similar attack that couldn't touch his mind at all was zero. And no matter how many times the zero was increased, it will always remain zero. Therefore, such a Phantasm was absolutely safe for Ainz.

However, for Marie Antoinette, even if she was pure - having acknowledged and accepted her death - she was doomed from the very beginning.

"I thought you changed, My Queen," the man smiled, misunderstanding his failed Phantasm when trying to attack Ainz, "When I met that magician, my Phantasm did not work on him... He found the strength to resist fate - no, he destroyed my guillotine. He rejected his fate and execution - he rejected his own death - and looking at you I thought that you would find the strength in yourself to resist execution…"

"But, I'm sorry, My Queen," the crystal still holding Sanson began to crumble slowly, "Now it's finally over."

"Not really," he heard a voice nearby, after which he turned to the side. Hell, the second girl he completely forgot about!

"**Excalibur**!.."- on the body of Arthuria there were many wounds - her armor was pierced and crushed, and her face was cut many times - but she was alive. And the black blade in her hands, shining with an ominous light, reminded Sanson of his own weapons.

About the executioner's guillotine.

"Fafnir!" - he instantly shouted to the dragon that immediately rushed to the defense, but Arthuria only smiled.

"It will not help," she said with a grin, after which the blade, still burning with black light in her hands, striked, "**Morgan**!"

A second later, a stream of darkness rushed forward.

* * *

It took only a few tens of seconds before the dust from the blow of Arthuria began to slowly subside.

Sanson felt pain in his whole body - a blow deprived him of the entire right half of his body... However, he was still alive.

The howl of the dragon caught the attention of Assassin - and he turned his eyes to Fafnir, who still managed to cover part of Sanson's body - but he paid for it himself.

It was as if someone had torn off the dragon's scales with its flesh, after which he frantically wounded him with blades until his body became a bleeding piece of meat. All the main power of the blow fell on Fafnir's body, so he could only utter a mournful howl instead of a mighty roar - then he lowered his head, allowing Sanson to see the mutilated face, through the fragments of which the skull looked through.

Assassin suddenly heard footsteps and looked at Arthuria, who walked through the dust, slowly manifesting herself, like a ghost that came for his soul.

Arthuria took another step forward, then another, after which she was next to the body of Marie Antoinette. Looking at her, Arthuria closed her eyes, and then turned to Sanson.

"No," she said, and then slowly moved forward.

Sanson looked at the girl uncomprehendingly, feeling how the last minutes of his life were leaving.

"No," she said again, "She accepted her fate."

"Even knowing that she would lose," Arthuria smiled, "Even knowing that she would die - even after accepting a hopeless battle... She still fought. And even when she died, she sacrificed herself for the sake of others. She met her death as an old friend…"

Arthuria approached Sanson, after which she brought the blade for the last blow, to which Sanson reacted calmly. He only looked up at Arthuria.

"She is My Queen after all," Assassin smiled, to which Arthuria answered with a smile.

"Yes," she smiled. "She is the true Queen."

After that a blow was dealt.

The blade in Arturia's hands fell only a few centimeters, without touching Sanson's chest, after which she froze.

"Huh?" - she sighed, after which her mouth was filled with blood, - "Ha?"

"You shouldn't forget about me," a voice heard nearby made the girl feel the wound on her neck slowly starting to bleed.

"Phan... tom," she realized instantly to whom this voice belonged and turned to Assassin.

"Of course, my dear," The Phantom of the Opera nodded, slowly turning the blades that replaced his fingers into a human hand, "Of course, it's me."

"You... Dishonest... Bastard," Arthuria could only spit blood, and then fell to the ground.

"Phantom of... the Opera…" - Sanson felt his weakening every second, so looking at the face of the appeared Assassin, who was waiting for a moment for his blow, - "You…"

"Of course I am," the man took a step, after which he looked around Sanson, "You are dying."

"I know," Assassin smiled, "Finally... I can be... Free from the Witch..."

"Fafnir is dying too," said the Phantom, ignoring the man's words, after which he turned his eyes to the dragon.

"Yes," Sanson nodded and smiled, feeling his eyes close, "Good..."

"No," the Phantom's voice suddenly struck Sanson, forcing him to open his eyes. "You will not die so easily."

"Ha..." laughed the man, "Ha... Ha ha... Ha ha ha... Why deny the obvious, Phantom? Even the Witch... Even Gilles will not be able to heal me... Or Fafnir... Now."

"Yes, it's impossible to heal you," the Phantom nodded at this, after which a light half laugh appeared on his lips, "But this does not mean that you will die. My Christine will still find a use for you."

"Huh?" - Sanson just looked at the Phantom with a daze, but froze a second later.

"The army is advancing to storm Orleans," he sighed, then turned to Arthuria. "In that case, we need to hurry."

Arthuria heard a step next to her, but could not do anything. She was wounded before - but now, after the last wound - she could not even gather enough strength in herself to get off the ground.

Thin hands turned the girl over, which was able to look into the beautiful face of the Phantom, covered with a disfigured mask.

"You are very beautiful," the man admitted after a second of inspection, "What a pity that you turned out to be the enemy of my Christine..."

Arthuria could only grit her teeth and speak,- "Go to Hell."

"I was already there, lady," the man smiled, after which his fingers, once again turned into blades, lay on Arthuria's neck, "And I returned."

With the next movement of the Assassin's hand, Saber, Arthuria Alter, died.

* * *

**Life Denial:** _EX (B) (Case)_

Production of negative energy by the undead is an integral part of their existence - as well as their natural characteristics. This is especially true for the Elder Lichs, which, with their touch, are able to cause metal to rust, and people to die. This is especially true for Overlords, each of which is such a powerful source of negative energy that their very presence can turn a flowering garden into thickets of dead grass. And, of course, this applies especially strongly to Ainz.

Ainz is not only the Overlord of the highest rank and a great necromancer, but also the creature who subjugated Helheim - the reality of the dead - and the ruler of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, the stronghold of the forces of Evil and negative energy. Ainz is so saturated with negative energy that it would be easier to consider him an anomaly, a living distortion of reality, consisting of negative energy of such quality and quantity that even divinity is not save from the distorting and destructive presence of a living embodiment of unlife.

* * *

**Hello there!  
**

**Before we start all of this - Ainz is paranoical maniac, so till he has the 100% proof that Servants and Dragons isn't a super threat - he will be aware of them. But this day will be soon... At my Pat reon \rure, that is.**

**Also - about the long comment that was scrapped. Really, I can accept any critique. The only thing that if your ass BLAZING WITH THE POWER OF THE THOUSAND BURNING SUNS - I have a legitimate right to make fun of it.**

**Also Kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**And so -**** Pat reon \rure I have 3 new chapters right now! So it means that Orleans will end there soon - few chapters before it will end. Sure thing, one day all chapters will be on this site for free - but if you want THREE new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.  
**


	32. Chapter 32

Ainz was moving forward slowly while feeling the wagon swaying beneath him. Of course, he could also ride in front of the army, on horseback with Gilles, Jeanne and John - perhaps even carry his flag along with the standards of the army - but being unsure of his abilities as a rider, he preferred to just sit in the wagon, allowing himself not to worry about a possible fall from the horse and just indulge in observation.

The army was moving slowly — soldiers clinking with weapons — horses sometimes spurred by their riders — all slowly moving forward. Ainz once again looked around, noticing the trees slowly passing by and the faces of the soldiers, ready for a new battle, maybe the last for them.

"L'HOMME ARME!" - an unexpected sharp sound startled Ainz - "DOIBT ON DOUBTER!"

The sound was like a scream, if the scream periodically changed its tone and depth - for a second, Ainz thought that someone had stepped on a cat very close to him.

"ON A FAIT!" - Ainz flinched once more, when after a second of delay the scream rang out again and again, Ainz began to turn his head in all directions, - "PARTOUT CRIER!"

"Where are these hellish sounds coming from?!" - Mozart's voice distracted the magician for a second, after which he glanced at Caster, who was trying to plug his ears with all his might.

"QUE CHASCUN!" - the sound capable of tearing eardrums rumbled once more and Ainz saw several soldiers moving in front of the column and not so far from him grimacing, "SE VIEGNE ARMER!"

After these words, Ainz was finally able to find the reason why this terrifying noise was now pouring into his ears.

"D'UN HAUBREGON DE FER!" - shouted one more line from a terrible monster, hiding under the face of a young girl, marching not far from the wagon of Ainz himself.

"Please stop, I cannot bear this torture anymore!" - Mozart's voice became even louder, but Bathory had already opened her mouth to sing further, so Caster had no choice but to just shut her up with his own hands, - "I swear I hear everything a thousand times better than a normal person - but never, never in my life have I regretted it more than now!"

"Ugh!" - immediately Elizabeth pulled away when Mozart shut her mouth, - "What do you think you are doing?!"

"What you am I doing?!" - Mozart instantly pulled away from the girl, looking at her in horror, - "What kind of torture was that?!"

"Torture?!" - immediately Bathory was offended, after which she looked at Caster with anger, - "The song is to raise morale before the fight!"

"So that was a song!" - Mozart immediately grabbed his head, and then looked at Lancer again, - "So you say that it was... A song?!"

"Of course!" - Bathory was indignant with the look of insulted innocence, - "What else could it be?!"

"It was just a scream!" - Mozart accused the girl with a finger.

"How dare you!.." the girl tried to be indignant, but her speech was interrupted by the heavy fan of Kiyohime, which was delivered to the top of her head a second later, "Why?!"

"The fake dragon is causing problems," Kiyohime opened her fan, after which she fanned herself, - "Moreover, for the dragon himself... It is incomprehensible to the mind how I could spend so much time with you."

"You!" - Lancer immediately rushed - but this time she nevertheless chose Mozart as her target, that already ran away from her anger a second prior. Kiyohime, feeling some responsibility for the stupid creature entrusted to her, rushed after her. However, Ainz only looked away from the fight that remained behind the march. The magician was not even worried that the Servants might be left behind - they would still catch up with the army, so instead of worrying, he simply turned his eyes to another company of Servants who were moving next to him.

"They are too relaxed for those who are going to fight," Archer said calmly, and then moved forward. Of course, there was some distance between him and Ainz, but fortunately being a Servant still allowed the magician to make out his words.

"Come on," Cu Chulainn only dismissed the thought, "Let them have fun before the fight. Everything is better than senseless jitters."

"Maybe," Archer said sparingly, after which he turned his eyes to the army, which was moving next to him, and was now passing by a swarm of three Servants, trying not to stare at them with all their might, "However, I'm still wondering what the army will think, watching an adult man fights with two girls.

"Only that children have no place on the battlefield," Caster shrugged and turned his eyes to Archer. "And perhaps you should watch the kids closer."

"Me?!" - almost stumbled out of the red Archer, glancing at Cu Chulainn, - "And why should I?!"

"Well, look," Cu Chulainn used his staff to lean on him, after which he began to speak. "Jeanne obviously should not deal with children, since she is a symbol of France, not Gilles, because he is the main commander, and not Ainz, since most soldiers do not even know about his existence. Not me and not Rider, since we were busy with soldiers in the infirmary. And, of course, not Serenity - no one in his right mind would trust her with kids. You are the only one that remained - a cold and detached cool warrior - the love for children would complete your image completely."

"I'm a warrior and an archer, not a nanny!" - the guy was indignant, but this was not enough.

"You aren't an archer really if you use only swords," Caster sighed.

"I don't want to hear this from a magician whose main weapon is a spear," Archer sighed and looked at Caster angrily, but Cu Chulainn just grinned back.

"But at least I have ny runes," Caster just shrugged, "And I can do pretty impressive things with them."

"I'm also pretty good at a sword fight," Archer replied calmly, finally moving away from the thought of children.

"More or less," Caster waved ambiguously with his hand in the air, showing his attitude to Archer.

"And what makes you consider me this "more or less"?" - only looked at Caster Archer.

"You shoot swords well," Caster smiled at the absurdity of the phrase, "And you can fight with them because you know how to fight with swords. As a Servant, you are not particularly strong."

"Should I consider that an insult?" Archer looked coldly at Caster.

"No, rather it's a praise," Cu Chulainn unexpectedly declared, after which he looked at Archer. "What you cannot take by force, you take with cunning and skill. It is worthy of respect, actually."

Archer, not fully understanding whether he should have been offended by this or not, stopped, looking only at the back of Caster, who was moving forward.

Ainz looked again - this time finding a group of three riders moving slightly ahead of him.

"I will consider it an honor to fight with such a legendary knight side by side," Siegfried smiled at Rider, dressed in a white cloak, that only slightly spurred his horse.

"Not worth it," the man dismissed these words, "We all are fighting together today, and besides, perhaps I am the one that is honored. I have never fought alongside other dragon slayers side by side in my life."

"As I am," Siegfried only smiled, after which he turned to the third participant in the discussion, which at that time only remained silent.

"In this case - I can't even describe what an honor it is for me to fight with you two side by side!" - Mashu smiled at both riders, after which the horse under her arms suddenly bucked, forcing the girl to grab onto the reins.

"Not the best stallion you got there" Siegfried smiled at the girl.

"No, no, it's not that!" she immediately tried to brush aside these words, - "I must have the Ride skill, just... I'm not the best with regard to being a Servant."

"But!" - the girl immediately tried to make excuses, - "I can protect you! I can do a great job with the shield!"

"I apologize," Siegfried apologized immediately for touching on this topic, after which he smiled. "In that case, I will rely on your shield."

"Of course," the girl smiled, after which she turned her gaze to Rider nearby, "True, the shield does not help me on horse riding... Tell me, could you teach me this?"

"I?" - The Rider stopped, after which he smiled a little - "I'm sorry, but in truth I myself am not particularly good at this."

"Really?" - Mashu looked at Rider in disbelief, - "But you are so confident in the saddle…"

"This is not my achievement," the man smiled. "This is all my horse... In truth, this is all his doing."

"You value him highly," smiled Mashu, after which her horse kicked back again.

"Of course," Rider smiled. "I would not be afraid to entrust my life to him."

At this moment, the Mashu's horse finally stood up, after which the girl tried to spur him uncertainly to force him to move along with two other riders, but this did not work out for her.

"Apparently, there's indeed a problem," Siegfried said in the end, after which he pulled his stallion, "Well, I'll look for another..."

"Don't!" - immediately Mashu tried to stop the guy, - "I'll do it myself now…"

"It's no problem," the dragon fighter smiled.

"But you are a legendary hero, Dragon Slayer Siegfried!" - The girl was immediately dumbfounded, - "You should not do this!"

"I shouldn't," Siegfried smiled. "And if there was a dragon here, I would have not. But now let me fix this little annoyance."

Instantly spurring the stallion, Siegfried rushed back. Mashu, with a sigh, kicked her horse lightly in frustration, making him snort.

"I feel bad for him," Shielder rubbed her face. "He shouldn't do that."

"He just does his job, nothing more," Rider smiled back, "If he decided to help, then why should we be against it?"

"And yet," Mashu sighed, after which Ainz turned his gaze to the side again. This time only to face nose to nose with Serenity, who was next to him, unnoticed by Ainz himself.

"Ah, Serenity," the magician smiled instantly, suppressing the urge to flinch at the unexpected effectiveness of her presence concealment, after which, trying to hush his inner awkwardness, put his hand on her head and patted her hair. She, sensing a familiar action that she lacked so much, only giggled confusedly.

"Thank you, Master," the girl smiled instantly. "You know how to help a girl with her thoughts."

"Help?" - Ainz looked at that incomprehensibly, - "But I did nothing."

"You did even more than necessary for me, Master... My husband," the girl nevertheless said a few seconds later, after which she smiled.

"I did nothing special," Ainz smiled at Serenity in response, feeling a slight misunderstanding rise inside him.

To this, Serenity only shook her head a couple of times, after which she looked at the magician carefully, "My whole body, my breath... I myself am a poison from which there is no escape. Even if you are protected from poison, then this is still a risk... And I am grateful to you that you still risked for me."

"Nothing of the kind," Ainz sighed. "I didn't risk anything for you... Speaking of which, it is more likely that you are the one risking yourself for me... Sorry for that."

"It's okay, my husband," the girl smiled. "Such is the life of a Servant."

"Thank you, Serenity," Ainz smiled back, then ruffled the girl's hair. After sitting for a few more seconds, she finally got up from her seat and, a little unexpectedly for Ainz, jumped off the wagon, and then headed back.

"Hmmm..." - Ainz looked after the retreating girl, and then nodded - "Okay, maybe she is just... No, not a single thought. Maybe she needed something there? Women are strange creatures."

Ainz continued to look after the retreating girl when a new face appeared next to him.

"Good afternoon," Jeanne said it calmly, so this time Ainz did not jump, nevertheless hearing her steps.

For a second, Gilles also slipped by next to Ainz, greeting him with a nod, and then headed off somewhere back into the ranks of the army.

'Maybe he went to stop the fight?' - Ainz remembered the three Servants left behind and sighed. Nevertheless, such events are really sad.

"Good day," finally Ainz nevertheless answered Jeanne's greeting, after which he turned to face her.

Jeanne smiled back at him, after which she turned her gaze to the Servant's nearby.

"Hell, I'm the greatest Celtic hero, I must not drag horses!" - Cu Chulainn appeared next to Rider and Mashu, holding the reins of a new stallion, - "I have to fight in great battles, and not do the manual work!"

"I apologize," Mashu bowed in response, forcing Cu Chulainn only to wave his hand.

"Ah, forget it," he sighed, after which he waved at the horse next to him, "Climb up."

Apologizing again, Mashu nevertheless dismounted, after which she moved to Cu Chulainn's horse.

"They are good people," came a voice next to Ainz, making him remember that Jeanne was now right next to him.

"Yes, perhaps," Ainz sighed at these words, after which he looked at the people behind. A whole army of people.

Jeanne, catching his eyes, sighed.

"Many will die on that day," she said, causing Ainz to shake her head. He did not feel anything from the realization of how many people would die in a future battle, but...

"In the end, none of this happened," the mage sighed.

"What do you mean?" - Jeanne looked at him carefully.

"All this..." - Ainz sighed "After all that has happened and in the end the story will simply be erased. Soldier, battles, Witches, monsters, magic, undead... In the end, nothing like this will ever happen."

Jeanne, hearing this, however, only smiled, - "That is not important. Even if some things do not remain in people's memory and in history textbooks - we will remember this all the same. Memories and our lives... They will not be in vain simply because they will not be remembered after many centuries. After all, we lived... And we had a meaning in this life."

"It is possible," Ainz sighed. "However... What is the point? The battle in the end is pointless - the soldiers who survive in the battle of Orleans... History will erase them all - some of them will be lost, some disappear without a trace - but still they will all die."

"It is possible," Jeanne sighed, "But the memories of them will remain — at least for us. And it is also valuable in itself."

"Memories…" - Ainz paused for a second, feeling how something moved in his soul from this word, after which he dismissed this.

"Yes," however Jeanne only smiled, "We will know and remember that we fought for a reason - that we did something miraculous... Something right... The bad things that happened to us should not erase all the good that we did. Our battle is a battle against monsters, Witches, evil - it cannot be meaningless... Even if no one else will remember it."

For a second, Ainz froze. Jeanne's words suddenly touched his soul.

"Jeanne," Gilles appeared next to Jeanne, distracted the girl, but could not get Ainz out of his thoughts, "We are approaching Orleans. Could you speak to the soldiers? Words from their Saint could help them."

"Of course," the girl sighed, after which, glancing at Ainz, still pondering next to her, jumped off the wagon and moved back. Gilles, being next to her, nodded to the girl, after which he did not follow her, but remained next to the magician, who was still thinking about something.

For a few seconds, Gilles moved next to the wagon, and then nevertheless, looked at the magician, - "You know... I envy you a little."

"Hmm?" - finally distracted Ainz from his thoughts, glancing at Saber.

"Jeanne talks a lot about you," Gilles smiled at Ainz, after which, when he finally made sense of what was said, he shook his head, "No, no, nothing. In fact, I'm even glad."

"Glad?" - Ainz looked at Gilles.

"Yes, glad," Gilles smiled, "When she talks about you, she always smiles, and her eyes sparkle. I'm glad to see her like that."

Ainz silently continued to stare at Saber for several seconds, then sighed.

"You heard my plan," Ainz looked at the soldier again. "You should not overestimate me, really. And my plan… it's not built around the survival of people and of good deeds."

"I know," Gilles sighed at this, and then smiled, "They say that a bad deed done for good is worse than any evil... Tell me then, can you say the opposite - that a good deed done even with the most selfish of motives should it still be considered good?"

For a few seconds Ainz was silent, after which he looked at Gilles, "I don't know."

"Nobody knows," Gilles sighed, "Nobody. But one thing that I know - they are good people... And you are also a good person, Ainz. I'm glad to fight in my last battle with you."

With these words, Gilles directed the horse back, back to Jeanne, leaving the magician alone.

And yet, not quite alone.

"This girl!" - in the end, Cu Chulainn appeared as if from nowhere, fortunately not being near Ainz, but joining Rider, who was moving nearby, on foot, - "Oh, Rider!"

"Yes?" - the brown-haired man turned to Caster, but he only shook his head.

"No, not you," he grinned, after which he turned in the direction of the horsewoman who stood farthest from the moving army and shouted to her, "Medusa!"

The girl, in the end, reluctantly, however, moved her horse towards Cu Chulainn, forcing him to grin.

"By the way, I never thought about it, but," the mage sighed and glanced at the two Riders, "Won't you become a great team, since you are both Riders?"

The brown-haired man only shrugged and looked at Medusa, who was holding the blindfold at her eyes at the moment.

"I don't know, but I would be glad, if this will turn out to be true," the man smiled at Medusa, after which he looked at Caster, "I am not the most suitable person for a battle. In the end, I am more likely a protector than a warrior."

"Yes?" - Cu Chulainn looked at him a little in surprise, - "But aren't you a dragon-killer?"

"Yes, that's what they call me. I'm not saying that I'm useless in battle," the rider smiled. "However, I'm not quite a warrior. "

"Excellent," smiled Cu Chulainn, "Because I would need a defender. At least then I could do whatever magic I myself wanted. What about you, Medusa?"

"It doesn't matter," the girl only sighed. "I have good opportunities for attack and a couple of abilities suitable for defense."

"Fine!" - Cu Chulainn smiled, - "At least I could then kill at least one noticeable enemy on my own! Maybe even the dragon himself - I think we would be able to knock him down together."

"It is possible," the man on the horse shrugged, then stopped and, looking back, sighed, "It seems that Mashu didn't manage to cope with the horse. I will return to her."

"Wait," Cu Chulainn stopped the rider when he was already heading back. "The soldiers will approach her."

"It is possible," the rider did not argue, "But I will still help."

"Saint," Cu Chulainn grunted, watching the horseman's back move away from him, after which he looked at Medusa, "At least the two of us would definitely work together."

"I'm not a vampire," the girl sighed, "But I swear to Hera, I will find a way to let all your blood out of you if you start this conversation again."

"Hey, that was only once!" - Cu Chulainn immediately tried to object, but Rider looked away from him and directed the horse away. It seems that something happened between them in the camp, which Ainz did not even know about.

In the end, Ainz sighed and looked up at the sky.

It is like his days in Yggdrasil...

Ainz smiled, after which the suppression of emotion made him go dark again.

But those days have passed and they could not be returned.

His Ainz Ooal Gown will never return. Never.

Conversations stopped.

At that moment, Ainz felt a connection with a Servant form in his head and nodded. They are approaching Orleans.

It is time to carry out his plan.

* * *

At the moment the foot of Medusa touched the road in front of the gates of Orleans, Chevalier was already in place, watching the Servants approach with his usual cheerful smile, as if he were not at all bothered by the impending armada of his future opponents.

"I must admit that I expected you earlier," the guy smiled at the moment when Archer — and then all the other Servants — stopped in front of Saber himself at a distance of several tens of meters, "Besides, I don't see the army behind your back - although I was sure that you still will bring it with you... And I don't feel three more Servants - hmm... Does this mean that your Master chose to send you to fight on the front line on your own, without his support?"

"Like yours," Archer just shook his head at Chevalier's words, after which he carefully looked at the walls that stood literally a hundred meters behind d'Eon's back, "Why the farce? You would not fight alone - maybe in this case you will introduce your friends to us?"

"Ah, of course," Chevalier immediately smiled, after which, as if not afraid of an attack, he turned around, "Guys, get down! It is impolite not to greet the guests!"

After a second, five shadows instantly jumped from the wall - and Medusa felt the appearance of new Servants very close to them.

"I suppose you already managed to meet all the gentlemen present," at that moment Chevalier glanced at the two standing girls on his side - Carmilla, who looked at the Servant opposite her with hatred, after which she looked at Archer, holding a huge bow, - "And the ladies of course. But just in case, let me remind you."

"Saber," the man pointed to himself, "Chevalier d'Eon."

After that, the guy moved his hand to the right, - "Carmilla, our beautiful Assassin - and her two colleagues, Charles Henri Sanson and the Phantom of the Opera."

"Let me also introduce you to two faces, possibly new to you," at that moment Saber lifted his hand, pointing to a girl with a huge bow and a man in a black gown standing to his left, "Archer and Caster."

"I hope you get along," the guy smiled, causing Medusa to tense up. The most paradoxical thing in Chevalier was that Medusa could not determine with certainty-was his tone mocking at the moment when he said this - or was it friendly.

"I think we'll come up with something about this," Archer nodded in response, without a single emotion in his voice, after which he glanced at Chevalier.

"Well, then," Chevalier sighed, and then slowly pulled his blade from its scabbard, causing the rest of the Servants to strain, "I must admit, I would like to continue our meeting - but the reality is that we need to fight - and possibly kill each other."

"Although, of course," the moment Chevalier finally pulled out his sword and stood in the rack, he sighed, "I would expect such meanness from myself — but not from you. On your side, let me count... A girl with a shield, Archer, Mozart, Medusa, that poisonous girl, Cu Chulainn - and four Servants who refused to serve the Witch. Saber, Lancer, Rider and Berserker. Ten against six - do you not think that this is a little dishonest?"

"Behind your back are three hundred wyverns and tens of thousands of dead," this time Cu Chulainn intervened in the conversation, "Finish this farce."

"Oh, really?" - a little surprised, as if he had just realized this, Chevalier turned to the city, over which hundreds of wyverns continued to turn and whistled, "I completely forgot. In that case, perhaps... It would be foolish not to use them in battle, right?"

"Commander ..." he glanced toward Caster, who was only taking a breath. After a second, hundreds of wyverns fell down over the city.

The battlefield instantly exploded with flickering figures and dozens of attacks.

* * *

The first was Chevalier.

Without even turning his face from the city, he suddenly pushed off the ground, and then with a united movement, in some unthinkable pirouette, while in the air, he struck. The narrow blade of Chevalier aimed at Archer - but the Servant easily jumped back - after which Chevalier's sword grated powerlessly against the metal that appeared before him. Huge metal shield.

"Oh, and you are very beautiful, lady," Chevalier smiled at the moment when he could see Mashu blocked the blow. A second later, the long narrow dagger of Medusa stuck in Saber's stomach, forcing him to gasp, after which a sharp blow of Mashu sent him in a short flight.

* * *

Archer rushed forward a moment earlier, bypassing the situation. His goal was Sanson, who until then seemed to him to be the most suitable opponent for him - however, an arrow plunged before him into the ground, from which Archer jumped back, and made him stop.

"So you're the one they call Archer?" - the girl who was holding a huge bow in her hands instantly pulled a new arrow, after which Archer went to the side in a leap, - "Let's see what you are really worth."

* * *

Unlike the two previously mentioned, Elizabeth Bathory was able to get to exactly the enemy with whom she wanted to fight.

Carmilla easily walked away with a graceful movement from the spear that arose in Lancer's hands, after which she easily repelled a direct attack with her hand, leading her to the side. Bathory, however, instead of stopping in a vulnerable position, continued to move, plunging her spear into the ground, and then used it like a pole to turn around sharply, trying to kick Carmilla. Assassin was not ready for this, and therefore the girl's knee crashed into the face of the woman, who staggered back.

"Long time no see, Elizabeth Bathory!" - the girl smirked at the moment when Assassin was able to erase the blood that suddenly spilled on her beautiful face from her broken nose.

"Girl," Carmilla frowned in disgust, "You... Are nothing — you are unworthy of my name!"

"I gave up my fate and human accusations," she grinned, and then turned her spear in her hands, "I don't even want to hear the accusations from the murderer of hundreds of women!"

"You are just the me who could not accept the truth about herself," Carmilla looked with hatred at Lancer, which she only stuck her tongue out childishly, taunting the woman.

"You are just the me who agreed to accept evil and turn into a monster because of resentment and hatred," countered Lancer, and then pointed her spear at Assassin, "Now - shut up and let's fight!"

* * *

Right next to them, Caster - Caster of the Witch - only looked at the empty space next to him, and then gave the order to the remaining Servants.

"Go," he ordered instantly, after which the Phantom and Charles rushed off, leaving Caster alone. He, however, did not begin to move anywhere after - instead, unexpectedly, the black mage's spell struck an empty place very close to him. Serenity, whose movement was noticed, threw off her disguise, after which she threw several blades in a jump. Caster himself did not respond to this - a sharp gust of wind knocked down the blades before they could pierce his body.

"You," he said, immediately pointing to Assassin, who had come out of invisibility, "That poisonous bitch that poisoned Jeanne!"

Serenity did not begin to talk - instead, she rushed forward to Caster, with the intention of driving a blade into his body. However, Caster did not take risks.

"**Book of Prelati**!" he called instantly to his own Phantasm, after which a violet tentacle that hit the ground made Serenity step back.

"I know that you are poisonous," Caster grinned smugly. "In that case, the solution is quite simple. I won't fight you by myself."

A second later, the ground trembled beneath Serenity's feet, causing her to jump back several times, dodging tentacles that appeared as if from nowhere, covered with transparent mucus and half-open mouths with saliva dripping from them.

"Tell me in this case, bitch," Caster looked at the tentacle, where one of Serenity's poisoned blades pierced into its body, at its convulsive trembling and how, just after a few seconds after the blow, it fell to the ground dead, "Why is your Master - and its allies - aren't there on the battlefield right now?"

Serenity only looked at Caster like an idiot, thinking for a second about whether there would have been at least someone from the Servants who would so easily reveal a secret to the enemy - after which she came to the disappointing conclusion that there are still a lot of such people - and rushed into the battle.

* * *

Siegfried was preparing to fight the dragon. Rider was also preparing to fight the dragon.

However, both of them were waiting for a strange disappointment at the moment when they met with the Servants - but could not see their main opponent anywhere.

Or is it? ..

The two Servants rushed forward - but the one whom Chevalier named as Sanson blocked the way. For a second both swordsmen froze.

The assassin looked before him... Strange.

His body was not wounded and even his clothes were fully restored - but to say that he was healthy was impossible. Instead, Assassin continued to stand in his place, looking at the floor - sometimes a small cramp ran through his body and his head twitches to the side, as if from time to time he had seizures.

"So you are our opponent?" - Siegfried said it out loud, but Assassin did not react to the hero's words, only jerking his head again.

"I feel the evil of the dragon from him," Rider leaned toward Siegfried, and then quietly said this in his ear, but that was what caused Assassin to jerk his head sharply, raising his face to the two dragon-killers.

"Siegfried, my good friend," he smiled. "How long have we not seen..."

"If my memory serves me right, then we never saw each other," Siegfried looked at Assassin. He, hearing the words of Saber, froze.

"Of course..." he said and smiled. Sanson's smile gradually grew in breadth, turning into a beastly grin - after which Assassin raised an open palm to his face, - "That's right... That's right - we never met... Ha ha ha…"

Sanson's quiet chuckle reached the ears of the two Servants despite the battle unfolding around them.

"Ha ha ha..." Sanson grinned again, and then laughed out loud.

Siegfried pushed his blade forward - but suddenly noticed a strange thing. Gradually, the Assassin lowered his palm, running across his face - however, Saber could see that in those places where his palm runs across his face, there are bloody marks. Siegfried instantly determined that the guy's hand was clenched like claws piercing Sanson's flesh.

"It's self-torture," Rider leaned toward Siegfried. "He's ripping off his skin."

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" - Sanson continued to laugh, slowly running his hand over his face, after which, at the last moment, reaching the end of his face and tearing off another piece of skin, he suddenly stopped, looking at his opponents. Blood continued to drip from the many wounds on the guy's face - but he only smiled - "Tell me why I... Why he... Why do we both suffer? What for?"

"I will free you from your suffering," Siegfried put his blade forward, pointing to Assassin, "Surrender now."

"Surrender?" - Assassin staggered back from the word, as if from a whip, after which he laughed again, - "Oh no, my dear friend, not at all! I will not give up - I have no right and way to do it! I will fight - fight with all our strength!"

"Our?" - Siegfried prepared his blade for the strike, to which Rider answered the same. However, Charles only laughed at these actions, - "Stupidity, Siegfried, stupidity! That is your main mistake, my dear friend! Really - stupidity…"

In the hands of Assassin, still covered with his own blood, his blade appeared instantly - a huge and awkward, like a guillotine.

"And now - fight, dragon-killers!" - Sanson grinned madly, - "Free us from this torment!"

* * *

"So we meet again?" - The Phantom of the Opera said this calmly, observing how Mozart is slowly approaching him, - "Great, great! After all, it is in this battle that your death will become another step on the path of my Christina!"

"I would argue about this," Mozart said it calmly, after which he pointed to the man, "And now, I'm sorry, but I have some responsibilities in this battle. **Requiem for Death**!"

Impossible music, not created by God's Child, seemed to feel the moment of possible invasion of reality - however, it was not so simple.

"**Christine, Christine**!" - the power of the Phantom of the Opera took shape in the same second - after which the world froze when two destructive songs collided for a second. This confrontation lasted only a second - after which Mozart's music, ready to tear reality, receded. The destructive song of the Phantom of the Opera died down in that second too.

"I didn't know that you could do that," said Mozart at the same second, but the Phantom of the Opera only smiled.

"Your Phantasm embodies music that cannot be written," Phantom explained benevolently to Caster, "My music embodies all the songs that could have been - but did not happen. We are equal in this."

"Maybe," Mozart smiled, "But this does not mean that your singing has become better."

"Oh," the Phantom smiled, but his smile came out contemptuous and a little bit angry. Assassin's hands began to turn into two huge, blade-clawed paws, - "I will stuff those words into your throat."

"And even that won't make your singing better," Mozart smiled, after which he sent a spell.

* * *

"Damn it, I again remained to carry out side tasks!" - Cu Chulainn uttered angrily, sending spell after spell into a huge cloud of wyverns moving right into the thick of the battle.

"Could you stop whining?" - Kiyohime responded calmly, dodging the blow of the next wyvern, and then with a flick of her hand sent it on a short flight, - "I have enough of it from the stupid girl."

"You can't imagine what it is like! - Caster indignantly waved his staff, sending a fire arrow at the nearest wyvern, - "To be the greatest Celtic hero and to turn out to be unnecessary all the time! Even in this damn battle, I was forced to kill the wyverns - wasn't that why we took the army with us?"

"The army will be here in a few minutes," the girl answered calmly, after which she easily pulled her fan. The rising gust of wind caused the wyvern to recoil - after which, with a slight movement, Kiyohime separated the creature's head from its body, - "Just in time to move the Servants out of the way, otherwise the army would simply die as a side effect of the battle."

"All according to the plan, yeah, yeah," Cu Chulainn muttered to himself, after which he shook his head, not forgetting to burn another monster with a stream of fire, after which he looked at Serenity, "Although, even after Archer told me, I just can't believe in the fact that Ainz created such a plan so long ago... Damn, how did he even manage to predict the fact that Archer would fall under the control of the Phantom of the Opera and not tell him the plan so that the Phantom would not know about it and at the same time learn about its existence, to make enemies behave in such a way that the plan become possible... Damn it, it hurts my head to even think about the very fact of the existence of such a plan! This is complete bullshit!"

"Yes, I confess, only once I happened to meet an equally stunning man," Kiyohime hit the wyvern, and then suddenly froze. The monster, sensing the absence of blows, tried to rise, but Kiyohime, still in thought, pressed it to the ground with her foot and looked at Caster, "By the way... Where does Ainz come from?"

"If I knew," Cu Chulainn sent a spell forward, "He never told it. Judging by his habits, he may be Japanese - or maybe just a traveler who spent a lot of time there."

"Traveler?" - Kiyohime thought about it, slightly shifting her weight to the other leg, making the wyvern plaintively howl, - "Hmm..".

"Hey, don't get distracted!" - Cu Chulainn sent a spell, after which he glanced at Berserker, - "Even if we do not like this work there is no reason not to do it."

"Yes, yes, of course," Kiyohime raised her leg, and then lowered it, breaking the spine of the wyvern, "I just thought..."

"About what?" - Cu Chulainn asked a question, sending a flurry of fire in three wyverns at once, forcing them to separate.

"Nothing special," Kiyohime took a few steps, appearing next to the head of the wyvern, the spine of which she broke a second ago, and then put her foot on its head, "Just... I think I should talk later with Ainz... Closer."

"All the girls want to talk to him," Caster sighed.

"Oh," Kiyohime smiled, from which Caster suddenly felt a chill run down his back, "I think that the other girls will not become... An obstacle... On my way."

* * *

**Eye of the Mind (True)** \- a skill that indicates the ability of the user to look at the current situation from all points of view, evaluating all possible risks and opportunities for the development and outcome of a situation, the conditions that led to it and the features surrounding it. This skill is responsible for the ability of the Servant to determine not only the weaknesses or strengths of opponents, but also to create plans or correctly assessing the situation in which they are, as well as the ability to avoid the effect of illusions or understand the principle of an ability or its mechanism.

There are two versions of this skill, True and False. The false version is a granted power - either from a special birth or from divine intervention, or, perhaps, from the effect of an artifact - while the Eye of the Mind (True) is an ability achieved by the person himself, from the vast experience of the Servant or from a long study of the subject.

In other words, Eye of the Mind (True) is a manifestation of incredible experience and insight from the mind associated with their experience. This skill only works in areas in which it was originally acquired - most often in combat.

* * *

**NO ONE EXPECTS THE RANDOM CHAPTER!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**And yes, there is a reason for Ainz to be so paranoic - at least the reason that he thinks is sufficient. And he isn't going to do anything till he got a proof that Servants are NOT the mortal danger far beyond he ever encountered before. Because if he played the game where there were super-mages and dragons splitting the earth - it will not mean that he would think about real mages and warriors as weak just because their real deeds were not as impressive as virtual deeds of some virtual dragons and all that. It is similar to that if I would play CoD and one day magically the whole military arsenal appears in front of me - I would not think that I'm now capable of destroying the whole military base on my own - even if in-game I did things more impressive than this and now have all the weapons I used in the game to do it.**

**But you know what? He finally got his proof in the new chapter! But here is the thing. This is not my new chapter. The new chapter are at my Pat reon, awaits it time to appear on this site for free.**

**And more -**** on Pat reon \rure I have 3 new chapters right now! So it means that Orleans will end there soon - there are only two chapters before it will end. Sure thing, one day all chapters will be on this site for free - but if you want THREE new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.**


	33. Chapter 33

Mozart sighed intermittently, catching his breath from Assassin's attacks, and then jerked away once again, almost losing his arm from one sweeping blow.

'I really will lose this way' - the musician scowled unhappily. Of course, he did not think he would receive a great power by becoming a Servant, but still - he was weak. His opponent was strong - very, very strong - and while Mozart was useful in many situations, the magic of Orpheus gave him incredible flexibility in terms of tactics. But still in direct combat, he was weak.

"It seems that I have no other choice" - Mozart glanced to the side where the rest of the battle was. Somewhere in the distance, sparks from the battle of two dragon-killers and Sanson were visible, the shadow of Chevalier was visible, evading attacks. Archer's arrow pierced the building next to him, burying a wyvern that decided to fly from below and attack the entrenched Cu Chulainn under the rubble - after which the vague shadow of Serenity slipped nearby, pursuing Caster. After that, Mozart's gaze settled on Bathory, who was fighting nearby - and Bathory, who was also defending herself. The magician sighed - 'Apparently, I have to use this opportunity... I still do not like complex plans though.'

After that, the musician jerked to the side.

"Not bad," Phantom of the Opera praised sparingly toward Mozart at the moment when his steel- clawed paw passed literally a millimeter from the neck of the mage who managed to use his spell.

Mozart did not answer this verbally, instead preferring a simpler and more effective method. Several magic shells appeared at the moment when his music touched the strings of reality - after which they immediately rushed forward. Fortunately or not, but the Phantom was able to escape the path of attack, and then rushed forward.

"Tell me, musician," the Phantom's claws cut open the shield, cast in a hurry, and then pierced Amadeus's flesh, that made a grimace of pain, "How does it feel to lose your beloved?"

"It hurts," the caster answered calmly, "But it is not as painful as being rejected."

The Phantom could not endure this remark. A moment later, he rushed forward, exposing his claws, the most impressive weapon that he had - it seemed that even his face had changed at the moment when it came to his damned love for Christine - however, Mozart hoped for such a development of events.

"It's too easy to piss you off," Amadeus replied calmly, after which the spell, prepared before that, made the Phantom freeze in a half-step. At the same time, realizing that he had just let his anger take over him, his visage instantly changed - after which his grin turned into a calm, cold face, as if there was never anger in his soul.

"Now - let me do what you didn't succeed in doing," Amadeus smiled, after which the Phantom felt something touching his mind. Quiet and beautiful singing suddenly made the Phantom stop - after which, when the strong but brief curse subsided, remain in place.

"Good," bringing the verse to the end, Mozart sighed, and then took a step forward, "But not enough."

The ghost, on the other hand, felt how a slow, quiet singing penetrated his mind, seemingly through every cell of his body - as if he had not heard the music, but felt it with his soul. Slowly, Caster approached him - and Assassin felt the tone gradually build up, penetrating his mind more and more.

Assassin knew what the meaning of Mozart's song was. He himself used it more than once.

"I didn't know that you also resorted to manipulating the mind," the Assassin grinned, feeling how the will to resist were leaving him.

"Oh, believe me," it seemed as if Mozart was speaking, but in fact his words were intertwined in his singing so organically that Assassin literally heard them inside his mind, "I'm not new to dirty tricks."

Stronger and stronger, deeper and deeper, Mozart's voice became more and more insinuating, commensurate with his every step, bringing the mage closer to Assassin, penetrating through the layers of the Phantom's mind. Superficial thoughts, current personality, subconscious mind, memories...

The Assassin smiled when Caster took the last step towards him, allowing the music of the mage to get to the most secret essence of the Servant.

And freeze in horror.

To Mozart's honor, it was worth saying that he managed to evade when Assassin's claws split through the air - so he survived. However, he still did not expect such a trap - and therefore, after a second, Mozart's severed arm fell to the ground.

Amadeus did not dare to continue to attack - instead of taking several jumps back with the help of his magic, he only glanced at the Phantom in an incomprehensible way.

"Welcome to my mind," the Assassin smiled, feeling how the curse of the musician, having reached those depths of the mind that he should not touch, passed, "Do you like it?"

"What..." - Mozart's gaze stared at Assassin in fear — however, it was impossible to understand what was more in it — fear due to a severed hand — or fear due to what Mozart saw in the Phantom's mind, "What is it?"

"My mind," the Phantom smiled, after which his smile turned into a grin, "Not the one my Christine gave me. Really mine."

Mozart was fairly honest and peaceful during his lifetime - he did not use his magic for evil and did not use his influence to punish his opponents. However, he really did not shun dirty tricks. Assassin was not the first whose mind was touched by a mage. In his life, neither his wife nor his children — nor casual passers-by — escaped this. This was not a highly moral matter, which Mozart was proud of - however, he would have accumulated ten or twenty times when, out of sheer curiosity, he used his magic not only to give people emotions or joy, but on occasion to see inside of pure, beautiful people, bright in soul - and petty, greedy, buried by their lowest desires.

Once, by accident, his magic touched the mind of a killer. A cruel and unprincipled man, his mind was unpleasant to be inside - three murders, two rapes, six robberies. A little while later the criminal was executed - however, Mozart remembered the sensations from his mind. It was a cruel, cold, unpleasant place, like a desert crypt full of small insects swarming in the corners - so that they could not be seen, and so that they were known.

This was negligible compared to what he touched in the mind of the Phantom of the Opera.

"What are you?" - Mozart looked at Assassin, for the first time since the battle, not as a person, but as something alien. As a monster.

"Oh, Phantom of the Opera," Assassin smiled, after which he bowed, deliberately not turning his claws into an ordinary human palm, "Nice to meet you, musician."

The mind of the Phantom of the Opera was like a seething abyss made up of blood and sewage. It was like a vile monster, full of ever-hungry mouths and wriggling slimy tentacles, reaching for a defenseless victim, wanting to devour another offering.

"Oh, my mind is a very special place, don't worry," the Phantom smiled. "Even mine... Colleagues prefer not to touch it - so I understand you. I certainly understand - do not be afraid, people who are much greater than you, were horrified at the sight - I'm used to it."

"And now I understand everything," Mozart sighed and closed his eyes. "Your terrible singing, and why Christine did not choose you."

The next second, when the name of the Phantom's lover was uttered by the mage, a bloody veil covered Assassin's eyes - however, instead of rushing forward without seeing any obstacles in front of him, the Phantom only grinned.

"Speak as much as you want, musician," the Phantom smiled, after which he glanced at the wound inflicted on Mozart. Blood flowed from the stump of his right hand - like a stream, not stopping,- "But you have little to say. How much can you hold out against me now? A minute, two?"

"Three," said Mozart, instantly realizing that this time his plan did not work, after which he looked apprehensively at his opponent, "But in any case, I did not plan to drag the battle with you longer than necessary."

"Excellent," the Phantom grinned, after which he looked madly at Mozart, "Then I will have time to tear off your skin and hang your corpse before this battle is over."

* * *

Chevalier dealt another blow - however, this time too, the blade grated powerlessly on the shield metal.

"Damn me, lady, you are good!" - he admired, instantly passing from the offensive to the defense at the moment when a dagger of Medusa struck into the ground next to him. Mashu took advantage of the attack, after which she tried to push Chevalier away - but she was easily sidestepped. After which, without any hitch, he evaded from the next blade of Medusa, turning his back to Mashu for a second. She could not help but take the opportunity - and yet another blow caused Chevalier to lose concentration. This was enough for Medusa - and the girl who immediately appeared next to him stamped her graceful leg into Saber's stomach. After this he could only gasp, after which, using the moment of impact, he jumped back.

"That hurts, you know," he smiled, after which he inspected his blade.

Mashu was not without wounds - her hands were cut narrowly with Chevalier's sword and several small bleeding wounds remained on her body. Medusa, although she tried to shield herself with the girl's shield, continued to periodically limp on one leg, which Chevalier managed to reach with his attack.

And yet, it could not be compared with Saber's wounds. Chevalier d'Eon was covered in wounds, many of which still continued to bleed - a particularly successful attack by Medusa cost him a deep cut on his face, having drawn a furrow along it without passing his left eye. Because of this, it seemed as if Chevalier was close to losing - but instead of being exhausted enough to fall in place - Saber only smiled.

Chevalier was strong. Very strong. Perhaps monstrously strong. He could compete with any of Ainz's servants - and he could defeat most of it.

But in the battle against Medusa and Mashu at the same time, albeit by not very much, but Chevalier was inferior. If he fought with Medusa - most likely, he would still win. If he fought with Mashu - his victory would only take a minute. But at the same time Chevalier could not fight with the two of them. More precisely, of course he could - but without hope of victory.

And yet this did not mean that the victory over Chevalier was easy .

Chevalier rushed forward - this time his blade was aimed not at Mashu, but at Medusa, who was ahead. She, however, only jumped back, finally throwing her blade toward Chevalier, at the moment when Mashu appeared next to him. This was what Chevalier sought.

Chevalier easily intercepted Rider's blade, after which he himself abruptly threw it, aiming at Shielder. She had no choice but to deflect the thrown blade by the shield, allowing Chevalier to appear next to the girl. Medusa managed to throw her second blade, causing Chevalier to retreat - however, Mashu cried out when Chevalier's sword entered her stomach.

"Not bad, not bad!" - Chevalier smiled, after which he stepped back, fleeing from the blow of the Mashu's shield, - "But what? Is that all you can do? Oh, you will defeat me - but how much time it will take! I already see the flags of the army rising above the horizon - no matter what your plan is, you do not have time!"

Medusa only frowned at the remark. Mashu was not so stupid as to look away from Chevalier, and for Medusa this action was useless, but the army really had to arrive in only a few minutes, so this time Medusa could believe that Chevalier was telling the truth.

But still…

"We have already succeeded," smiled Mashu, after which she put forward her shield.

They really managed to do what was planned - the Servants of Ainz and the Servants of the Witch were scattered - someone was already fighting inside the city, while someone was fighting not far from them - but still hundreds of meters away.

"Oh, really?" - Chevalier was surprised, - "But where is your Master? Oh, this terrifying mage - I'm sure if he fought now, our battle would end long ago."

"Maybe," Medusa replied shortly, "But he has his own plans for this battle."

"Really?" - Chevalier was genuinely surprised by this words, - "I thought, only I alone have a plan for this battle... Hmm, what a pity!"

"But still you are right," Medusa caught the soldiers approaching slowly by the growing roar of hoofs, "The army is approaching."

"Oh, lady, of course - I have an excellent reputation when it comes to truth and lies!" - Chevalier smiled.

"In that case, we need to finish," Medusa said calmly. Chevalier grinned.

"If you think so, lady," Chevalier smiled and rushed forward. This time, however, his movement was stopped by Mashu who was nearby.

"Bellerophon!" - the voice of Medusa sounded loudly, and the world lit up with light.

It was as if a beautiful stallion woven from light appeared in an instant in front of Medusa. A beautiful horse, whose radiance was like the sun, bowed its head in front of Rider, allowing her to jump on his neck, and then opened its huge, snow-white wings.

"Pegasus," Chevalier smiled, forgetting for a second that he was fighting, "How beautiful."

After that, Mashu, who had not forgotten that she was fighting, sent Chevalier into flight with a blow.

Chevalier easily, however, was able to catch his balance in the air, and then turn around in order to land on his feet - but he did not succeed. It was as if white lightning flashed across the sky - after which Chevalier's body was swept away, flying tens of meters. The impact of such a force did not allow d'Eon to maintain balance and a moment later Saber crashed to the ground like a doll whose strings have been cut.

"Oh-ooh-ooh," - Saber slowly began to rise from the ground - "Lady, your strength is worthy of every compliment that I can come up with!"

Medusa that controlled Bellerophon from its back only turned around for a new attack.

Chevalier tried to rush to the side - however, this time again, Mashu got in his way.

"And you, lady, too," Chevalier smiled at the moment when his gaze came across an obstacle, after which Bellerophon struck again.

Instantly, Chevalier flew back, like a leaf falling into a hurricane, after which he again hit the ground dozens of meters from the battlefield.

* * *

Carmilla walked away from Elizabeth's blow easily, not allowing it to hurt Carnilla's body, after which the staff in her hands turned into a mace that hit Lancer. The girl, having just squeaked, set off on a short flight.

"As I thought," Carmilla only grinned at the moment when Lancer's body hit the ground, "Weak and stupid."

"Shut up!" - with some kind of childish indignation at the name-calling, Bathory jumped from the ground, and then put down her spear, - "Old freak!"

"Old... Freak?" - Carmilla looked at Lancer, after which her face was contorted with anger, - "Oh, and you know how to drive me crazy!"

After that, the Assassin rushed forward, simultaneously with Lancer. This time, Lancer, however, was ready - in order to not allow her spear to be pulled to the side, she held it a little closer, and then sent it to the very heart of Carmilla. She, however, only stepped aside, after which Assassin jumped over Bathory. Lancer instantly redirected her spear, raising her hands - however, Carmilla in this case, of course, was already gone. Bathory, raising her spear, left her body unprotected - therefore, after a second, the tip of Carmilla'sstaff pierced her stomach.

"Brainless weakling!" Carmilla with force - and even some pleasure - turned her staff, making Bathory sob from pain, and then retreated the moment when the girl's spear fell down, "Worthless!"

"Go to hell, witch!" - Cried out the bloody Lancer, grinning, - "At your age isn't it dangerous to do such tricks? Be careful or you might break something!"

"You little bitch!" - Assassin rushed this time, but this time Lancer was prepared. Carmilla jerked away from the spear, but it still plunged into the woman's chest, instantly ripping open a furrow.

"Ha-ha, look! The blood did not help you become either more beautiful or stronger!" - Bathory smirked, then sharply waved her spear, cleansing the blood from it.

"What do you even know about me!" - Carmilla hit the staff on the ground, - "I was innocent! I was innocent!"

"You are a murderer!" - Elizabeth pointed her spear at Carmilla, - "You killed dozens of girls, you killed hundreds!"

"I'm innocent!" - Carmilla looked at Bathory with anger, - "They said that there is no other way! No one told me that this should not be done!"

"You need to be told that killing people is bad?!" - For a second, Lancer was speechless, after which she was completely furious - "You're sick! Sick old hag!"

"I'm only twenty-seven!" - Carmilla rushed forward.

"Don't lie to me!" - Bathory spat out an insult, - "You were fifty-one!"

"Shut up!" - Carmilla seemed to have lost all her reason - her movement lost all shine and gloss, turning into the movements of a wild beast. It seemed that the girl had ceased to pay any attention to Lancer's spear, trying to get to the girl.

"I'm not a damn serial killer!" - Lancer thrust the spear to the side, driving it into Carmilla's leg.

"You will become it!" - Carmilla finally reached Lancer, but she, instead of panicking, unexpectedly bowed her head - after which she plunged her horns into the body of Assassin, causing her to gasp in surprise.

"Never!" - said Lancer, after which, letting go of her spear, plunged her fist into Carmilla's face, after which Assassin managed to retreat, - "Never! You could be a great singer - but chose to become a monster!"

"Singer?!" - recoiled Carmilla, sighing, and then looked with anger at Bathory, - "everyone said that our voice is terrible! Idiot!"

"Well, let me prove that they were wrong!" -Lancer grinned smugly, and then stepped back.

"**Bathory Erzsebet**!" - a second later, it seemed as though from the earth itself, towers instantly began to rise. Carmilla was able to recognize them instantly.

"Cachtice Castle," the Assassin was instantly able to realize when the towers rising from the ground began to supplant the buildings of the city, destroying them in their path, "You decided to use my castle against me?! My house?!"

"That's not all!" - and only at that moment Carmilla could understand what kind of horror awaited her. Her ancestral castle was disfigured - what she initially mistook for towers was not that. These were gigantic…

"Subwoofers?!" - Carmilla recoiled for a second, after which she looked at Lancer with sincere misunderstanding, for a second getting rid of her anger, - "This is the most idiotic Noble Phantasm that I have ever seen."

Lancer was offended by this for a second, but still continued. She owned two Noble Phantasms - and now she wanted to use both.

"And now - the main performance from the greatest of divas!" - pompously said Lancer, after which her blood boiled, - "**Kilenc Sarkany**!"

In a sense, it was possible to call Carmilla the true Elizabeth Bathory. It is impossible to prove whether her acts were truly as they were presented in court. Whether Elizabeth Bathory was truly a murderer in history is impossible to prove. However, this is how her image entered the legend - the bloody Countess Bathory. She remained in human memory as just that, and therefore the Servant was born - Elizabeth Bathory, Carmilla, the bloody countess. However, there was no memory in people's memory of another Bathory - a young girl who wanted to become a singer, arrogant and childishly cruel, but still an ordinary person. And therefore, Elizabeth Bathory, Lancer, was not destined to appear.

However, stories about Sarkan remained in the story. A powerful dragon, capable of controlling the weather with his voice and possessing incredible strength.

While Carmilla was "Elizabeth Bathory, that went down in history", Lancer became an innocent girl who was distorted by rumors about her, turning her into an incomprehensible monster that bears signs of human rumor. In most other cases, this would make Elizabeth a demon, however the only trait that was known allowed the unbelievable to happen.

Elizabeth Bathory was very fond of singing, no matter how badly she did.

And therefore an incredible event turned the girl instead of a demon into a dragon. However, even her family, Bathoyi, according to legend, descended from dragon-killers, did not allow her to become a real dragon, instead turning it into a person wearing the seal of human rumor, reflected in the form of dragon features - horns and tail.

Such a force gave Bathory a lot of power, which she could use to attack or to create a Noble Phantasm - which Bathory took advantage of.

And she sang.

Unfortunately, her inconsequential singing abilities and the legend of Sarkan did not allow her to really sing - and instead of a Phantasm like that of Mozart or the Phantom of the Opera, the girl simply shouted.

With a volume of a thousand decibels.

* * *

The Phantom of the Opera evaded the next spell, after which he moved closer to the mage. The stamina of the musician were running out - but still, he tried to avoid imminent death, due to which the claws of the Phantom of the Opera stuck in his chest instead of his neck, after which with one movement split Caster's chest, causing him to breathe intermittently from pain.

"You're getting weaker," the Phantom smiled. Of course, he was also wounded - but unlike Mozart - completely superficially, having paid for the numerous wounds inflicted on Amadeus with torn clothing and several bruises mixed with burns.

"I know," Mozart answered calmly. His strength was really running out and that was true.

'Come on, come on!' He cast a glance at Bathory in the distance 'Come on!'

The next second, the blades pierced the caster, forcing him to hiss in pain as he lost part of his abdomen.

"Come on, come on!" - The Phantom of the Opera triumphed at the moment when his blades pierced the musician's body again, - "Come on, come on! Give me the last moment of your life! Give me your death! Give me death for my Christine!"

'Yes!' - in the end, the mage exclaimed nevertheless, when the distant battle of Bathory stopped and the towers slowly emerging from underground lifted above the battlefield - 'Finally!'

After this, Mozart froze and the Phantom of the Opera's blades finally reached their goal, ripping the musician's heart, making him freeze for a second, and then fall to the ground.

"Ha ha ha ha" - the Phantom burst out laughing, stretching out slowly, claw after claw, hand from the body of the mage, turning it into an ordinary human palm, - "I won! Of course, it could not be otherwise - my Christine gave me victory!"

The Phantom of the Opera laughed, and then glanced at the body of the defeated opponent," Finally! Finally, damn musician - now your words will no longer poison my mind!"

"Not really," a voice suddenly sounded in Assassin's head. "Let me tell you something else."

The Phantom of the Opera froze, and then turned in the direction of Caster - but instead of talking, Assassin saw only his body, under which a pool of blood spread.

"This body is dead," Assassin felt as Caster grinned with a smug smile. "But I still have some time."

"What the hell have you done ?!" - The Phantom froze in misunderstanding.

"You yourself let me into your mind," Caster said smugly, after which the Phantom froze.

"You fled in horror!" - Assassin said immediately.

"Oh, I really didn't expect such horror in your head," said Caster. "But that doesn't mean that I was unprepared."

"You?!" The Phantom turned to Caster's already dead body, looking at how his pupils slowly became clouded.

"You see, such is the life of God's Child," smiled the mage in his head, "I hear too much. The steps of the soldiers kilometers from me - the flapping of the wings of a butterfly - and the music coming from each person. Archer's lingering call, the brave motifs of Cu Chulainn, the pure acapella of Mari... And even your crazy whispers turning into white noise. I knew that I could not control your mind - but still I entered there."

The Assassin froze in shock, after which he looked at the already dead Mozart's eye.

"Now, let me finish our battle," Mozart said calmly. "Look to the left."

The Phantom looked away to see the huge structure towering above the battlefield - and the girl who was at its very top, just like the singer is in the middle of the stage.

"The girl's singing is terrible," Mozart said with a sigh, "This violence against the miracle of music is even worse than your voice. But at the same time, one ability gives me the opportunity to determine the forces that are associated with art - even if her singing can be called art only conditionally. And thanks to her singing, I knew that she will use this particular Phantasm. Even if in the end it's just a scream."

The Assassin fell silent, realizing that he had fallen into Caster's trap.

"And my curse is that I hear everything much more clearly than any other people" - Mozart sighed - "So let me use this power as my trump card. After all, all music submits to me - so let me take away the strength of the Noble Phantasm of Elizabeth for myself."

Assassin finally realized what was Mozart's final gambit.

"So, convincing me that you don't know my mind you got into my head," Phantom of the Opera said it calmly, "After which you left part of yourself inside, to later use the Bathory's scream amplifying her cry a thousand times - after which, pour it inside my mind."

"Thank you for explaining this," Mozart smiled, and then sighed, "By the way... Two minutes forty seconds. I managed even faster than expected. "

"Now I understand," Phantom of the Opera finally said, looking respectfully at his dead opponent, "Why Chevalier called you the most dangerous of all."

"Thank you for such a high appreciation of my abilities," Mozart smiled. "Now, it's time to die."

The next second, the phenomenal cry of Elizabeth Bathory burst out of her throat - however, that voice that was supposed to be an all-sweeping wave was drowned out. To be more precise, it was instantly absorbed by the power of Mozart, which intensified the Phantasm a thousand times more - after which the remnants of God's Child were scattered, allowing the final cry to sound in the head of the Phantom of the Opera, instantly destroying his entire body to the very last atom.

Caster, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Assassin, Phantom of the Opera, perished.

* * *

Elizabeth Bathory used her Noble Phantasm, but Carmilla, preparing to use her Phantasm for protection, froze at the moment when instead of a monstrous scream she heard only silence.

Somewhere in the distance, cries of people and wyverns were heard, spells were uttered and exploded, blades grated and buildings collapsed - however, it seemed as if Elizabeth Bathory's voice had completely disappeared.

Lancer exhaled to the end, after which her Phantasm was scattered with sparkles and the girl slowly sank to the ground, after which she opened her eyes, waiting to see the destruction created by her voice. However, instead of seeing the ruined streets and her older version buried under the rubble, she only looked at it uncomprehendingly.

"But how?!" she said instantly. She felt that her Phantasm worked! Her voice was to turn into a barrage, blowing everything in its path, into a hurricane whirlwind, smashing stone and steel with equal ease.

"How could it-HAH!" - Lancer froze in place when the tip of Carmilla's staff pierced her chest.

"You weren't even able to use your Phantasm, weakling," Carmilla said disgustedly, then shook Lancer from her weapon, "You are simply a mistake that should not exist."

"Hah..." said Lancer, after which she grinned at Assassin. "At least I don't leave this smell of oldness behind me."

Carmilla, instantly furious, hit the girl with a heel, but she only gasped, and then grinned, "Weak... Are you getting old?"

Carmilla brought her staff for the final blow, after which an unexpected blow made her fly off a couple of meters.

"Lancer, you idiot!" - instantly someone grabbed the girl's body, - "Don't you dare to die!"

"Oh, come on, Kiyo," the girl smirked, no longer distinguishing what she saw in front of her, but recognizing her friend by voice, "It will be easier without me."

"Lancer, you idiot!" - Bathory was sure that in different conditions Kiyohime would accompany these words with a blow of a fan, but now the girl's hands just lifted her from the ground, - "Don't dare to die so easily! You haven't paid it off for all the time that you got on my nerves!"

"Heh," Bathory smirked, feeling her strength leaving her completely. "You can get all your revenge in the next life."

With these words, Lancer, Elizabeth Bathory, died.

* * *

Chevalier slowly rose from the ground, realizing that he had lost this battle. Lost completely.

With a sigh, he tried to lean on his left foot - however, a sharp bout of pain told him that it was broken. After that, he tried to lean on the right - after which it, with a vile crunch, broke, forcing him to fall to the ground and grin.

"Okay, okay," Chevalier smiled, looking at his opponents approaching him. "I acknowledge your victory, ladies. I lost."

"I will not trust your words, even if my life would depend on them," Medusa took the last step to Saber, and then took out her blade, "But I will give you the opportunity to utter your last word."

"Thank you, lady, you are so kind," Chevalier smiled, after which he reached for his sword. Medusa brought the blade, but he slowly raised his sword, and then stuck it in the ground, using it as a support, slowly rising, - "Do not worry. I lost this fight, even I can admit it."

After this, Chevalier turned towards the city, where other Servants still continued to fight, and slowly raised his blade.

Medusa prepared for the jump, but Chevalier just turned around, grinning.

"Don't worry, lady," d'Eon smiled. "This time I'm not betraying you. **Fleur de Lys: Profusion of Hundred Flowers, Dance of Lilies**!"

The next instant, Chevalier's blade lit up with white light - after which it scattered with a bunch of sparks, after which Chevalier's body shone. However, neither Medusa nor Mashu were the target of the last, strongest of Chevalier's Phantasm's. This time, they saw neither divine beauty, nor radiance, nor light — nothing blinded them and made their minds clouded. The goal of the Chevalier Phantasm was the Servants of the Witch.

Caster, who fought Serenity, suddenly froze - after which Assassin, obeying the Master's plan, instantly rushed away from him. Archer froze, letting the other Archer go on the offensive. Sanson stopped, ceasing to attack the two dragon-killers. Carmilla froze with her scepter brought in to strike at Kiyohime. Even the many wyverns suddenly stopped, allowing Cu Chulainn to exterminate dozens before they could budge.

Chevalier's first Phantasm was a charm ability that allowed him to move. The second took away his ability to act, instead giving him the opportunity to stop many opponents at once. The third was the strongest of all, because he was able to act on any number of enemies that Chevalier designated. And at the same time, the third Phantasm demanded the largest payment from him.

Chevalier's body, like dry leaves, was caught in the wind, which began to slowly destroy him. Slowly, Chevalier's body turned into a divine radiance, absorbing the mind and eyes of all his opponents, forever imprinting in their minds a beautiful view of the most beautiful of people.

"Who are you really fighting for, Chevalier?" - Medusa took the last step towards her opponent, forcing him to smile.

"For France, lady," he sighed and looked at her. "Who else can I fight for?"

Mashu took a step towards Saber. He was an enemy, Hassan died because of him, because of him many of their plans were destroyed, Archer came under the control of the Phantom of the Opera - all of them were in danger. But still…

"Thank you," Mashu said this, making Chevalier just a little grin.

"Oh, thank you, lady," d'Eon turned his eyes to Mashu, "For making Chevalier's life so unforgettable. Now - please hurry up. This Phantasm will act only until my body is completely dispelled. And you worked wonderfully - therefore, I did not have much strength left to maintain it."

Mashu just nodded at this, and then rushed forward. Medusa followed her — however, Chevalier did not see this — instead, he devoted all his strength to maintaining his final song.

The army passed him — he no longer saw how the gates were open, how the soldiers faced the undead, how the Servants took advantage of the opportunity that had opened up for them, and how the battle continued.

In the end, Chevalier felt that the final moment of his play had nevertheless come.

His Phantasm faded and the battle spun again.

"Well then..." Chevalier smiled at his distant enemies, feeling that his whole body had been turned into pure light and he had only a few seconds left. "Thank you for watching Chevalier d'Eon's life. My Queen, I'm sorry - I hope that we will meet in another life."

With these words, Saber, Chevalier d'Eon, turned into the last ray of light - and disappeared.

* * *

**Eye of the Mind (True):** _EX_

The holder of a skill of this rank, in fact, cannot lose. No matter how the situation turns out and in whatever conditions the holder of this skill is in, he will always be able to turn the situation to his advantage, find a way out of any hopeless situation, use another ability created specifically for this case, or turn to his artifacts with the most suitable effects for the situation. In this case, this is not even the skills responsible for the ability to analyze a situation or use one's own experience, how much the possession of an incredible ability in any condition to be always be ahead of one's opponent, no matter how perfect his adversary's plan or how great his abilities. This skill does not make the user invulnerable and does not mean that any plan created will be ingenious, nor does it mean that any battle of the Servant will be carried out by creating an ideal trap designed for the enemy - it simply means that, in fact, any situation in whose chance of victory for the Servant is zero percent - he will still be able to surpass any conditions and remain the winner.

* * *

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**About Rider and Siegfried - ****Siegfried is Saber. The person I reference as Rider, brown-haired and Cu called as the Saint - is the brown-haired Saint Rider they found few chapters prior.**

**About me cashing out money and Ainz being paranoid - if we would think about it logically - then I'm doing it ineffectively. First of all - weekly chapters are ineffective, biweekly for free look just right, while having weekly for Pat reon are quite an advantage. Secondly - then chapters are too large for this, a more effective way would be use short 6-7 page chapters. Thirdly - I'm also not milking enough money from this. I could really make two-three chapters out of every Servant's fight, not to mention detailed Servant's time spending, a spin-off about Chaldea, about the camp of the French army with other Servants, about Witch's forces, random citizens looking all their fights from aside and all that. And fourthly - if Ainz paranoia was made to make cash - then Ainz would not drop it eventually, gaining the proof of his power.**

**But you know what? He finally got his proof in one of the newer chapter! But here is the thing. This is not my new chapter. The new chapters are at my Pat reon, awaits it time to appear on this site for free.**

**Even more - now at my Pat reon there are FOUR chapters! Yeah, four chapters right now! Even more - Orleans ended on my Pat reon! You can look how it ended there, for 1$.**

**Also -**** I finally figured out what the point is to pay me more money than the minimum 1$ pledge.**

**Now for $ 5 I have a poll votes! The first pollis about who Ainz will summon next - in the next chapter. Naturally, this is not the only thing for $5 pledge - in the future there will be other polls, this will be enough for a month and a little a half. Then... Let's see what happens then.**

**And all that -**** on my Pat reon \rure, where I have 4 new chapters right now! Orleans already ended there. Sure thing, one day it will end on this site for free - but if you want FOUR new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.**

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	34. Chapter 34

At the moment when Caster stopped moving, affected by Chevalier's Phantasm on his mind, Serenity only hesitated for a second, after which, immediately taking advantage of the distraction, she rushed away.

Caster, powerlessly frozen, as if struck in awe by the first time he saw the sunrise, only managed to think this last thought.

"Damn you, Chevalier," he sighed, feeling his mind sink into the captivity of Saber. " I had every reason not to trust you..."

After that, Caster's gaze was lost in the beauty revealed to his mind. It seemed to him as if he had once again found himself there, far, so far...

It was as if he again was slowly leading his horse through fields of wheat, and in front of him was his Jeanne. Smiling, she casually held her banner with her left hand, brushing the bangs from her forehead with her right, trying to stay on the horse moving forward. And Gilles himself smiled at her, looking at how the girl was trying to act as an adult and to be strong, to appear in the eyes of the soldiers following her, as a symbol of the victory of France. It was as if he again was now moving to the camp, where he would have to slurp a pot of disgusting camp soup, and then, hiding it from Jeanne, pull out a bottle of wine from the cart, which he hid just in case. It was as if he was waiting for a long planning of the attack again, and then a sound sleep until the next day, after which he would rise again in the morning. He will smile at Jeanne, who woke up early again, after which he will invite her to a nearby field, where he will train her to fight with swords. Of course, in the end he will win, but not strike the last blow - Jeanne herself admits defeat - after which Gilles will begin to teach her the correct stance, and then - the right hit.

As if he was reliving the distant days of his life ...

Chevalier's Phantasm stopped unexpectedly - as if at some moment Gilles suddenly realized that distant memories were only memories - and now he was here. He fought under Orleans, again. Again with Jeanne, but now...

Caster's shoulder suddenly echoed in pain, forcing him to grab hold of it- and discover the blade. The small dagger used by that Assassin. While running away, she nevertheless took the time to throw poisoned weapons at him. And that meant only one thing.

Gilles de Ré, the Caster of the Dragon Witch, was dying.

No, he would not die now - even if Assassin was dangerous, like her poison - it would take a long time before he died. However, he will inevitably die.

Caster looked at the monsters he had called. During the battle with the girl, many of them died - many parts of the bodies, cut up tentacles and dead carcasses of monsters lay around him, sometimes languidly twitching in their death throes. However, none of the monsters that were injured will survive. Not even a couple of minutes.

Caster was a Servant - he was much more powerful than his summoned monsters, and the dose of poison that he received with the attack was minimal. But still he will die soon. That was a fact.

But not so soon.

Caster smiled.

But not as soon as his enemies would hope.

At that moment, the earth shook beneath him, after which the monsters called by the mage, the thoughtless monsters, suddenly began to look around, and those who only thoughtlessly pulled the tentacles began to twitch their whole bodies, as if trying to escape from Caster's magic.

Slowly new tentacles began to rise from the earth, however, instead of the expected dozens, hundreds pushed up, almost merging with each other into a single forest of hungry hands rising to the sky. The monsters, previously under Caster's control, were taken up by tentacles, which dragged them inside an ever-growing lump.

He used his Phantasm earlier - but the full strength of such an ability took time to activate.

The tentacles began to wrap around Caster, as if merging with his body, until the whole body was buried under a huge multitude of black and purple hands.

The mass took shape gradually, turning from a ball of tentacles into a single form of a giant monster. A huge monster, as if born from a nightmare, consisting of tentacles flowing into each other and flickering between them multitudes of always hungry mouths.

Then, at the moment when the monster was fully formed, Gilles, who became the likeness of its heart, grinned, slowly turning to the Servants who continued to fight, watching the army burst into the open gate, slowly clearing the way to the castle.

He will die, of course. It should be so. For his sins and for his deeds, he will go to Hell.

But before that, he will fight for Jeanne. Just like then.

* * *

The monstrous roar made all the combatants pause for a second.

Almost all, to be precise.

Kiyohime continued to look at the body of Lancer, who died in her arms.

Berserker's head was empty.

Why was Kiyohime called into this world?

This question was asked of her by Ainz at their first meeting and Kiyohime dismissed him.

But once she had heard this question before.

From herself.

It was strange - for faraway France in distant times, the legend of Kiyohime had no meaning - it had no fame. In fact, her summoning should not have taken place. Neither her appeal, nor her appearance in this world, created around one impossible event in a distant country on the other half of the earth, should not have been.

And yet she appeared in this world.

Why? It was difficult to answer this question. Perhaps the Holy Grail was to blame, or perhaps the will of the world. Perhaps someone intervened in the measured course of events and made Kiyohime appear where she never existed - it was too difficult to answer.

But Kiyohime was not supposed to appear in this distant time, in this distant place, in this distant world. But still she appeared.

And unlike many other Servants who arose in this world that fought for the Witch, or against her, she did not appear in the center of events, wanting to protect people or allow the Witch to rule these lands. She was called up in a distant village, on the very outskirts of France, alone, not understanding anything, empty and wandering senselessly through this wrong world.

She did not need rest or food, did not have a Master and should not have fought. She was not needed here.

So she just walked. She traveled the strange world days and nights, looking at the living peasants, fighting soldiers, dying monsters. Without any meaning or hope. Just walked, looking at it all.

Until one day she met a stupid girl. Loud and catchy, terribly noisy and annoying, with two horns and a tail peeking out from under her skirt, she demanded that she be allowed into the most luxurious inn room without charge, after which she was served hot water, a hearty dinner and a clean bed.

Back then Kiyohime didn't like her at all - and this was the first time that Berserker used her fan as a weapon, hitting it on the girl's head, silencing her from surprise at first - and then causing her to scream at Berserker, trying to defend her insulted dignity.

Kiyohime answered her the same way - and they first got into a fight. Without her Phantasms, Kiyohime had low chances - however, she was able to, by sheer chance, knock out the girl during that fight. Then, when she was convinced that Lancer was still alive, Berserker passed on.

A few hours later she saw a red spot blazing with hatred, approaching her. Then they fought a second time.

This time, Lancer won. Kiyohime remained lying down, and Lancer stood with a grin over her, telling her that she was a dragon, so victory was natural for her.

After that, Kiyohime became furious and used her Phantasm, after which Lancer lost again.

After that, Kiyohime left the girl and moved away. And at night she saw the girl approaching again.

She told her that as two dragons they should stick together with each other. Kiyohime then first told her that she was just a fake dragon and set off. Lancer did not remain far behind.

So they passed the day - Lancer screamed, sang and in every way irritated the nerves of Kiyohime. Kiyohime first tried not to react to her, then sometimes she began to hit Lancer with her fan when she was especially unbearable. And in the end, she came to the conclusion that if Lancer gets on her nerves, then Kiyohime has every right to answer her the same. And endless insults from Berserker rained down.

Lancer was angry, screaming, getting on her nerves twice as much, threatened to beat Kiyohime again, but did not leave. And then kept walking next to Berserker.

So they walked, foot in foot, all this time. How long have they been going this way?

When she walked alone, she counted every second that she lived. Six days eight hours twenty seven minutes forty two seconds. The time until her meeting with Elizabeth Bathory.

How much later? Kiyohime did not count. They walked with her around this world, wandering unceasingly from city to city, for so long... Weeks? Months? Years?

They met recruiters from the Witch, fought with her monsters, encountered robbers, tried to travel the world...

And now, Elizabeth Bathory, annoying, stupid, brainless, with zero hearing and voice...

Died.

Just died.

Kiyohime could not understand this.

"Stupid girl," Carmilla said this, shaking off her stupor, after which she glanced at Bathory's body, and then at Kiyohime.

"Yes," Kiyohime said this, looking at Elizabeth.

So long together, so many nerves wrecked by each other, so many quarrels and insults...

"Yes, she's a stupid girl," at this moment, as if just realizing what had happened, Kiyohime felt something wrestling her mind for control over her body. And she did not want to resist this, so instead she turned to Carmilla, looking at that one with almost pity,- "But you are a dumb bitch."

Carmilla was taken aback for a second, after which Kiyohime realized that she had lost control of her body.

"**Tenshin Kashou Zanmai**," she smiled a crazy smile, "**Samadhi Through Transforming Flame!**"

In the next second, a blow of incredible strength almost swept away all the buildings standing nearby, turning the street instantly into a cluttered wasteland.

Caster's monster froze at that moment, glancing at the sight that opened to him.

The fire, so hot that it burns with a blue flame, descended to the earth, taking shape. A huge, clawed paw emerged from the blue flame, immediately crushing the buildings next to it like a house of cards, after which the second, destroying everything that was left behind. Then the third and fourth - after which the huge wings cast a shadow over the entire city, forcing the Servants, who had already glanced at the appearance of Caster's monster, to freeze again, looking thoughtfully at the next giant monster that just appeared in the last minute.

After that, the long neck that made the dragon look like a snake stretched out of the fire, carrying the dragon's face, with two pairs of white horns on the sides of its head.

After that, Kiyohime lost her mind and did not respond to what her mind was saying. But even if she still retained control over her body, her actions would not have changed. Because her mind screamed only one thing.

'Burn them!' her mind screamed, 'Kill them all!'

And Kiyohime was happy to obey.

A stream of flame instantly struck, burning hundreds and thousands of monsters in its path. Carmilla tried to rush away - however, she instantly noticed that she was not even the target of the attack. The dragon's tail, long and flexible, like a snake, swept her from its place, throwing her away like unnecessary garbage, throwing the woman hundreds of meters away.

After that, the dragon turned his gaze to the giant monster, in the center of which Caster was still located - and Caster could swear for a second that the dragon smiled.

And rushed to the most noticeable goal.

* * *

Archer continued to strike blow after blow. The other Archer continued to defend herself as best as she could, but Chevalier was right - in close combat she was much less dangerous than in long-range combat. Of course, when they fought before,the female Archer, knowing her weakness, did not allow the enemy to approach her, keeping him at a distance - but after the Phantasm of Chevalier she lost the initiative to Archer, fighting almost completely defensively.

"How dare you call yourself an Archer if you fight with swords?" the female Archer knew about this fact, so she tried to compensate for her weakness even if just verbally, but her opponent was not so easily provoked.

"How can you fight for the Witch?" He retorted calmly, after which he sharply swung the blade, forcing the girl to hiss in pain and back off again, pulling the bowstring of her bow.

"I can understand why the Phantom of the Opera agreed to work with her," Archer said calmly, "I can understand Sanson or even those Servants who died long ago - Dracula and Lancelot."

After that, the girl shot, but at this distance it was not difficult to predict the attack path, so Archer easily dodged it and continued striking with his two blades at the same time.

"I can't understand Chevalier," Archer said calmly, "But that's a given, I suppose, I don't think he can be understood so simply."

"But without knowing anything about you, I can only judge you by your behavior," Archer struck once more, but this time his opponent was able to block the blow by substituting her huge bow for a sword, "And you do not look crazy, loyal or so absorbed in the prospects of ruling the ashes in place of this world. So tell me, why are you fighting for the Witch?"

"Is not enough reason that she is my Master?" The female Archer grinned viciously, and then backtracked again. Archer chased her like a hunter chasing prey.

Somewhere in the distance came the cry of the monster of Caster, to which Kiyohime, turned into a dragon, answered with a volley of fire, after which the angry roar gave way to a painful howl.

"It would be enough if you showed even a drop of loyalty," Archer continued to attack. He was not particularly interested in finding out the personality of his opponent, however, by conducting a dialogue there was a possibility that she would give out information about herself - besides, this distracted the enemy from the battle, so he continued the offensive.

"What do you want to hear from me ?!" the female Archer fired again. The arrow could have pierced Archer through - but fortunately, he stepped aside from the attack.

"Everyone has at least some justifications for their actions," Archer continued the attack, forcing the girl to jump again.

"Okay, so be it," The female Archer sighed. "And what do you want to hear from me ?! I fight because this is the only way possible!"

"Really?" Archer said this while at ease, delivering another blow. This time, the blade still reached her body, causing her to scream in pain, "The way to what?"

"To salvation," the female Archer answered, after which she tried to hit Archer with a shot — but he managed to get away from the attack.

"Another Saint?" Archer scoffed at that, "Too many of them being gathered..."

"No, I'm not a Saint," she jumped away, and then again and again, trying to gain distance, "But if I can save the children of this world, I'm ready to sacrifice everything that I have."

"Save the children by supporting the Witch?" Archer arched an eyebrow. "An unconventional method."

"You won't understand," the female Archer sighed, and then attacked again. "Take a look at this world. Is this the world that the children need? Is this the world in which they should live? If the world around is trash, then why should we make them suffer? Tell me, Archer, are you really so cruel?"

Archer sighed. He had nothing to answer to such an exclamation, but he slowly learned the facts about his opponent, so after delivering another blow, he was forced to continue, - "And what do you suggest? Burn those children who already live in this world so that they do not suffer? Don't you think this is somewhat... A cruel act?"

"Sacrifice one to save a hundred," the girl answered with a shot. "Isn't this the right action for a hero? If this world is destroyed, then children will not have to be born in this damned place full of pain and suffering."

Archer - actually, both Archers believed that the Hero's vocation was to sacrifice one to save hundreds. However, such a thought - to destroy the world so that evil had nowhere to happen - was for Archer - a man like Archer - somewhat... Counterproductive.

Archer sighed, and then attacked again - but his opponent did not jump away this time. For a second, he wondered why, after which the enormous mass of Caster's monster that swept behind the girl made him understand why.

"They are having their fun" - Archer noticed this when he saw a monster collapse nearby, after which a huge dragon stuck his teeth into it. Of course, Caster was strong - his monster was very strong - but against a real dragon, against Kiyohime, he was nothing.

"You have a very bad understanding of what Buddhism is," answered Archer, after which he dodged the girl's shot. This time, however, he nevertheless managed to get to her - having failed to retreat, the female Archer suffered under the blow of Archer, so that he was finally able to slash her hand. The girl screeched and jumped back.

"Enough talk, Archer!" - in the end, she came to the conclusion that she couldn't win in any other way, "Let's get this over with!"

Archer nodded, then rushed forward. The girl was an Archer, so it would be most logical to assume that her Phantasm was a long-range attack, she would not shoot at herself.

The girl, however, did not interfere with his attack, grinning instead, and then put her hand on her bow.

"**Phoebus Catastrophe**!" - the next second, two arrows in the girl's hands lit up, after which, instead of firing at the approaching Archer, she suddenly lifted her bow to the sky, firing both arrows into the sky, causing them to disappear with two solar flashes.

"Ah, so that was the reason for this talk about children," Archer sighed. "Atalanta."

The girl did not react to this, immediately stepping back, fleeing from Archer's blow - but he was in no hurry to pursue her.

"Well, if we have already reached the point of using Phantasms," Archer sighed, "**I am the bone of my sword...**"

A second later, the Reality Marble of Archer was imposed in reality, turning all reality surrounding him into his own world. Unlimited Blade Works.

Instantly, it was as if the whole city was covered with a shroud, as if in a second it had turned into the fields of forgotten wars and thousands upon thousands of battles, lost and won - but nobody cared about their results. Just a lot of battles - distant and meaningless.

The power that Archer possess gave him the ability to reproduce any blade that he had ever seen and knew. However, instead of the blade itself - it was only a copy of it, albeit only a little but still inferior to the original. And at the same time, Archer's strength and Phantasms was not embodied by a single blade or even a multitude of blades. It was his forge for blades.

A Servant's Phantasms were only capable of being used when used with a certain level of infused Mana. Too little - and the Phantasm will not activate. Too much - and the Phantasm will break. Almost all Servants have the ability to use their Phantasm with a strength even greater than what was originally intended - however, all that would accomplisht only one thing. That their Noble Phantasm will be destroyed.

Therefore, Servants are only incredibly rarely, almost never resorted to this ability. But not Archer.

Archer could reproduce thousands of copies of blades that were slightly inferior to the original. However, he could use them as never before by their original owners. Unlike the heroes, Archer could afford to squeeze the maximum out of the heroes' weapons, allowing it to collapse from overload. Because the strength of Archer was not in his weapon, but in the forge, that could produce weapons. What difference does it make if you lose your weapon if you can regain a new one, exactly the same, after only a second?

However, Atalanta's Phantasm was not only two arrows shot into the sky, so when the forge of Archer's swords took its place in this world, a distant midday sky suddenly flashed.

It was like a storm in the middle of a clear sky - after which it was as if a clap of thunder resounded in the ears of all the Servants and soldiers below. The sky, illuminated by a bright flash, instantly turned into the color of the sun, then flared up, striking a thousand lightning strikes down. Although, they were not lightning at all.

Thousands of arrows, shining white like God's wrath, struck down from the sky.

This was not one of those Phantasms whose power is easy to control - it was an attack aimed at the whole area. It was easy for them to hit the target - but only because the target could hardly dodge the thousands of arrows that hit the ground at the same time,arrows blessed with the strength of Apollo and Artemis. Therefore, Atalanta could control the target of this attack, hoping to catch Archer - in this Atalanta was successful. However, this did not mean that she planned to do this initially.

Not far away, Caster's monster just made a mournful howl when Kiyohime, turned into a dragon, pressed it into the ground, and then raised her eyes to the sky, only to see God's inevitable anger hit the ground.

The Rain of thousands of arrows found its target - after which hundreds upon hundreds of blows dug into the body of the dragon, causing Kiyohime to roar in pain. However, this was not enough to stop the attack.

The arrows struck with cruelty, tearing apart the flesh of the dragon, piercing the skin, damaging the scales and breaking its wings, causing Kiyohime to howl from pain. However, the rain continued and continued, with all the menace in the world striking blow after blow.

Archer did not see this, seizing the opportunity he had, and then instantly hit Atalanta. This time there was a blade in his hands - the legendary Gram sword that was recreated by his forge - and from just one blow the girl was thrown away, like a weightless fluff.

This time, the girl was thrown tens of meters - punching through walls and roofs, she fell to the ground, and then rolled over several more times, stopping at the very end. After a second, she got up again - this time looking at Archer not with hatred, contempt or misunderstanding - but with some respect.

"Perhaps you are strong," she finally admitted, "However, you will never be worthy to be called Archer while fighting with blades."

"In that case, let me fix it," the blade in Archer's hands disappeared, after which a bow and arrow appeared in his hands. However, although his forge could create copies of other kinds of weapons - it was not a bow from legends at all, like the other blades he created - it was a regular bow, albeit excellently made. The next second, Archer shot an arrow - however, Atalanta easily dodged the attack, as if the shot was not intended for her at all, after which she looked at Archer with a sneer - "You are a failure of an Archer."

"Perhaps," Archer allowed himself a grin this time.

* * *

The arrow crashed into a stone pavement, causing Cu Chulainn, who was finally distracted from the extermination of the wyverns due to the coming of the army, to stand still.

"What the fuck is this?" Caster extended his hand to the arrow, and then with a slight pressure palmed it.

An arrow. An ordinary arrow - Cu Chulainn was not sure what kind of arrow it was, but it was the most ordinary of arrows.

"And where did it come from?" Caster twisted his head around. As far as he knew, there were no archers among the dead in the service of the Witch, and no one in the French army wanted to kill him with an unexpected attack. Of course, there could be Servants - however, the only Archer among the Servants of the Witch - as well as among the Servants of Ainz - would hardly have missed when trying to attack from afar - and both of them were busy with their battle. At least the storm that arose from the sky, which overwhelmed Kiyohime, was a confirmation of this, as did the swords archery of Archer.

"And what is it then?" - Caster looked at the arrow carefully, after which he tried to look for the two fighting Archers. Fortunately, they were not far away - Cu Chulainn managed to see both Atalanta dodging the attacks and Archer chasing her - "Wait a minute, in Archer's hands - is that a bow?!"

Cu Chulainn, of course, joked that he was not an Archer in the literal sense of the word, if he continued to fight with swords - however, this did not mean that Archer had to use a bow if it was a weaker option. Yes, and Archer himself would not have chosen this option for no reason. So why?

The cry of the wyvern distracted Cu Chulainn - however, turning to his opponent, he saw how Medusa pushed herself off the roof with an elegant jump and ended up in the sky - after which she kicked the wyvern into the pavement.

"I'll take it from there," answered the girl to Caster, and then turned around. Cu Chulainn nodded in appreciation, after which he returned to observing Archer.

After a second, a detail caught his eye - another of Archer's arrow fell off the bow, but this time it plunged into the pavement not so far away, where now the wounded Kiyohime, who had already turned back into her human form, continued to lie, and where Bathory died. For a second, Cu Chulainn thought for a moment, after which he realized something and looked at Archer.

'Damn you, Archer!' Cried Cu Chulainn mentally, 'And if I hadn't noticed it?!'

Archer in the distance only smirked.

* * *

The battle with Sanson was not progressing at all in the way the two dragon-killers might have hoped. The Assassin was not particularly weak on his own - however, having turned into a chimera fused with Fafnir, he became only stronger. However, the battle with a stronger opponent was not new to the dragon-killers - the problem was from a different source.

"No attack affects him!" Siegfried exclaimed, fending off another blow from Sanson's monstrous cleaver. Rider only nodded, attacking from the other side - however, Assassin burst out laughing and grabbed Rider's blade, injuring his hand, after which he jerked sharply to the side, easily throwing Rider himself.

Sanson was injured - however, this was nothing compared to the injuries of Siegfried and Rider. Both of them were wounded - not even looking at Siegfried's armor, not looking at Rider's defense - it seemed as though they had been passed through a meat grinder. Their armor was twisted and crumpled in many places, blood continued to gush through numerous holes, while the Assassin only continued to brandish his weapons in all directions, completely unoccupied with wounds.

"Are you really so weak?" Sanson laughed, striking another blow with his monstrous blade, "Come on! I was hoping you would set us free - but no, Siegfried, you are weaker than I remembered you!"

Siegfried avoided another blow, after which he tried to attack, but Sanson only got away from the blow, "Isn't it difficult to fight when your opponent is not so huge and slow, huh?!"

"You don't say," Siegfried sighed intermittently, catching his breath, which caused Rider to attack.

The merger of the Servant and the dragon was disgusting - but effective. Having gained the power of a dragon, Sanson could fight with both Servants on equal terms with only brute force and speed, and at the same time, since he was protected from the weakness of being a dragon - most of the tactics and abilities of both dragon-killers were now useless.

Even when Chevalier's Phantasm made him freeze - the Servants hardly managed to do more than inflict a couple of wounds. Even the attempt to cut off Sanson's head ended only in a long, narrow, bleeding - but not at all dangerous wound on his neck.

"How weak you are!" Sanson swung for another blow. "And we lost to you in the past, Siegfried?" How weak we were then!

The next blow fell on Saber, almost drove him knee-deep into the ground, after which Rider had to attack again, distracting Assassin, who gained strength beyond even a Berserker.

"It is impossible to fight him in this form," was Rider's only conclusion at the time when his next blow was fended off, "Even if he were a dragon, the battle would have been much easier."

"Well, let's show us why you are called murderers of our kind!" Fafnir grinned in Sanson's body. "Why can't you even fight us?!"

"Siegfried, distract him!" Rider stepped back, not allowing Sanson to follow him.

"Distract us?" Sanson burst out laughing, even for a second interrupting his attack. "Why distract us?! We are happy to fight Siegfried ourselves!"

After this, Siegfried, who had just freed himself from the captivity of the earth into which Assassin drove him into with a blow, instantly parried the next blow, allowing Rider to retreat to a distance.

Heck, he did not plan to use his Phantasm in this way!

"**Abyssus Draconis**!" He finally said, pointing to the enemy, "**In my name, in the name of Saint George, I announce that your nature will now become visible to our gaze and your evil will be revealed to this world! Amen!**"

For a second, Sanson froze, ceasing to attack Siegfried, allowing him to take a breath.

"Saint George!" Sanson turned to Rider, "There it is! That's whose smell aroused hatred in me! Of course, the famous dragon slayer himself! Siegfried, you know how to pick allies for yourself!"

Siegfried tried to attack, but Sanson, completely unconcerned, only put his hand against the attack. Siegfried's blade instantly crashed into his hand, almost cutting into bone, but the extent of his attack ended there.

"Well, it looks like I now have no choice!" Sanson suddenly jerked his hand, almost tearing the blade out of Siegfried's hands, "Fine, fine! Let's drop the masks!"

After this, Siegfried stepped back, making Sanson twitch again.

"Fine! Excellent!" - as if Assassin's body continued in getting cramps, forcing him in unimaginable poses, changing his voice, turning it from a mad human to an animal roar, "Come on! Set us free!"

In the next second, clothes tear, after which part of his cloak swelled, after which a huge hand - no, a dragon's clawed paw - hit nearby, demolishing the buildings with ease.

Somewhere in the distance, rain of arrows fell on Kiyohime, burying her underneath it, after which Caster's huge monster began to turn into black slurry, freeing the body hidden inside - however, the two dragon-killers did not care.

"Excellent!" Sanson's words were almost impossible to make out at that moment, when the second hand was transformed into a clawed paw and the face of the person began to turn into the face of a monster, "Great!"

After that, as if someone had pulled the last switch - and in an instant, Assassin's body exploded in seething flesh, taking the form of a dragon.

Rider got to Siegfried at the moment when the dragon nevertheless issued its roar, at the moment taking on its true appearance.

"Now he took the form of a dragon," George calmly remarked, forcing Siegfried to look at the dragon from the bottom up. "Has it become better?"

"Not really," Saber said. "Now I can't even see his head."

"What are we going to do?" George asked calmly.

"The same as before," Siegfried answered no less calmly, " Try to kill him."

The next cry of the dragon stunned both Servants, after which both of them noticed how a huge cross on the dragon's chest shone at the moment when it began to draw in air.

"When he was a Servant, he would at least not spit fire," said George, after which both rushed away.

At such a distance, dragon's breath would fry both of them, so they should have avoided the attack. However, at the same time, if they had not taken the flame upon themselves, the fire would have hit the other fighting Servants.

Therefore, it was a stroke of luck when, at the moment before the dragon exhaled, a small shadow darted towards them.

"**Lord!**" The girl managed to shout, putting up her shield, after which the second part of her sentence was drowned in the roar of a dragon, breathing out its flame. Fortunately, the magic of Mashu's shield managed to block the flow of flame, becoming an invincible wall that arose on the enemy's path.

"Mashu!" Siegfried remarked to the girl, at the moment when the stream of flame of the dragon died out and a new roar of the monster shook the earth.

"I'm here!" The girl rushed to the Servants. "What should we do with him now?!"

Siegfried raised his eyes to the huge monster, which was already preparing for a new attack, after which he looked at George. He, catching Siegfried's eyes, only nodded.

Siegfried exhaled and looked at the girl. "I have a plan."

* * *

Archer continued to attack. Atalanta continued to avoid it. Unfortunately for her, Archer was winning this confrontation.

This time, he was no longer holding Gram in his hands, but Caliburn, that at the moment with every blow that didn't hit the opponent's body, was destroying the walls of the houses that get under his blade and destroying the environment, crushing stone with the ease of a hot knife through butter.

"Damn you, Archer!" Atalanta exhaled, then stepped back. Archer did not respond to that, only continuing to advance.

In fact, Archer's opponent was driven into a corner - she could only retreat without the ability to even try to attack, expecting how her life could end with the next blow. Yes, Atalanta was stronger than Archer in terms of parameters - but Archer outpassed her many times in terms of skill, because of which, even her seemingly complete superiority could not even force Archer to slow his advance.

Atalanta was legendary - she was one of the Argonauts, a great archer of Ancient Greece, a pupil of Artemis and Apollo herself, saved from death in childhood. She vowed to serve them and she dedicated her victories to them...

"Fuck you, Archer!" Atalanta dodged another blow, barely having time to remove her head from the blade, "Why the hell are you even fighting with swords?! Do you even understand what the essence of the Archer class is?!"

"What difference does it make if it works?" Archer answered almost melancholically, almost shrugging his shoulders, and continued to attack.

'Damn, damn, damn!' - Atalanta was thinking about how she could get out of this situation. She had the opportunity, she had another chance, another Noble Phantasm - but the damn Archer did not even give her a chance to use it, forcing the girl to run away, as if like a scared beast, fleeing from the hunter.

'Damn him, I'm first in running!' The girl almost bit her lip in frustration. She left so many men like fools forcing them to lose on the run - was it really now that she had to lose?! Damn it, it wasn't even a race to determine the worthy of being her man - it was a battle! In the end they will kill her, damn it!

Fortunately for the girl, however, the roar that rang out at that moment distracted the fighters, forcing them to look for a second at the picture of a rising dragon that had appeared before them.

"Kiyohime?" Archer thought for a second, but before realizing that the new dragon had nothing to do with the girl, Atalanta managed to seize the opportunity.

'Damn you, Sanson, and damn the Witch for this magic - but it turned out to be useful!' - the girl instantly reached for the hide, all this time waiting for the right time, then, at the moment when Archer rushed to her, she used her second Noble Phantasm, - "**Agrius Metamorphosis**!"

The next second, Archer, who carried the blade for the attack, was nearly demolished by a blow of magical energy that spilled out at the moment. The black, cursed mana instantly permeated the air, turning it into a viscous black whirlwind, as if created from pure evil - after which, after a second, Archer received a blow of such strength that pain and awareness of receiving damage came to him only when he flew a dozen meters through the air.

Fortunately, Archer was able to catch himself, after which he sighed and reached for his ribs. Six is broken, a lung is pierced - but in the general picture it is not so scary.

A second later, a creature appeared in a huge hole in the building that was made by Archer's body.

Of course, the features of Atalanta could still be seen - however, now she looked like a werewolf. Her gaze was insane and even her pupils was changed, turning into beast like ones - a slow-swaying film of black energy covered the girl's body, looking at which Archer could instantly understand that it meant nothing good.

"The skin of the Calydonian Boar," Archer instantly recognized the Phantasm, after which he glanced at Atalanta, "The great archer, whose most famous achievement was not even made by her..."

Atalanta attacked - however, this was not because Archer's words agitated her. At the moment, her mind was clouded, so she hardly even heard his speech - and it is unlikely that she could understand it. She rushed at him precisely because her mind was clouded - the situation had finally changed. Now she was a hunter - and Archer was a prey.

"An archer who does not use a bow is not worthy of being an Archer," Archer prepared to strike, quoting the words of Atalanta, "What a hypocrisy."

After a second, the blow crashed into him, it almost sent Archer on the next flight, forcing him to be driven back a little on the ground from the forceful blow, after which the next knocked the ground out from under his feet - and the third one crushed him into the pavement so that he barely managed to use the blade for protection.

'Good,' Archer sighed and sneaked a glance at the square where a second arrow was stuck into the ground, 'It will be harder than I thought... I hope Cu Chulainn will not let me down.'

* * *

Kiyohime slowly opened her eyes, looking at the situation in which she was now. To her right lay the remains of a monster that she had destroyed while she was in transformation, slowly spreading out in a pool of black slime. Caster was not among the remains.

"He escaped after all..." - the girl remarked to herself, after which her body responded with pain. Of course, the wounds received while in the form of a dragon did not disappear - and even if they became less dangerous after the transformation - the amount was such that Kiyohime understood that her regeneration could not cope with it in any case.

Somewhere in the distance, a dragon's roar rang out - and the girl looked at the bulk of the monster.

"Sorry, we won't be able to fight as two dragons," the girl sighed, and then turned her gaze to the left.

Bathory's body lay to her left. Her body had already begun to crumble with sparks, so the girl knew that Lancer was dead. And Berserker herself did not plan to linger on this world for long.

"At least I won't have to walk this world alone again" - the girl sighed and a slight smile touched her lips, after which she closed her eyes.

She did not know how much time she continued to lie so, feeling the strength leaving her before she was attracted by a sound.

"So this is what your saving of children looks like?" "Archer, the one whom she initially considered Anchin, was standing nearby. His condition was terrible - his right hand hung lifelessly, continuing to bleed, and there was no unharmed space on his body - multiple wounds and injuries covered him from head to toe. The left hand continued to hold a blade, which at the moment is pointed to his opponent. Kiyohime understood that she did not have long in this world, but nevertheless she shifted her gaze to his opponent.

There was almost nothing human in Atalanta - a film of black energy covered her body, not even allowing her features to be seen, and the small cat ears, which had added cutesy to her mind previously, now looked like animal atavism, which made the girl look like a werewolf. Even her gaze was full of bestial cruelty - however, for a second, when the gaze of Kiyohime and Atalanta touched - she suddenly saw it all for a moment - that her mind returned to her eyes.

"That's the price of salvation," the girl said it firmly, making Kiyohime smile. What a pity that she could not save anyone...

After that, Berserker, Kiyohime, closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

However, Archer continued to fight. Looking into Atalanta's eyes, he slowly turned his blade. "So what? Destroy the world to prevent anyone from suffering? I did not know that the ability of creating brilliant plans were included in the legend of the Argonauts."

"Let one suffer in order to prevent the suffering of hundreds," Atalanta slowly turned her gaze from Kiyohime to Archer, "Tell me, is this wrong? One or many, that's the whole question."

"Throughout my life I fight, killing one to save hundreds," Archer said as he exhaled, "But your approach... It's an insult to everything I fight for."

"I don't need your approval, Archer," Atalanta prepared for a new blow, "I only need victory."

After that, Atalanta moved - but she did not succeed. A moment later, the girl looked at the ground beneath her to see the runes around her.

"When will you learn," Archer said calmly, "Don't let your opponent talk in the middle of the battle. It seems to me that no one even respects this rule."

Atalanta looked at Archer in a panic. Runes?! But how?! Archer should not have such abilities. Other than…

The girl glanced to the side, only in order to see not far from Archer the mage responsible, that at the moment is lazily leaning on his staff, looking at the trap created by his hands.

"Do not allow any new suffering, Archer," said Atalanta at the last second.

"I'm sorry, but this story is not about me," Archer sighed, after which he lifted his blade and slowly put it on the bowstring of the created bow, aiming at the shot at a distance from which he could not miss.

After a second, Archer, Atalanta, was consumed by an explosion, which in one instant wiped her off the face of the earth.

Cu Chulainn approached after a couple of seconds, when the mana from Archer's shot dissipated in order to see how slowly Archer settles to the ground.

"I was well-battered," he said with a smile, after which he finally fell to the ground.

"Hey hey, Archer, let's not die here yet, huh!" Caster shouted at the archer.

"Ah, Cu Chulainn," the Servant saw, after which he looked at him, and that at the dragon, which made another roar in the distance, "Better deal with this one."

"They will be able to do it without me," Cu Chulainn grumbled, "I'd rather patch you up. Medusa showed me how it's done."

"Then take care of the little girl over there," Archer nodded to the side, where the weak but still living signature of Kiyohime could still be felt.

"Well, you are a bastard, Archer," Cu Chulainn sighed, moving closer to the guy. "That's how he added work for me. And by the way…"

At this moment, despite the fact that Archer was injured, Cu Chulainn, who was not restraining himself, punched him in the face.

"Did you fucking go mad to put such puzzles for me?" Caster looked at Archer with anger, "And if I hadn't understood what you meant?!"

"Caster, you're not as stupid as you try to seem," Archer grinned, and then fell to the ground.

"It seems now that I understand how you reacted to my compliment," Cu Chulainn sighed, but Archer could no longer hear him.

Archer, name unknown, fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

"Is it clear?" Siegfried glanced at his two allies, after which Mashu and George nodded in response, and then looked at George separately, "Then get started."

The plan was extremely simple - Mashu and George had to serve as bait, distracting the dragon - George had to attack and Mashu withstand a dragon's strikes, after which Siegfried would finish the job. This is a plan Mashu could approve of.

So a moment later, Mashu rushed to the side with George, leaving Siegfried behind. Five steps, ten, fifteen...

'Now George is supposed to attack' - the girl looked at the man next to her and prepared to take the dragon's strike.

Twenty, twenty five...

'Why isn't he attacking?!' Mashu looked at Rider, which seemed to be not paying attention to the dragon at all. The dragon, without even looking at the two running Servants, began to turn to Siegfried.

Thirty, thirty five...

Mashu stopped, "Rider, what the hell ?! We must help Siegfried."

"It's pointless," George said calmly, after which he picked up the girl and rushed away.

"What?!" Mashu was definitely quite surprised by this turn of events, "What are you doing?! Put me down! We must help Siegfried!"

"Siegfried cannot be helped," George answered calmly, "This is a dragon, a living embodiment of power, and not some boss from a computer game. He cannot be distracted by such a primitive trick, so our attacks are pointless - he would still continue to attack Siegfried."

"Damn it, Rider, let me go!" Mashu tried to break out of his grip, but she didn't succeed, "We have to help Siegfried!"

"No," George answered calmly, as if not at all concerned about what had happened, "Siegfried himself decided to stay and sacrifice himself."

"He didn't say that!" The girl jerked again in Rider's hands, forcing him to hold her tight.

"Of course, because in that case you would have decided to stay," George answered calmly.

"You tricked me into simply removing me from the battlefield!" Mashu would gladly point a finger at Rider, but she couldn't do it. "You're Saint George, defender of the weak!"

"And I protect the weak," George answered calmly, "Not the warriors who accepted their duty."

A second later, Mashu felt that the run had stopped and she was let out of his hands, but Rider just turned to Cu Chulainn, next to whom they turned out that he was slowly healing Archer and Berserker - "Cu Chulainn. Hold her."

"Don't," Mashu sighed. "I get it."

Rider, glancing at her, only shook his head, "I apologize for that."

"I understand," Mashu only shook her head and looked at Siegfried in the distance.

He, only smiling, looked at the dragon, who was very close.

"Well, Fafnir," he glanced at his opponent. "Let's finish this!"

The dragon, issuing its last roar, sucked in air, preparing to incinerate his enemy.

"Hah, I thought so," Saber smiled, then lifted his blade into the air. The cross on the dragon's chest flashed white light, after which the cross on the Siegfried's chest flashed with white light, "**Balmung**!"

After a second, as if a stream of whitish-blue flame is hitting the sky, cutting it into pieces - after which the incredible power of the dragon-slayer blade, freed from all seals, fell upon the dragon. The dragon, anticipating his death, released the last breath of his flame toward his killer.

A moment later, the Assassin, Charles Henri Sanson, Dragon, Fafnir, and Saber, Siegfried, were consumed by incredible strength in a flash - and were dispelled a second later.

* * *

Carmilla slowly felt her face. Despite the fact that she was now lying under the rubble, barely feeling her body - the first thing she was worried about was her face.

And her face was disfigured - the nose broken by Lancer's blow was still broken, her beautiful cheekbones were disfigured by wounds, her hair looked like a burnt rag, her lips were smashed, huge bruises were forming under her eyes - but this was the least of Carmilla's worries.

Her whole body was broken - her right arm was practically not felt, both her legs were broken and her spine was broken in two places.

They just didn't notice me.

Carmilla stopped at that thought.

They just didn't notice me.

Kiyohime did not even pay her any attention - she was simply swept and thrown away, like some kind of garbage.

Carmilla closed her eyes, trying to understand where she was.

The blow of the dragon threw her away like garbage, but this did not make it lose its strength. Carmilla flew many hundreds of meters from one blow, so breaking through the roof she found herself in the very center of Orleans, in the damned Witch's Palace.

Carmilla tried to take a deep breath, but her broken ribs dug into her lungs, causing her to cough.

Damn this girl, damn Bathory! Damn her friend, Kiyohime! Damn their Masters, the Witch, all of them!

The girl slowly tried to rise from the floor, but in an instant a blade dug into her shoulder, causing her to fall again with a hiss in pain.

"Who?" The girl glanced to the side only to see the poisonous girl there. She did not even pay attention to Carmilla, only rushing past her.

After all, now Carmilla was poisoned. Now she will die.

'No!' Carmilla wanted to yell from this.

'No, no, no!' - the girl grabbed her head. Not so easy! This is not the way her story should go! She can't die for nothing!

A thought pierced Carmilla's head. Of course, because if she is healed now, then she will not die! She can't die so easy! She will simply expel this poison from her blood!

But for this she needs blood.

Carmilla's gaze fixed on Serenity's back, which simply continued to run away, ignoring the already doomed Assassin.

Young.

Beautiful.

Girl.

The ideal goal.

"**Phantom Maiden**!" Carmilla used her Phantasm, after which an iron maiden, who appeared as if from nowhere, instantly extended her chains to Assassin. She tried to evade - but she was not given a chance to do so. A moment later, Carmilla's Phantasm pulled Serenity inside, then closed, piercing her with a multitude of iron spikes.

Carmilla burst out laughing instantly when she realized that she was able to survive again.

The steel spikes of the Carmilla's Phantasm didn't just pierce the body of their target - they plunged into the flesh and began to pump out the victim's blood, returning it to Carmilla, pouring new strength into her veins.

The girl slowly rose from the ground, feeling her wounds instantly heal. Yes, she could.

Serenity, absorbed by the Phantasm, was supposed to experience hellish suffering - it was an ideal target for Carmilla's Phantasm - so the girl is prepared to hear a scream of pain.

However, instead, only a quiet chuckle came from the iron maiden.

"What's so funny?!" Carmilla looked at her Phantasm. Her opponent was supposed to be in incredible pain now - Carmilla felt her blood pouring into her now.

"My body is poison," came the voice from the virgin - calm and even a little detached, "Perhaps you are the most inappropriate opponent for me."

"Girl," Carmilla sighed and smiled. Having regained her health, she acquired a magnificent mood - "I would never fall for this trick. Of course, my Phantasm can filter poison from your blood - do not rejoice ahead of time."

"What a stupid thing," Serenity's voice did not at all sound like the voice of a suffering person. In her life, during the training of Hashishin, she suffered much more pain, - "There is no poison in my blood. My blood is the poison. **Zabaniya**."

After a second, Carmilla's body exploded in pain.

Serenity's Phantasm allowed her to multiply the effect of her poison many times - therefore, Carmilla, who had already filled her body with liters of blood of Serenity, felt in an instant, as if her whole body had been ignited by incredible fire. She was not so wrong.

Serenity's venom was not like the poison people make - it was a special, incredibly strong mixture, for which there was no antidote or a safe dose, so Carmilla, who let whole liters of poison into her own veins, felt how every cell of her body instantly died.

A moment later, the withered body that was left of the Assassin, Elizabeth Bathory, crumbled to dust.

Her Noble Phantasm crumbled a bit later, allowing Serenity to take a step forward. And fall to the ground.

"Bad," the girl stated. The fact that she could not feel pain did not mean that she became much more powerful - therefore her body, bloodless and tormented by many thorns, could not move on.

The girl closed her eyes, - "I hope I did it."

"Thank you, Serenity," after a second her Mast... her husband's voice came, "You did everything right."

"This is nothing, my husband," the girl smiled at the moment when a hand touched her head and ruffled her hair, "You have done much more for me."

With a smile from these words, the Assassin, Hassan of Serenity, died.

Ainz, having run a hand over the girl's head for the last time, rose from his knees, "Forgive me, Serenity."

After that, the magician turned back, - "Forward, the Witch is waiting for us."

Jeanne and Gilles, teleported with Ainz, only nodded, forcing the magician to nod and head forward.

The last and most powerful of reinforcements have arrived.

* * *

**Eye of the Mind (True):** _EX (Case)_

If we take into account only Satoru Suzuki, a person and a player, then he would still have a similar skill at the level of A rank. As a person who spent years in battles, albeit virtual, Satoru possesses an incredible wealth of knowledge regarding tactics and strategy, immense knowledge in the field of understanding opponents, special abilities of many different creatures, but the creature known as Momonga - or Ainz - reinforces this skill to incredible heights, incomprehensible to the simple mind.

Ainz is a being who surpassed divinity, existed before the birth of the world of Yggdrasil and after its end, a being who reached the heights of skill and killed gods and demons for fun is the whole story of his existence. In the world of Yggdrasil, a world devoted to the battle with countless many of the most incredible opponents with abilities exceeding human understanding, there is not even a couple of dozen living creatures that Ainz did not kill. Ainz is a kind of special killing machine, sharpened to destroy millions of types of opponents, prepared for all possible and impossible conditions, repeatedly crushing creatures so ridiculously powerful that their mere presence can distort reality and destroy worlds. In other words, Ainz is a perfect mechanism of victory.

However, victory does not always mean the ideal planning or execution of the plans.

* * *

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
**

**Damn it was a long Chapter, longest I've done to date! But who knows, what would happen next?**

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	35. Chapter 35

After the teleportation, Ainz took a few steps forward a little thoughtfully.

The plan seemed perfect to him.

First of all, he had to send his Servants and the army to attack the Witch, watching their battles from afar, studying their opponents and analyzing their abilities. Unknown Servants, possible hidden monsters of the Witch and, of course, Fafnir.

Ainz was not stupid - leaving the two Servants to fight with the arriving dragon, he first established observation with the help of several of his spells, in order to finally get information about his opponents.

And he was shocked to learn that the dragon summoned by the Witch was Fafnir. The_ Fafnir_.

In Yggdrasil, there were several types of opponents that you can fight - ordinary mobs, players,and bosses - all of them differed in their abilities and powers, up to the point that some players, such as _World Champions_, could defeat three or even four level one hundred players in a battle, and some bosses were so weak that they could lose in a battle with even to some of the mobs in the game. However, in any case, there were three categories of opponents game-wise. And lastly there are _World Enemies_.

Throughout the game, there were only thirty-four named _World Enemies_. The final boss of the game, the _World Eater_, the final opponents of the three additions to the main game - the _Twelve Seraphim of Sephiroth_, the _Seven Lords of Mortal Sins_, the _Five Rainbow Buddhas_, a special opponent added to the five-year game - the _Lord of the Seventh Heavens_. And the _Eight Great Dragons_.

The _World Eater_ was the final boss of the game and the most powerful of all possible opponents in the game, and in order to add additional significance to him in the eyes of the players, even in order to get to a fight with him, the players were forced to go through eight of his strongest subordinates, the _Eight Great Dragons_, each of which in itself was a _World Enemy_, requiring twenty to thirty players of the hundredth level even to attempt a battle, not to mention a victory. Each of these dragons was an incredibly powerful opponent with a large number of special abilities, various advanced tactics and many unpleasant surprises that awaited anyone daring to oppose them in battle. Eight different dragons, each of them was unique and extremely difficult to defeat, each of them had its own significant place in the lore and required a huge amount of quests in order to be able to fight them, so each of them was remembered by all the Yggdrasil players.

One of these dragons was the _Dragon of the Primeval Force_, _the Golden Dragon_ \- _Fafnir_.

To say that Ainz was shocked at the first sighting would be an understatement - his suppression of emotions had to be activated three times at the moment when he found out that his opponent was the _Fafnir_ himself.

Of course, _Fafnir_ was not the strongest of all the dragons, and he was extremely inferior to the _World Eater_ \- the creature that Ainz had once killed in battle - but he remained a _World Enemy_ \- in other words, a battle with less than twenty trained players of the highest level, with the right equipment and full knowledge of the fight was suicide.

Therefore, Ainz's plan formed quickly enough. If he cannot defeat _Fafnir_, then he simply will not fight him.

Ainz had to use the Servants as a distraction to get _Fafnir_ out of its lair - and with the help of the army he could track down other possible opponents that the Witch had saved for the last battle - something stronger than wyverns and skeletons. At the same time, Serenity had to use her Presence Concealment in order to avoid the battle with Fafnir and arrive at the Witch's castle, so that Ainz could directly teleport to the Master who had summoned the dragon and destroy her before _Fafnir_ got to him. When Ainz made the plan, it seemed perfect to him.

After Ainz along with Jeanne and Gilles separated from the army, the magician began to watch how his Servants entered the battle with the enemy, waiting for _Fafnir_ to appear. The Servants should have acted like this: taking their opponents on opposite sides, they should have given Ainz the opportunity both to observe _Fafnir's_ battle and to distract it for a longer time.

Of course, the army would really perish in a battle between the Servants simply from random attacks, but this was only the official version. In fact, Ainz needed the Servants to disperse throughout the territory, after which, when _Fafnir_ appeared, the dragon should begin to hunt the Servants; their separation would increase the time it would take it to hunt the remaining Servants. Ainz knew that even he would hardly survive if several of _Fafnir's_ blows lands in his current body, so he suspected that most of the Servants would die from only one dragon attack - therefore, the distribution of the Servants over the area seemed to him the most logical, since in this case it would force _Fafnir_ to move around the area, taking away most of his time, not because of the battle with the Servants, but because of the time he needed to get from one target to another. During this Ainz planned with the help of Serenity, without being distracted by the battle, to go straight to the Witch and destroy her before _Fafnir_ could get to him. And so, the plan has been implemented, and...

Fafnir is dead.

The Dragon managed to fight with two Servants, even three, should he count Mashu - and killed one. After which he died.

Of course, Ainz watched Siegfried's Noble Phantasm, its strength - it was definitely a very strong special ability, with additional damage against dragons, so Ainz believed that it could kill even a level eighty dragon with one strike - maybe even a level ninety.

But _World Enemies_ were above levels. No ability could one shot them.

Ainz knew a few stupidly powerful attacks, spells, skills that could kill even the most powerful of the bosses, such as the _Lords of the Worlds_, with one blow - he himself possessed several similar abilities and many more items, disposable and not, collected in the game and received thanks to in-game gacha - however, there were no such abilities, even _World-Class Items_, capable of killing a _World Enemy_. Hurt? Impose restrictions? Neutralize their power? Yes, he had plenty of such and each player would have hoarded a dozen of such things. But there were no things that could kill _Fafnir_ with one blow.

_Balmung_ was a well-known blade in the game, and its use by Siegfried as a Phantasm was very impressive - but this would not be enough even to force the _Golden Dragon_ to go into the second phase of the battle - and _Fafnir_ had five of them.

Therefore, Ainz at the moment when Serenity nevertheless reached the Witch, was slightly... Perplexed?

Yes, that was the right word. It was not shock, denial, and not anger. It was the most sincere of perplexity.

"This is so... strange..." was all that Ainz could think, looking at the corpse of his Servant. Strangely, he was so prepared for the last battle and so afraid of _Fafnir_ \- and in the end, after he created a special plan in order to avoid a battle with _Fafnir_… _Fafnir_ was killed by a distracting maneuver. It was somehow... unfair, even.

Ainz continued to stand still and look at Serenity, whose body was already beginning to turn into pure mana.

Not that he became so attached to the Servants - how much time did they spend together? Three weeks. Three weeks is not enough to call someone a friend - just an acquaintance or colleague. Therefore, he did not experience any remorse, sending them into a trap for certain death. However, when he found out that the trap was not generally required, he felt... It was not a shame but rather regret - especially for the fact that he was wasting the lives of his subordinates, his collection, so… Ineffectively.

"Ainz?" Jeanne's voice distracted him. "We have to go."

Ainz just nodded at this and looked forward. Indeed, such thoughts should be left for a later time.

In the end, the magician moved forward - and two Servants followed him. Nevertheless, even if Fafnir turned out to be... not at all what he expected - he still had to get rid of the Witch.

* * *

The castle turned out to be quite a big one, so it took some time before the three could finally see the final doors.

"Throne room," Jeanne said clearly, forcing Ainz to look at the door again. Of course, it was a big door, so it could even be called impressive, but it didn't at all resemble the throne room in his Nazarick or even those that he saw in the game, so for some reason the magician only once again remembered the plan drawn up against Fafnir.

"Another Servant is approaching us," this time, as soon as they got a little closer, Gilles said this with all clarity. Ainz, a little thoughtful, only nodded.

"I will stop him," Jeanne instantly stepped forward, but was stopped by Gilles.

"Not worth it, Jeanne," he smiled, "I will do it. You have a meeting with the Witch ahead of you, and I... I think I know what kind of Servant this is."

"Gilles, but!.." only the girl tried to object, but Saber shook his head.

"Don't bicker with me," he answered with a sigh, "Believe me... It is me who must meet this Servant."

Jeanne, having waited a few seconds, only nodded and smiled, - "Good luck, Gilles."

"Of course, Jeanne," he smiled, "If you wish me luck, then I cannot lose."

"Yeah, good luck," Ainz answered as if his mind was absent. If you think so, then all this time he was so afraid of the Servants... No, of course, he knows that the Servants are the strongest of all existing opponents... That is, they should be like this, right?

Gilles just nodded, after which he turned and rushed away from the two.

"Well, this is it, Ainz," Jeanne smiled, touching the door. "Behind these doors lies the end of this war and these battles... Thank you for making this possible."

"Yeah, sure," Ainz answered, still lost in thought. After all, it still could not be so simple? Somewhere, after all, some kind of dirty trick was clearly hiding behind all of this...

Jeanne only smiled, and then pushed the door, opening the entrance to the throne room.

The throne room was deserted - torches did not burn on the walls and the candles were not lit at the chandelier. There were no flags on the relief columns and the absence of people made the room seem more like of an abandoned building. However, there was no webs on the walls and there was not even a layer of dust on the floor, as it happens with old, unused buildings, which made the throne room even more creepy. There were only three things throughout the room.

The first thing was the carpet. A red velvet carpet laid from the entrance to the throne that stood on a pedestal in the distance. The second thing was the throne itself - a cold, massive throne stood on a pedestal in the distance, towering as a crude mass of pure stone. There were no decorations on the throne itself — no carved curls, no ornaments, no emblems — the throne was just bare, cold, a stone block in the distance.

And the third, last thing in the throne room was the Dragon Witch herself.

Sitting on the throne, she was slacking a little on it, propping her chin in her hand, that was armored in a black plate glove. Her blade lay next to her, already drawn- black steel, not reflecting light, lay next to the girl on the second armrest.

"It took you a long time to get to me," the Witch said boredly, after which she looked at Jeanne, "But still, finally, you're here again. What is it like to be in Orleans again - now not to help the people, but to plunder the city that you defended?"

"This city was destroyed by you a long time ago," Jeanne took a step towards the Witch, glaring at her, "Even if I wanted to plunder it, there is nothing here."

"Oh," said the Witch, lifting her arm up from the armrest, "So, are you already thinking about plundering the cities of France, moreover, your beloved Orleans? Oh, it turns out, I didn't know much about you, o Holy One."

"I would say that you know nothing about me," Jeanne took a step toward the Witch.

"What a stupid thing!" The Witch grinned instantly, slowly rising from her throne, grabbing her blade, "Jeanne, we are one! I am you! Has your stupidity really reached the point that you are not able to recognize your reflection in the mirror?"

"We are not one," Jeanne finally said, taking another step to the throne, "You and I... I know, maybe we are alike. Maybe we have the same face and habits, the same stories and the same powers... But you are not me."

"Really?" The Witch stopped, after which she looked at Jeanne with amusement in her eyes, "Is it true, Jeanne? Or do you think that a Saint like you would be better than me? That you are so bright, pure and kind that human rumors does not concern you? Oh, Jeanne, then I have bad news for you!"

The Witch began to approach slowly, without even raising a blade for the battle - "Jeanne, we are one. Your pain became my pain - but when you humbled myself, I gave retribution. Your life became my life - but when you became weaker - I gained strength. Your memory became my memory - but when you were mistaken, I learned from your mistakes. Oh yes, Jeanne, we are not the same thing - I'm that perfect self who has outgrown you and became the real Jeanne d'Arc."

"And what have you become?" Jeanne, not sensing a threat from the approaching Witch, moved towards her, not raising her banner, which now hung lifelessly, almost touching the floor, - "A monster."

"The Saint," the Witch smiled, "The Saint that the people deserve. For betrayal, stupidity, cowardice... For my burning."

"So you became so because of your death?" - slowly, the two girls came close to each other, "If just one act of the people could immolate your soul so much, then it means that you have never been a Saint."

Finally, the two Servants came closer, standing opposite each other. One height, one face, one name. However, it seemed as if they were a crooked mirror reflection of each other. Black plate - white armor. Spear - sword. Long braid - short bob cut. Blue eyes - golden ones.

Two Jeanne stood opposite each other, looking at each other, as if trying to make out something from themselves in reflection.

"You lost," Jeanne finally said, "Your Servants, your dragon, your monsters - they are all defeated."

"Oh, are they?" The Witch only smirked, "I do not need them. Their whole purpose was only to catch you - but who would know that you would come into my hands yourself. I was waiting for our inevitable battle, o Holy One."

At this moment, Ainz, finally massaging the bridge of his nose, was distracted from his thoughts and took a step forward.

A crack, as if from broken glass, instantly made everyone present turn towards the white transparent barrier, towering above the magician. A crack ran across the barrier - after which it immediately cracked and burst, instantly disappearing.

'It was an activation of the barrier against espionage,' Ainz instantly recognized this, after which he turned his gaze to the Witch. Is this really the trap that he was waiting for?!

However, the Witch stood still, looking with interest at the necromancer. Ainz's barrier was designed in such a way that when it was activated, he sent a strong enough response spell, so that if the Witch used some kind of ability she would have been swallowed by an explosion - however, instead, the Witch stood in her place. Moreover, since Ainz additionally used on himself another defense against espionage, so that even when activating the barrier the enemy could not see anything, from his parameters or skills, even if the Witch could somehow neutralize his spell - she still had to at least be surprised. However, nothing was written on her face.

"Hm, mage," the girl looked at Ainz carefully, "I must admit, I already forgot about you."

This was quite expected, given that Ainz, lost in his thoughts, had already forgotten about the battle too.

"I really wanted to get to Jeanne from the very beginning," the Witch smiled, "But you must admit that I was surprised. You know, it was you who killed my strongest Servant, Dracula."

'Wait…' - Ainz felt his mind once again flipped in his head - 'Strongest?!'

"And in the end, you looked like it wasn't even hard for you," the girl grinned, "Indeed, you are a dangerous opponent. I will enjoy victory over you."

Ainz, completely ceasing to pay attention to what was happening, locked himself in his head, pondering what was said. Maybe she meant the strongest in a figurative sense? Or maybe ironic? For example, in order to hurt him, that he escaped strong opponents or something like that?

"However, I believe that now..." The Witch didn't have time to finish, as a flame spread over her whole figure.

"_Napalm_," the magician distractedly used the spell. After all, everything cannot be so simple, because there is obviously some kind of trap here...

The fire instantly consumed the Witch, causing Jeanne to jump away from the soaring column of flame. Ainz just looked at it with a in his eyes. If now he can so easily end the final battle...

"Ha ha ha!" - suddenly laughter rang out from the column of fire that had not yet fallen, "So, are you trying to burn me again? Ha ha ha! What a funny joke, mage! But know that your magic is nothing to me!"

A second later, the column of fire fell, again showing the Witch. However, she was not scorched - not even touched by the flame. Even her hair was not ruffled by the rising fire.

'Phew, what good news!' Ainz finally rejoiced. So the trap that Ainz expected was still there. After Fafnir, after Dracula turned out to be the strongest of the Servants of the Witch, after the wyverns, there was still some thing that made the Servants the strongest! Yes, for sure, the Witch took all their powers from Fafnir and the Servants in order to make herself strong - for sure, this is such a common trope! Naturally, here it is!

Finally finding a trap, Ainz's paranoia calmed down, allowing him to relax. Nevertheless, he found the reason why the Servants remained the strongest and were so... Whatever word he should choose... Not optimized for battle.

"Well, come on, now fight!" The Witch finally raised her blade, pointing it at Ainz. Jeanne instantly grabbed her standard. Ainz smiled. Finally, a battle that will show him that his fears were not in vain!

* * *

Gilles moved through the corridors and rooms of the castle, approaching his goal, which he felt as a Servant. Turn, turn, another turn...

Finally, Gilles was nevertheless able to turn out of the maze, and then instantly struck. His blade cut through the air, but before it could reach Caster's body, an unexpectedly strong gust of wind turned him aside, preventing Saber from finishing what he had begun.

"You!" Caster instantly recognized his opponent, and then jumped back. Saber, however, remained standing still, "to Hell with you, Gilles de Rais!"

"You don't need to talk about Hell, mage," the commander of the French army sighed, after which he looked at the magician, "Gilles de Rais."

Caster just looked at Saber. "So you did recognize me in that attack."

"How can I not recognize myself?" Gilles glanced at his opponent.

Now, when they were opposite each other, both of them were finally able to make out their opponent.

Gilles de Rasi, Saber, was a thin tall man, dressed in steel armor, holding his blade on his outstretched arm. Gilles de Rais, Caster, was a hunched, emaciated looking man, whose mantle hid the painful thinness of his hands holding a book lined with skin. Human skin.

"But you did not tell them who I am," Caster grinned, and because of his bulging eyes, his smile took on an insanely manic hue.

"I wanted to deal with you personally," Gilles said this calmly, looking into the eyes of his opponent.

"Oh, I will gladly answer to you your ardent aspiration!" the mage grinned.

* * *

Jeanne and the Witch continued to fight. The Witch struck blow after blow, putting Jeanne on the defense, and then brought the blade for the final blow...

Then Jeanne instantly disappeared from the blow. A second later, the Witch turned around at the last moment in order to have time to repel the spear directed at her back.

"Attack from behind, o Holy One?!" the Witch threw a grin at Jeanne, but although she tried to turn it into a mockery, her frustration and anger leaked into her voice, making her words more like an angry exclamation than an insult.

"Damn mage!" - the girl jerked to the side, moving away from Jeanne's attack, after which she glanced at Ainz, who was hanging nearby in the air. He tried to attack her several times, using different spells - however, none of them worked against her. Her defense against magic was enormous, almost absolute - there would be only a couple of dozen people in all times of the existence of the earth who could now overcome it with magic, so Ainz's abilities were ineffective. The Witch thought that this would be enough to win.

How wrong she was!

The Witch defended another of Jeanne's blow, after which a blade pierced her back.

"Devil!" She cursed, after which, in a sharp turn, she chopped off the head of the enemy who had attacked her from behind. This one looked like some kind of skeleton, dressed in armor, and was weak, but his attack still reached the Witch.

The Witch knew that Ainz was an extremely powerful mage, a necromancer, and therefore considered herself the most dangerous opponent for him. Possessing protection from magic and locking the necromancer in the throne room, where he would not be able to do his magic by raising corpses, she planned to make him if not useless, then at least harmless. She didn't succeed.

The bloody necromancer turned out to be an irregular necromancer. To raise the undead, he did not need the corpses of living beings - he could simply create undead from his own mana.

"_Summon Undead: Fourth_" - once again the mage raised his hand, after which the smoke from his hand fell down, taking shape. This time, the smoke rose almost twice as high as the Servant, on the move taking the form of an unknown creature, as if made from pieces of flesh sewn together, holding two huge hooks in both hands. After a moment, the creature gave a roar, and then rushed forward to the Witch.

'His mana is bottomless' - The Witch dodged another attack from Jeanne, after which she threw her aside and turned to the advancing undead.

A second later, Jeanne's spear pierced the Witch from the back, causing her to spit blood.

This was the damned second problem. Teleportation! Each time the Witch was ready to destroy her opponent, the mage simply teleported Jeanne somewhere to the side, often behind the Witch, after which she had to evade the blow herself. As soon as the Witch herself tried to attack him - he simply teleported away from her and continued to summon monsters and teleport Jeanne again.

Often, battles are won thanks to chance, due to the superiority of the enemy by only a few percent. It was not one of those battles.

The Witch rushed forward at the moment when an unknown creature hit the ground, leaving a huge hook in the arms of the undead, and then at the moment jumped up, bringing her blade in order to cut down the monster's head.

After a second, something hit the Witch, and the Witch fell to the ground. A second later, the monster plunged its hook into her, which he held in his other hand.

The Witch instantly grabbed the creature's hand, then yanked it onto itself, causing it to fall, covering the Witch from the next attack of Jeanne, after which she cut off his head with a blow.

Ainz in the distance only frustratedly lowered his hand. All that he used was a spell that inflicted physical damage. By creating a cobblestone flying at the enemy, that is. It was a spell of the third rank, Ainz did not even expect the attack to work...

'There must be some trap!' - the magician's mind shouted to him - 'This is one big trap!'

Looking at his opponent, Ainz decided that she had taken the power of her Servants and was therefore incredibly strong now. After checking her magical defense, Ainz determined that she could not ignore his spells thanks not to some specific protection from one type of magic or one element, after which he prepared for a long battle. He began to summon creatures of a level at which his mana regeneration would keep his mana from dropping even one point and was prepared to slowly study her abilities and attacks, looking at how the Witch easily counters them. He even deliberately did not use any buffs in order to preserve his mana, and subsequently use the most suitable for the battle with the Witch, but instead...

He was winning.

Ainz could not hide his misunderstanding of the situation.

"Wait a minute, this is a trap!" - the magician wanted to grab his head - "Surely, surely, in all this there is some huge trap that I cannot recognize!"

But the Witch was losing, that was a fact.

Ainz simply did not understand what had happened. At what point in time did his battle turn the wrong way?

Maybe the Witch wants to trap him? Or now is getting ready for some incredibly powerful attack? Now she will call many, thousands of powerful minions?

But this did not happen.

Ainz teleported Jeanne from the attack of the Witch, after which he glanced at the Witch. A rising aura? A black cloud emerging above her? Anything that could indicate the start of the second phase of the boss, a special ability?

There was nothing of the kind.

"Do you understand now?" Jeanne dealt another blow to the Witch. "You lost!"

"Damn you!" The Witch spat, "You are weak! You were always weak and are still weak! Only this damn magician saves you! You are nothing without your friends, without allies, without all of them!"

"But I found allies for myself!" Jeanne dealt another blow, parried by the Witch, "And who is fighting for you now?! Who wanted to fight for you?! All your Servants fought for you only because you summoned them - they fled from you, they betrayed you, none of them wanted to fight for you!"

"Shut up!" - the Witch became furious right after these words, - "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

She struck blow after blow, as if trying to shut Jeanne's voice up- "None of them fought for us! No one ever fought! They all betrayed us, they burned us, they continue to hate us! They always hated us!"

At that moment, Jeanne unexpectedly took her standard aside, allowing the Witch's blade to crash into her shoulder, almost cutting her arm, "So what?"

"What?" The Witch stopped for a second, not continuing the attack.

"So what about the fact that they betrayed us?" - Jeanne only looked at the Witch, "We knew that this would kill us. We knew that this would happen. So what? Is this a reason not to do a good deed? Is this a reason to hate them?"

For a second, Jeanne and the Witch froze together. Ainz thought for a second, but in the end still did not call on the next monster, instead glancing at the two girls.

"Have you really forgotten?!" the Witch suddenly became furious, but instead of continuing the attack, she only tore the blade from the body of the Saint, "Have you really forgotten the moment of despair when you realized that they would not come for you?! Forgot how in Orleans the King abandoned you?! Have you really forgotten the fire devouring your flesh?! How did your legs burn, how did you scream in pain, how did the flame rise through your body?!"

"I remember all this," Jeanne intercepted her standard, "And that is why you are not me. I forgave them for their deeds and outgrew my death - while you could not go further. You are stuck in the past and instead of looking into the future, you are left to endlessly experience your betrayal, savor your execution and look at your mistakes. Therefore, you are weak, Dragon Witch!"

At this moment, Jeanne took a step towards the Witch, forcing her to step back.

"You and I — we never were alike!" Jeanne raised her standard, "Even though I didn't see what I became in the eyes of the soldiers and know what I really was a symbol of — but in me there is no evil of yours! There is no weakness in me! I do not have your hatred inside me - and therefore we, the Dragon Witch, have never been one! And so now we are fighting with you - and therefore you lost. **Luminosite Eternelle - God is Here With Me**!"

A second later, Jeanne planted her standard in the ground - and a light shone as if an angelic light illuminated her. It was as if the midday sun had pierced through the arches of the castle and the palace, illuminating her face and turning the deserted and eerie throne room into a beautiful place similar to fields full of eared rye and blossoming flowers. Even Ainz suddenly felt the light illuminate him, as if he were a child again, meeting a tired but kind mother, glad to see him after a hard day.

Ainz felt his bottomless mana reserves suddenly begin to fill up at double speed and he saw how his parameters are growing.

A second later, Jeanne suddenly struck, while the Witch tried to parry - but did not have time. Until then, powerless against her, Jeanne suddenly kicked the girl back several meters, and then rushed forward.

This time Ainz did not even need to intervene in the battle - Jeanne fought the Witch on an equal footing. She struck, while the Witch continued to fend it off, but with difficulty. This time, the Witch was finally put into a corner.

Ainz, thoughtfully raised his hand to the Witch, - "_Death_."

It was a simple and artless spell of the eighth rank with a simple effect. It killed the target. Unlike the higher-ranking spell, "_True Death_," this spell could not prevent the resurrection of the target, but it killed with no less efficiency.

It was one of the most powerful spells that Ainz could use in the current body without the risk of its destruction. In the past, when the Witch's magical protection prevented Ainz from casting spells on her, the Witch might not have been afraid of this spell. However, now, at the time of Jeanne's Phantasm, his magical power has increased, due to which his strongest curse, which he could use at the moment, overcome the barrier.

The Witch stopped immediately, after which she looked at Ainz. For a second he saw in this look... Fear. Real fear.

After a second, the sword fell out of the hands of the Witch and she fell to her knees, and a second later, completely to the ground.

Ruler, Jeanne d'Arc (Alter), died.

Ainz remained in the air for another second, continuing to survey the scene from height, after which the morning sun shone slowly and Jeanne fell to the ground, dropping the banner from her hands. However, she was alive.

"Jeanne?" Ainz took a step toward the girl, but she only dismissed him sluggishly.

"I'm fine," she breathed, "It's just that using Phantasm in this state takes away... A lot of energy. Help Gilles."

Ainz just nodded, and then set off.

His paranoia continued to scream.

* * *

Saber continued to fight Caster fiercely, striking blow after blow, so that Caster only managed to force his monsters to the blows of the Servant.

"You are a monster," Saber pointed accusingly at Caster with a blade, "How could such a freak like you follow Jeanne?!"

"You are me!" Caster only laughed in response, summoning a new monster.

"Never!" - Gilles brought down his blade, and then killed the monster with one blow, "I was the hope and support of Jeanne! You betrayed all her ideals!"

"Never!" Caster answered him with his own words and burst out laughing, "I never betrayed Jeanne! I would go to Hell for Jeanne! I went to Hell for Jeanne - and returned!"

"You betrayed all her ideals," Saber attacked again and again, "Do you remember it? Prayer, daily prayer thrice. Grace, repentance, kindness. Do you remember her ideals to talk about them?!"

"The Lord does not answer prayers!" Only Caster laughed with an even crazier laugh. "And if the Lord does not answer my prayers, then I will make the Lord hear me! If he does not hear me from heaven - I will shout to him from Hell!"

"You're a disgusting monster who betrayed everything she fought for!" Saber dealt another blow, then rushed forward.

"How easy it is to judge this without having survived what I experienced!" Caster laughed only more, after which the spell he had created turned Saber's blade aside, "Do you know what despair is? What does it mean to be alone? What does it mean to lose your meaning of life? Do you know how it feels to lose Jeanne?! Hypocrite!"

Saber dealt another blow, aiming at Caster's neck, but the mage put his hand before the blow, allowing the blade to crash into his flesh.

"I lost Jeanne the same way you did!" - Gilles pulled the blade to the side, then retreated, dodging the blow of the so called monster, "But I believed in what she was fighting for! I fought for her, knowing that she was looking at me from the heavens!"

"Faith does not help with pain," Caster grinned, leaping back, calling for a new monster, "But knowledge... Yes, knowledge can lead you to what you want. You prayed every day - and did the Lord listen to you? Did he return to you Jeanne? Do you think forbidden books are so interesting to me? No, I studied those dark knowledge in order to make the Lord answer my questions - and you know what?! It worked! My Jeanne is here again with me! Even your Jeanne is only the result of my deeds!"

Caster sent a new spell, from which Gilles only evaded to the side.

"You are just an insult to all her deeds," Saber grabbed his blade with his second hand. "You betrayed everything she fought for!"

"If the Lord and his angels send me to hell, even if Jeanne orders me to be executed, I will be happy," Caster grinned. "Because it means that I will still have my Jeanne!"

"_Death_," Ainz's voice came instantly, after which Caster suddenly froze for a second, and all of his monsters, whose bodies had been strewn over the floor of the corridor, almost instantly exploded with a purple slurry, splashing Saber.

"Ainz!" He turned to his ally, seeing how he was slowly approaching, looking confusedly at Caster, "You are on time!"

"Yeah," he nodded absently, looking at Caster. "the Witch is no more."

"Great news!" Gilles smiled.

"I would not be in a hurry to say that," Caster said suddenly, slowly unbending. Ainz suddenly froze, "I cannot die while my Lady is alive... And as you can understand, she is still alive."

Ainz suddenly froze and his paranoia rejoiced.

"Jeanne!" Gilles immediately rushed away, leaving Ainz with Caster.

Both mages slowly looked at each other.

"Resurrection," the necromancer sighed. Of course, resurrection.

"Not really," Gilles de Rais slowly turned to the magician. "Nothing in this world is capable of resurrection. But to prevent me from dying, while my lady is alive... The Holy Grail is quite capable of doing this."

"The Grail," Ainz slapped his cheeks. Of course, they completely forgot about the Holy Grail! Of course, this is all the damn Grail's fault!

"Thank you, mage," Gilles could finally straighten up, "I didn't hope that I could..."

"_Death_," just in case, Ainz casted once more, making Caster freeze for a second.

"Damn it, I can't die that easy!" Caster answered after a moment of delay, "You could have killed any of the Servants, any of them — but not me!"

"Anyone?" Ainz asked a little disbelievingly.

"Anyone," Caster confirmed, "But to Hell with it, fight me! Fight, mage!"

"Anyone at all?" Ainz paused for a second, asking a question, 'That is, all those whom I avoided and who did not fight with, I could... Any of them? With one spell?'

"Yes!" said Caster, "Now shut up and fight!"

* * *

Jeanne rose slowly, leaning on her banner, after which she sighed freely, and turned around. Now she needed to find Gilles and Ainz...

"**Le Grondement de la Haine**," suddenly a voice came from behind her. Jeanne did not have time to turn around to it before several copies of chains pierced her body, chaining her in place. After this, the Phantasm stopped for a second, after which Jeanne felt someone bending over to her ear - "Indeed, I'm completely different from you. But I'm still stronger."

After a second, the flames that burned Jeanne d'Arc broke out.

It was a Phantasm, inaccessible to the original Jeanne d'Arc. For her, her execution, her burning was a symbol of her sacrifice. It was a flame that signified the price the saint must pay for his holiness. But there was nothing like that for the Dragon Witch.

It was a flame of hatred. The flame by which people burned her in a distant city on far-fetched accusations when her closest allies turned their back on her, when the king of France refused to redeem her from captivity. It was a flame of betrayal. Flames, from human evil and hatred. Anger, pain and suffering, converted into a form of flame.

After a moment, the flame soared to the ceiling, devouring the body of the Servant in seconds.

A servant without a class, Jeanne d'Arc, was burned.

* * *

**YGGDRASIL** \- DATA_NOT_FOUND

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Now back to the business - as you could have guessed - THIS was the part when Ainz finally got some answers to his questions - and also I asked why he was not present at the Orleans fight and all that.**

**Also - no, I'm not enjoying killing Servants and characters...  
I'm lying, I LOVE to do it. Because this way I can asses, how good I made them. Were people indifferent to their deaths, are they hate my guts, were they sad they favorite died or they were elated to see this idiot perish? Also - characters die, all the time. That's just how it is.  
**

**Yep, an obligatory reminder that at**** my Pat reon \rure I have 4 new chapters right now! Orleans already ended there. Sure thing, one day it will end on this site for free - but if you want FOUR new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.**

**Or if you want to influence the way this story unfolds - while also having FOUR chapters right now - then I have a 5$ pledge on my Pat reon \rure too.**


	36. Chapter 36

The Witch watched as the ashes from her Phantasm slowly descend.

That's all that remains of Jeanne d'Arc, the Maiden of Orleans, Saint of France.

The Witch slowly reached out, catching the black ash left over from her ability.

What was this before? Something from a melted stone? From scorched armor? Or maybe that was all that was left of the body of the Holy One.

The Witch slowly lowered her hand, watching the black snowflake fall from her hand, twirling in the air, and then slowly raised her face to the ceiling of the throne room. And burst out laughing.

It was a deep, resounding, slightly angry laughter at the very limit of the Witch's lungs. A terrible mixture of a villain's bass laugh and the hysterical laugh of a madman who have reached his desired goal.

The Witch laughed and laughed, feeling how gradually tears came to her, slowly running down her cheeks.

The Witch laughed like the last time in her life, with a howling bass, unable to keep herself on her feet, she fell down, after which, lying on the floor, rolled onto her back and continued to laugh.

So long…

So long…

So long she waited for Jeanne. So long she tried to find her. So passionately she wanted to kill her.

And finally she did it.

Now Jeanne burned. Burned at the stake in the same way as back then. Now she felt the pain of the Witch, the pain of fire, the pain of betrayal, once again left alone, without her friends and allies.

She died.

The Witch's laughter turned into powerless howls, as if the person could no longer laugh, but still could not stop. Tears continued to run down the Witch's cheeks.

The Saint died. Died! Died!

Now she will no longer be tormented by this flame. Her mind will not be poisoned by her words.

She won.

The Witch sobbed several times, and then slowly rose.

"Jeanne!" Came a voice not far from the girl, and she turned her head, preparing for battle, after which she relaxed a little.

It was Gilles.

"Ah, Gilles," she smiled, then slowly rose from her seat, looking at the man. "Why are you in armor?"

Gilles did not answer her, only slowly grabbing his blade, looking at the place where the Witch executed the Jeanne.

"Gilles, since when do you have a blade?" The girl once again looked at him. No, something was wrong, it was not Gilles - he looked similar, but he was dressed in armor, a blade on his belt, no mantle...

The girl's thought was interrupted a second later, when the blade of Gilles de Rais, Saber, entered her stomach.

"Hah?" She stopped for a second, looking at the narrow strip of steel that pierced her through, "Gilles, what are you..."

Gilles did not stop, instead sharply pulling the blade and struck again. This time, the Witch, however, managed to turn up her sword and the silence of the throne room was broken by the clink of blades colliding with each other.

"Witch!" Gilles dealt another blow, immediately blocked by the Witch.

"Who the hell are you?!" The witch used her power to strike, pushing the guy back.

"Gilles de Re, closest associate of Jeanne d'Arc and defender of France," Saber dealt another blow. The Witch was bewildered.

"You're not Gilles!" The witch struck right after these words, "Gilles is my ally!"

"Your ally is just a miserable fake of the real me, the same as you are the fake of Jeanne d'Arc!" Saber dealt another sharp blow.

"Go to the Devil!" The Witch struck right after. Second Gilles?! There were two of them from the very beginning?!

"You will answer for your deeds, Witch!" Saber stabbed yet again. Under normal circumstances, the Witch could easily fend off his attacks and go on the offensive - Gilles was not the strongest Saber and therefore the Witch could easily fend off his attacks. In normal conditions, that is.

However, the story of Gilles de Rais was full of hoaxes, rumors and half-truths. Some historians considered him a famous patron of the arts, the richest man in France and the great commander who worshiped Jeanne d'Arc, for whom he had fought for throughout the war. However, the public perception of Gilles was not so clear.

Gilles de Rais was a famous associate of Jeanne d'Arc, but the story of Blue Beard was better remembered the people. The story of a crazy psychopath, a murderer of women and children, a maniac who practiced black magic, consorted with demon worshipers - and about the duke executed for worshiping Satan, who fell into madness after the death of Jeanne d'Arc.

It was the separation of these two stories that allowed Gilles de Rais to be embodied in the form of two Servants - the brave commander and savior of France, Saber - and the crazy maniac who wielded dark magic, Caster. However, just as Carmilla embodied the true legend of Elizabeth Bathory, Caster embodied information about the true Gilles de Rais. Not the one that actually existed - but much more famous and significant. Therefore, the appearance of Saber as a Servant was, although possible, unlikely.

Elizabeth Bathory was embodied thanks to her distant mythological relation to dragons. Saber did not have such a lineage y. However, he had a story that united two parts of his existence into one. After all, Caster went crazy and turned to the Devil because he lost his Jeanne d'Arc. And Saber fought for France because he believed in Jeanne d'Arc.

Unlike Carmilla and Elizabeth Bathory, there was a transition between Saber and Caster, which turned one into another. This transition was caused by Jeanne d'Arc.

It was the loss of Jeanne d'Arc that turned Saber into Caster, the murderer and the lost sinner, who lost his meaning of life. Madness was inside them both from the very beginning - the madness that put Jeanne at the center of their lives. And if Caster was the one whose madness had already swallowed his mind, then Saber was the one whose madness was closing in on him, waiting for the opportune moment. And so now it has awakened - and Saber felt his madness turning into his strength.

Therefore, his next blow nearly knocked the Witch onto his back.

"Gilles de Rais!" She tried to shout to the man, "I am your Saint! Back off!"

"You killed my Saint!" not listening, the man struck again, "You have never been my Saint!"

"Jeanne is dead!" The Witch struck again, crossing their blades. "That Jeanne is dead! Now it remains only me! You have nothing to fight for anymore!"

"Go to Hell!" Saber only attacked again. "Do you think that the death of Jeanne will stop the people who fought for her?!"

The Witch even slowed down for a second from this phrase.

"Jeanne is dead! The battle is over!" The Witch tried to repeat herself immediately. "Damn it, your Holy One is dead! "

"Bullshit!" Saber attacked again, with even greater fury. "We are fighting for Jeanne! For our symbol, for our victory, for what she believed in, and not for the human!"

"This is nonsense!" The Witch blocked another blow. "You lost! I won! Jeanne is dead! You have nothing to fight for anymore!"

"To Hell with you, Witch!" Gilles struck another blow, almost forcing the Witch to drop the blade from her hands, "Don't you understand?! The death of Jeanne will not change anything now. The troops are approaching you, your Servants are dead - you lost!"

"Surrender!" The Witch shouted completely off topic, almost perplexed, "Jeanne is dead! Do you hear me, Jeanne is dead! No one will fight for the dead! No one can fight for her now!"

"I only hear nonsense and rubbish from your lips!" Saber struck blow after blow, gradually speeding up, which forced the Witch to go into complete defense, "We fight for Jeanne — I fight for Jeanne! And her death only convinces me that I am fighting for the right thing!"

"You should have run away!" The Witch, in confusion, only shouted at Gilles, "When I fought, you abandoned me! No one saved me! No one heard my prayers! Fire - I still feel the fire devouring me, every second - I remember every moment of despair! You did not save me then - so why do you continue to fight for her now?!"

"Because I fight for the Saint, and not for you, Witch," Gilles raised his blade, but when the Witch was prepared for the next blow, but nothing followed. However, the Witch realized that she was getting to the finale.

"**Saint War Order**", - Gilles uttered the name of his Phantasm, - "**Rally Upon the Holy Banner and Roar**!"

The next blow the Witch tried to block, swinging her blade to the blow - and Saber struck down with his sword. Saber's sword, without encountering any obstacles, instantly broke the Witch's blade into many fragments.

Saber's Phantasm was associated with the Phantasm of Jeanne d'Arc. Saber embodied Gilles de Rais, a heroic warrior who fought for France - an associate of Jeanne d'Arc. And therefore his Phantasm embodied just that. Gilles de Rais, a hero fighting under the banner of his Saint. The moment he felt alive. The time when he believed in the miracle of the Lord. His distant battles for Jeanne and France, when he was not just fighting, he understood that he was fighting for God, for the Holy One, for victory. The moment he knew that under the banner of the Saint, he could not lose. And therefore, there were no barriers in front of him.

The Witch's blade crumbled from one blow, forcing her to retreat, looking at Gilles with fear, confusion and bitterness. Gilles took a step towards the Witch, pointing his blade at her, feeling the Angels of Vengeance speak through him.

"Why did you betray me again, Gilles de Rais?" Said the Witch, looking at Saber, feeling the bitterness begin to pinch her eyes, "Why didn't you save me then - and are trying to kill me now?"

"I fought for the Saint all my life," Gilles took another step, after which the tip of his blade buried itself in the girl's chest, "I never even wanted to know you."

A second later, the blade of Gilles de Rais pierced the heart of the Witch.

* * *

"Jeanne!" cried Caster.

"_Napalm_," Ainz used a spell that instantly burned Caster, frying him to the very bone, and then sighed. What stupidity, what stupidity, stupidity, stupidity, stupidity... So long! To avoid battles for so long because he believed that the Servants were stronger and in the end... Why?! Why did this even happen to him?!

"Damn you, mage, my mistress needs me!" Caster, regenerating the damage, rushed past the magician, but Ainz only sighed.

"_Hold Species_" - he used another spell with a sigh, - "_Teleportation_."

Caster froze for a second and Ainz simply looked at him. He couldn't even kill his opponent now. But hell, he could kill everyone else?! Really?! Damn it! How?! Would?! He?! Know?!

Caster could not even free himself from the shackles of his spell, so Ainz simply walked away to the wall, then leaned on it and began to slowly slide down, covering his head with his hands. He had a headache from all this news.

Caster just stood still, waiting for Ainz's spell to end.

Ainz was in dismay. Should he now apologize to all the other Servants? Or pretend that it was just as intended? Which of these was worse — to say that he made a fatal mistake, or to hope that the Servants would not find out about it later? After all, if one day they find out, then...

"And who said that they don't know about this ?!" - Ainz grabbed his head - "If they already know, then... I became a laughing stock in their eyes! I wasted my collection on such stupidity!"

Ainz did not even know what he should have done, beat his head against the wall or pretend that nothing had happened.

Finally, the spell of the magician ceased to work and Gilles was able to free himself.

"I know people like you, mage," he looked at Ainz seriously. "You play with your victim, not killing, and only giving them the opportunity to run away just to destroy their hopes, knowing that you can kill them any second..."

"Just shut up" - Ainz didn't even understand, he said it out loud or thought - "I'm sick of you."

However, Caster just looked at the magician, - "So, you understand the meaninglessness of this battle?"

"_Death_," the mage answered with a curse, forcing Caster to shut up for at least a second. Or maybe he should say that he was forbidden to fight for religious reasons? It will be strange, but understandable... No, then in the future he will also not be able to fight... What a bad situation!

"Damn it, my mistress needs me!" Caster recovered a second later, after which he suddenly froze. Ainz even rose from his thoughts a little in order to look at the mage.

"I lost control of Jeanne," the mage said in a frightened voice, making Ainz breathe. Well, he lost control of the Witch... Stop, what?!

* * *

The blade of Gilles de Rais entered the heart of the Witch, after which Saber abruptly pulled it out, causing the Witch to sprinkle a little blood and slowly took a step back.

"Gilles..." she said, looking at her faithful companion, "Why?"

"You deserve to burn in Hell, Witch," Saber only shook the blood from the blade, as if he had stained it with something, "For all your sins."

This is not the first time the Witch has heard this.

"For all your sins you will be condemned to be burned and I hope that you will burn forever in Hell" - these were the words of Beaufort Henry, Cardinal of Winchester, before she was executed.

"Why did you betray me, Gilles de Rais?" The Witch slowly raised her eyes to Saber, and he could see how slowly tears flowed from the girl's eyes, "Why do you always betray me? Why does no one ever save me? Why am I always left alone? Why do I feel the pain of fire, why, my friend, why?"

"I have never been your friend," Gilles de Rais looked into the eyes of the Witch and said these words.

The next second, the Witch fell silent, and then grabbed her head.

And screamed.

It was a scream full of pain, but not a girl's scream. It was the moan of a cornered animal.

"Why, why, why?!" the girl repeated like a mantra, "Why?!"

Gilles swung the blade for a last blow to cut off the girl's head, but stopped for a second. The Witch that stood before him was slowly losing its shape.

Her body seemed to slowly turn into black mucus,then starting to flow like melted wax.

Gilles swung his blade for a blow, and then with one blow cut the head of the Witch. However, the head of the Witch, cut off from the body, falling to the ground, instantly exploded into black liquid, like a huge drop, after which the whole body of the Witch instantly turned into black liquid, immediately spreading into one huge puddle.

But the voice did not stop.

"Traitors, they are all traitors," a voice was heard, as if from everywhere and nowhere, "They just want to make me feel pain... Every second they betray me, every second they burn me at the stake... They all just wish for my torment."

Gilles looked around several times, trying to find the source of the sound, before he nevertheless looked at the black liquid left by the girl.

The puddle continued to slowly foam and bubble, as if boiling, although the hall was very cool.

"All of them... All of them... All of them..." - repeated words were heard - "Traitors, traitors, traitors..."

Gilles de Rais retreated. He could not fight against this, so he had to retreat to Ainz. However, taking only a step, Gilles felt that his legs seemed to be bogged down in a swamp.

Saber glanced down to see how a black liquid stuck around his legs, forcing him to be absorbed down to his waist.

"Why, why, why..." - the voice continued, but Gilles only brought the blade and with a sharp blow chopped off the part that stretched from his legs to the pool of black liquid.

After a second there was a scream, a girlish scream, after which something threw Gilles de Rais away.

The black mucus that had covered Saber's legs before, slowly pulled itself into a puddle, which exploded again, and then shot in all directions with black streams that shimmer and are moving about while being scattered. Gilles managed to evade one of these, seeing these huge streams breaking through the walls of the palace, but he could not do anything else in this situation.

Black mucus boiled, slowly taking shape each and every one of the streams, after which it turned one into the other, as if growing out of itself, breaking all the laws of physics and logic, rising up, as if not obeying the law of gravity.

However, gradually the black mucus begin to take shape - changing over and over again, it became covered with scales, growing claws and teeth - before becoming a complete creature.

The huge black dragon was covered with scales that looked like spikes towered above its back, covering all the way to the tail. Teeth and claws, as if made from darkness that did not reflect light. Golden eyes which looked at the world with hatred.

A moment later, the dragon looked atGilles from his place, after which it struck him with his huge claws at a speed and dexterity that could not be expected from such a monstrosity, and then brought its face closer to Saber.

"Burn, traitor," came the roar from the throat of the creature, which was the Dragon Witch.

"I did not betray you," Saber only looked fearlessly into the dragon's eyes, "For I have never fought for you."

After a second, Saber, Gilles De Rais, was consumed by the dragon's flame.

* * *

Ainz just disinterestedly looked at the creature that was rising nearby, watching the dragon slowly get out of the ruins of what had recently been a throne room.

'Black dragon, level around sixtieth,' he remarked melancholically, 'However, it can be... Although, is it really?'

"Hey, Caster," he turned to the mage, who was finally able to deal with the summoned undead at the cost of the many injuries now covering his body. "Is this dragon strong?"

"Jeanne is strong, really strong," Caster just looked at the black dragon, distracted from his opponent, after which he looked at him, "Stronger than even Fafnir."

Ainz even perked up for a second, however, remembering which Fafnir they were talking about - he want to clarify away - "How much stronger?"

"Much stronger," Caster answered immediately with a grin. "Now that Jeanne no longer need to give her mana to support the Servants, she has regained her full strength.

"So she also strengthened her Servants?" Ainz closed his eyes and planted the back of his head against the wall. That was so... Wrong.

"Of course!" Caster was almost offended, "Each of them reached the peak of their strength thanks to her mana and…"

"_Death_," Ainz interrupted the mage's words. It was simply wrong. Like in some absurdist comedy.

"How many times do I need to repeat it, mage, your magic does not affect me!" - Caster only straightened up after a second - "I can't die while my lady is alive!"

"_Death_," Ainz used the spell once more, after which he slowly rose from his stupor and went to Caster, "_Death_. _Death_. _Death_. _Death_".

Any of the spells cast could have killed any of the Servants that Ainz had met before - however, right now it was useless. But Ainz did not use it to win. He just wanted to express some of his frustration on someone.

Ainz used this spell several more times, watching how each time Gilles freezes for a second, when his soul tried to leave his body, but returned each time.

"I know what you're doing, necromancer," Caster just grinned. "I understand that. You want to make me feel powerless, to show how easily you can take away my life - each time, luring your opponent into a trap and then letting it go alive. I saw you fighting…"

"_Death_," Ainz used the spell once more and looked at the dragon in the distance. He should have killed him now, however...

"_Death_," Ainz used the spell for the last time t, then turned and slowly walked away.

"Where are you going ?!" Caster immediately shouted after him.

"I'll go get some air," the mage sighed and walked slowly away.

"Damn it, you won't go anywhere!" Caster instantly opened his book, after which he used a spell while rushing forward.

The spell seemed to crash into an invisible barrier around Ainz, immediately dispersing.

"Below the sixth rank," Ainz remarked melancholically, "Did not breakthrough Magic Nullification."

A second later, several monsters were born, rushing at the magician, but their blows only powerlessly crashed into the body of the necromancer, which continued to move on.

"Below of the sixtieth level" - Ainz also calmly remarked - "They did not break through the Physical Nullification."

Thus Ainz, not paying attention to the monsters pursuing him, and Caster, watching him with a perplexed look, left.

* * *

George looked at the dragon, rising in the distance, and sighed.

"Well, well, that means the Witch's trumps in her sleeves haven't run out yet," sighed Cu Chulainn, then turned to Rider, "What are we going to do?"

"Kill the dragon," Rider just nodded. "We have no other options."

"And where is Master, when there is a need for him?" Caster was indignant, "Wasn't Ainz's plan to get inside and not allow the Witch to throw out something like that?"

"So, now he is fighting with someone," George gave out the most logical thought in the given conditions, after which he again looked at the dragon.

The huge black body of the monster slowly turned around in place in order to find its opponents, after which, finally finding them, let out a roar.

"That is the Witch," George immediately recognized her, after which he turned to Cu Chulainn.

"Seriously?!" the guy turned his eyes to Rider, then back to the dragon. "Well, in this case, we now know for sure that her moniker as the Dragon Witch was not for nothing."

However, Rider only frowned.

The Dragon Witch was protected from magic as much as possible. Having taken the form of a dragon, she acquired incredible strength in the physical plane. In other words, defeating her in a direct battle was now incredibly difficult.

"She is stronger than Fafnir," George said this, after which he looked at Cu Chulainn, "Mage, do you have any strong spell?"

"Yes, but if it's the Witch, then she doesn't give a damn about all my abilities!" Caster turned his eyes to Rider.

"Mashu," he turned around right away, "Get your shield ready."

"Rider?" The girl looked at him, but George only returned his gaze to the dragon.

"Siegfried fulfilled his duty," George nodded. "Now it is my turn."

A second later, Rider rushed forward.

"Rider!" Caster just managed to shout to him, but George no longer listened to him.

"**Bayard**!" George called his faithful stallion, and after a second, the white horse of the Saint instantly appeared next to him, as if woven from the glare reflected from the sun by the walls of the ruined city.

A second later, George jumped on his horse and rushed forward.

The dragon, seeing the movement of the rider, only growled with all his might and inhaled.

"I hope Mashu had time to put up a shield" - the horseman had only time to think, after which the figure was consumed by the flames.

The dragon flame of the Witch was like a fiery whirlwind, instantly sweeping away everything from its path. The stone touched by the fire did not float like wax - a moment later it simply evaporated, turning into boiling steam. The remains of the monsters still fighting under the command of the Witch evaporated, turning to ashes, immediately burning from incredible temperatures, after which the houses and buildings that stood in the path of the fire exhale ceased to exist.

The flame consumed the Rider, not meeting any resistance, and then travelled further.

Cu Chulainn's runes flared up, after which Mashu's shield stood in the inferno's path, but the flame, instead of dissipating, only thoughtlessly hit the exposed defense.

Caster continued to cast spell after spell, trying to keep the flame from devouring the runes like a hungry beast, and Mashu continued to hold her shield, feeling the fire creeping behind it, scorching her hands and slowly melting her armor.

"George!" The girl managed to cry out at the moment when the figure of Rider was consumed by fire.

"We have serious problems!" Cu Chulainn only shouted to her, using one rune after another.

The flames continued to strike the shields for just a few more seconds before it calmed down and Mashu could turn her gaze to the dragon.

To see George, completely unscathed, rushing forward.

Rider was a great dragon slayer. His legend was named for his main achievement -Saint George the Dragon Slayer. In his legend, George killed a dragon while on his horse, after which he converted the whole city to the Christian faith. But reality does not always coincide with legend.

George was a dragon slayer and he really fought once with the Serpent. But the legend was inaccurate in how his battle went.

His battle with the dragon did not occur in only one line - "and he defeated the snake." It was an exhausting battle in which George fought to the limit of his abilities. In addition, George was not really a good horseman, so instead of fighting on a horse - having arrived at the dragon's den, he preferred to dismount.

What is the point of talking about that battle? One wound after another, a battle to the limit, a battle that drained the two fighters.

Many blows, many wounds, many losses - George lost his hand when he chopped off the dragon's claw - after which the dragon lost its tail when he managed to deprive George of his ear.

However, in the end, when the two fighters were exhausted, when the battle is undecided and anyone could win, George lost.

In the last reckless bout, the dragon managed to knock George away and knock him to the ground, pinning him with its body. George lost his blade and prepared for death.

Then something hit the dragon and distracted it.

Bayard, the old horse of George, with whom he traveled throughout Europe, escaped its leash not far from the battlefield. And instead of escaping from the roar and clash of blade, from the flame and from a dragon, it rushed into battle.

Such an accident and such a trifle decided the outcome of the battle.

The dragon was distracted for only a second, after which he killed the stallion with its blow. However, this horse gave enough time for George to grab his blade - and cut off the head of the snake.

Bayard saved George in that battle - and so became his Noble Phantasm.

George rushed forward - but already without a stallion. He died after taking the blow of the dragon flame.

"Sorry, old friend" - Rider just rushed forward.

That was his essence. Bayard, a faithful horse, always perished before George. Because his strength allowed him to always save his rider from any final blow. At the cost of his life.

The dragon, however, did not care about such trifles - instead of thinking, he preferred to breathe again.

"Damn it, he is attacking again!" Cu Chulainn shouted . Mashu just squeezed her shield - no matter what happens, they must survive!

However, when the dragon breathed out again, a wall appeared on the dragon's flame path. A golden shield instantly rose in its path, after which the dragonfire struck it powerlessly.

"**Ascalon**!" Came the voice of George, "**The Blessed Sword By Which Force is Slain**!"

The dragon's flame hit the golden shield that appeared in front of the dragon, but it didn't even move when the inferno collided with an immovable gold wall.

The blade of George bestowed upon him in that battle was not intended for murder. It was intended only to protect the weak. Such was the reflection of the dragon-killer, which became not a hero like Siegfried, but a Saint.

The flame of the dragon died down after a second, after which the golden wall on the enemy's path disappeared. George rushed on, while the dragon roared, noting that its attack had not reached its target.

George was approaching with great speed - even though he was on foot, he still remained a Rider, so the few hundreds of meters that separated the dragon from him did not become an obstacle. In addition, he was a Saint and a dragon slayer. Such a title meant at least a certain level of strength.

"**Interfectum Dracones**" he called after a moment, when the dragon began to inhale again for the third attack, "**Dragon Slayer**!"

After a moment, a golden flash pierced the sky, similar to the one that appeared when using Ascalon - however, this time there was no wall in the way of the dragon's attack.

Yes, Ascalon was granted to George only to protect the weak. However, not always as the wall that appears on the enemy's path will become an obstacle for the enemy- for having failed for now, the enemy will eventually return, only stronger. Sometimes, to protect the weak, it is necessary to stain your hands with blood - and defeat the enemy, once and for all.

A golden flash in George's hands struck the dragon a moment later - and the Dragon Witch understood. She has found her nemesis.

The dragonslayer's blade easily cut flesh through the scales, then cut off one of its huge paws in one single movement, after which, without stopping, it struck further, cutting the body, tearing the wing, to the very bottom.

After all, the legend of Saint George concerned precisely with the killing of dragons.

A moment later, the Witch breathed out the flame, but this could no longer save her.

"I did everything I could" - George, finally fulfilling his duty, sighed - "Then it's up to you."

A second later, Rider, Saint George, was consumed by the fiery inferno.

"She lost her Magic Defense!" Mashu turned to Cu Chulainn, "George removed it!"

"Damn all these Servants who don't communicate their plan!" Cu Chulainn only complained "I need time for Phantasm!"

The blade of George was Ascalon, the holy blade protecting the weak and punishing evil. Obstacles could not hide from it and evil machinations could not keep it in its scabbard. The evil overtaken by this blade could not be saved. The holy blade of George was a weapon for punishing evil - and therefore the evil, which became its goal, could not be protected from it. Protection, artifacts, abilities, skills - if the target of this blade was evil, then everything that gave it power turned out to be useless and destroyed.

And what was more evil in the vision of the Saint and the dragon-killer than the Witch and the dragon?

Therefore, the dragon, who received a terrible blow, burst into a roar, after which, leaning on its still remaining limbs, as if anticipating its death, it began to draw in air.

"He's attacking again!" Mashu turned to Cu Chulainn, who hastily laid out his runes.

"Damn it, I need time!" Caster was in as much hurry as he could, "Do something!"

"**Blood Fort Andromeda**," came a sudden third voice, after which it was as if a whole field covered the city.

"Medusa, you are just a miracle!" Cu Chulainn rejoiced at the appearance of Rider.

"Do your Phantasm!" The girl shouted at him. "I won't last long!"

Blood Fort Andromeda. The Second Phantasm of Medusa.

Medusa was a monster - at least that is what was told in many legends. However, at the same time, there was another story of Medusa. The story of a young and beautiful girl who lived on a distant island with her two sisters. The story of a girl who was cursed for something that she was not to blame.

The great God of the Sea, Poseidon, fell in love with a beautiful girl, but was rejected. The God, however, did not stop his pursuit.

Fleeing from his pursuits, she broke into the temple of Athena - however, the desecration of the temple was not something trivial for a God. Frightened and alone, she became a victim to his deeds.

However, Athena did not see who committed the desecration of her temple - and therefore, when Poseidon disappeared, she could only find a crying girl on the steps of the temple. And cursed her for the act that she did not commit.

Athena turned her into a monster, after which Medusa, abandoned and losing her faith, now known only as a monster, fled to her distant island, wanting to find her peace there.

However, people learned about her actions. Now they saw in her not a girl, but a desecrator of a temple, a monster. Many wanted her head - and many went after her.

Medusa did not want to fight, but neither prayers nor escaping could save her. And Medusa defended herself. And the curse of Athena, which made her a monster, gave her strength.

Thus a legend was told that no one who went to the Shapeless Island of the Gorgon sisters would return alive. So the Noble Phantasm of Medusa is formed.

An incredible concentration of magic in the air that could turn any person into stone - suck them dry to the last drop, leaving only an empty shell, or a corpse. The power of the Blood Fort was such that the magic scattered in the air would make the blood boil in the veins, seeping outward like bloody dew that appears on the skin. A second - and a person loses consciousness. A minute - and a person loses his life.

However, for the dragon, such an ability was only a shallow distraction- a short second of delay. The second that was enough for Caster.

"**Ochd Deug Odin**!" Smiled Cu Chulainn, "**Great God Carved Seal**!"

A second later, an explosion consumed the dragon.

The eighteen runes created by Odin himself after he drank from the source of wisdom were a great creation, eighteen keys to magic of Northern Europe. They contained the power of infinite knowledge from Odin himself, the ancient god of the Scandinavians, and the power of all his wisdom. Only eighteen runes carried the full power and fury of thousands of ensi. The fury that was instantly released on its target.

An explosion of phenomenal power consumed the dragon in an instant, after which the blast wave literally razed the Witch's castle to the ground, destroying those small buildings that still remained in the city after the battles and attacks between the Servants and dragons. A cloud of fire rose up hundreds of meters, slowly turning into the likeness of a cloud from an explosion of the strongest weapon available to mankind.

"At least I can add one opponent to my account," Сu Сhulainn grinned, after which the blast wave, reaching their positions, knocked him down.

For a second, deafening silence was established throughout the city, before Caster could rise from his place, looking at the defeated bulk of the dragon. Even such a powerful creature as the Dragon Witch, having acquired a new form and strength, could not withstand the attacks of the primordial power of the runes.

"That was cool," Cu Chulainn nodded his head slowly, "And now..."

After a second, however, the dragon bulk jerked, and then slowly began to rise.

"You are kidding me!" Caster looked disbelievingly at the slowly rising dragon.

However, having finally managed to move, the dragon stopped, and then collapsed again.

* * *

"_Death_," Ainz lowered his hand, looking at how the huge dragon collapsed again. George's ability was able to overcome the Witch's magical defense - however, even the power of the three Phantasms could not kill the Witch. Ainz, however, did not even need his Noble Phantasm.

The dragon's mass fell, and then began to flow slowly, turning into a purple slurry, immediately spreading under it.

"Excellent," Ainz sighed, and then noticed how contours emerge from the slurry.

The Dragon Witch lay motionless, feeling the mucus remaining from the dragon slowly waning.

She did not have arms, legs. Her whole skin was covered with burns and her whole body was torn to pieces. Her armor was melted into the skin, and her eyes could hardly see through the caked blood crust on her face.

"Well..." the Witch tried to grin, but her whole body responded with pain and she froze, "I lost... I always lose, right?.. Haha."

After that, the girl tried to look around, but instantly saw the figure of Ainz standing nearby.

"Ha, mage," the girl smiled. "So you will be my executioner?"

"Yes," answered Ainz and slowly moved toward the girl.

"You don't know how it feels to be betrayed," Ainz, holding his hand for the last spell, stopped.

"What is it like to be alone, at your last moment," the girl tried to smile, but her body returned with pain, "How does it feel to meet the end alone."

Ainz slowly lowered his hand.

"Oh, have you really decided to spare me?" The girl sighed. "It will not help... Nothing will help me now..."

Ainz slowly took a step toward the Witch.

"Traitors," the girl sighed. "All of them... Nobody will share my last moment with me. They all escaped as soon as they could. I was never needed by anyone. They all left me, left me alone in the end... What irony, isn't it? This has already happened, right? Once again, one - and the only one standing next to me is my executioner."

Ainz slowly took another step toward the Witch.

"Well, I'm left alone," the girl grunted a little, "Alone at the very end. What a pity - even Gilles... They all betrayed me. No one is fighting under my banner anymore. No one looks at me with admiration. No one sees my death. All those whom I called friends, all those who admired me, again left me alone. Tell me, mage, do you know how it feels to be alone?"

Ainz slowly looked at the Witch.

Once he also asked this question.

There, far away, in a distant world, he slowly met the end of Yggdrasil.

What is a game? Entertainment. A way to kill time. A pointless waste of time.

Players of Ainz Ooal Gown were such. Each of them was unique in something. In the game, they fought, completed quests, found equipment, clashed, talked, laughed...

And then they left.

Family. Children. Work. Study. Plans. Career.

All of them had a life other than the game. A university professor, a happy mother, a student at a prestigious university, a voice actress.

Satoru Suzuki had no life.

There was no education. There were no friends. There was no family. There was no career.

He worked every day, from eight in the morning until six in the evening, after which he returned to his apartment. Empty, dusty. Knowing that without education he will never find another job. Knowing that without money, he will never find anything for himself. That without looks she won't find a girl for herself.

He played because he had nothing more to do.

And the game was different. A Girlfriend? Why does he need it, he is a great magician! Career? He is the ruler of a whole world! Friends? Forty-one people whom he considered his friends were with him. Adventure? He had so many quests and stories that he could compose a dozen books about his story.

And while Ainz lived, everyone else was playing. And then they left.

Yggdrasil held the top spot for popularity for twelve years. Incredibly long time for a game. But time does not look at the dreams of one person.

Yggdrasil announced its closure. And Ainz returned to the game for the last time.

He sent out invitations, prepared fireworks, and returned to the meeting room.

On the last day of the game, only one person returned. It was even more painful than if no one had come at all. Only one person who spoke about the closure of the game as something trivial, after which he complained about work - and went away.

That is his whole story.

And Ainz returned to his throne room for the last time, after which he sat down to wait. Expecting the end of everything.

"Yes," finally Ainz said, "I know how it feels to be alone."

"Hah," the Witch grinned, and then slowly turned her head toward the magician, "Then you will understand me."

"Yes," Ainz sighed. "I understand."

After this, Ainz took another step towards the Witch and she closed her eyes, preparing to die.

Ainz slowly crouched next to her, after which he held out his hands in the girl. After a second, he lifted her body from the ground and hugged her.

"Irony, huh," the Witch only grinned, and Ainz felt a tear fall on his clothes, which were already soiled during the battle, "Who would know that I would sink so low that my enemy would console me..."

Ainz just sighed.

"I am enraged by your pity, mage," the Witch tried to smile through the pain, but the tears flowing from her eyes did not stop, "But still... Thank you."

After a second, the body of the Witch in Ainz's hands swam, turning into purple slime, after which, after a second, a golden goblet appeared from the slime, hit the stone loudly, and slowly rolled over granite.

The creature of the Holy Grail, Jeanne d'Arc (Alter), ceased her torment.

"Jeanne," came a voice next to Ainz, after which he turned to Gilles de Re, who was just looking into the void, "Jeanne... Forgive me, please, Jeanne…"

Ainz slowly got up, and then directed his hand at Caster, but he did not even respond to the actions of the magician. Slowly, Gilles moved to the fallen golden goblet, after which he lifted it.

"Forgive me, Jeanne, for I am guilty of everything," Gilles closed his eyes, after which he lowered his head and slowly trudged away.

Ainz could have killed him now at any second - but Caster did not even realize it. Slowly he walked away.

Ainz extended his hand, after which he slowly lowered it.

"Hey, we won!" the voice distracted mage, after which Ainz slowly turned to his Servants. To those who remained of them.

Cu Chulainn slowly walked forward, leaning on his staff. Beside him, Mashu was limping. Medusa walked close to her, supporting Archer. Somewhere beside them, behind Archer, Kiyohime was slowly moving at the back.

"Well, is everything finally done?" Cu Chulainn sighed, taking another step forward, after which he glanced at Ainz.

"Yes, almost." Ainz closed his eyes and then turned around. "Wait for me here. Now, I just have to... Find out something."

After that, Ainz went after Caster in order to end his doubts once and for all.

* * *

**Yggdrasil:** _* (E-)_

DATA_CORRUPTED

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Jalter is an Avenger class only after summoning by Chaldea, in the Singularity she was a Ruler.**

**Also, I didn't even read\watched the GOT.**

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	37. Chapter 37

Gilles de Rais, Caster, found his last refuge in the ruined throne room, where until recently the Witch had fought and met her death along with Jeanne d'Arc.

The room itself was now completely destroyed - the walls were broken in many places, the roof fell almost completely, the columns were fragmented and randomly spread out, because of which the floor of the hall was now completely covered with dust and concrete chips.

The carpet was torn and now lay in parts in different corners of the hall, illuminated by the bright daytime sun rising above the remains of the ruined city, because of which the ruins of the throne room were now flooded with light. However, not completely.

The only thing that survived in the entire hall was the bulky stone throne. Empty, abandoned, it seemed that it was not even scratched during the battles that occurred, while continuing to stand motionless. The small remains of the masonry and the roof that still remained cast a dark shadow on the Witch's throne.

It was in this shadow that Gilles de Rais was located.

He continued to look at nowhere. Dropping his head, he held in his hands a goblet - the Holy Grail - which he held with no greater reverence than a traveler dying of hunger and thirst holding gold and diamonds in his hands. Yes, they are valuable - but not in their power to give him salvation.

That is what Ainz saw in him.

Slowly, he entered through the hinged doors, which swayed sideways but survived the collapse of the hall, after which he looked at Caster.

That's all.

Ainz sighed.

The last goal in this place. The last person with whose death will end the Singularity.

Ainz moved slowly toward his goal, but Caster, hearing the sound of the mage's footsteps, only looked up at him, and then hung his head again.

"Do not waste your time on me, mage," Gilles said, "I am already dead anyway."

Ainz said nothing in response, only slowly continuing to move toward his goal.

"Your... Your Servant - this Assassin..." Caster continued, "Her poison ... While Jeanne was alive, I did not need to worry about it, but now... Do not worry about me, mage, I will be dead in a few minutes.

Ainz, however, only continued to move towards Caster, after which, going up to that of an arm's length, he stopped. Gilles, hidden by the shadow, slowly raised his gaze to Ainz, whose figure was lit by the midday sun, and then closed his eyes.

"So it was you," Ainz said calmly, after which he looked at Caster.

"Yes," Gilles slowly opened his eyes, after which he looked at the goblet still clasped in his hands, "It was me."

There were a lot of questions in Ainz's head that he wanted to ask, but only one interest him the most.

"Why?" Ainz looked at Caster, forcing him to look at him.

"Why?" Caster just sighed. "Why did I do all this?"

Ainz nodded slowly.

"Because it was the only way," - Gilles sighed, - "Tell me, mage... Is there anything in the world that you want most? Something that will make you to overcome all obstacles in your path? Something for which you are willing to sacrifice something more than your own life, your glory, your mind?"

Ainz stopped.

Ainz Ooal Gown. His friends. His family. His real life.

"Yes," Ainz nodded slowly.

"Then do not believe the Holy Grail," Caster smiled sadly. "It does not fulfill our wishes. It only makes us suffer."

Ainz stopped, looking at Gilles.

"There was such a thing in my life," Gilles closed his eyes, "Jeanne. My whole life has been devoted to Jeanne, everything that I breathed, everything that I thought about. My whole existence was built around Jeanne and... One day she died."

Ainz looked at the Grail in Caster's hands.

"Yes, you understood correctly," Caster grinned sadly, not allowing his laugh to reach his eyes, full of pain, "The Holy Grail. What would you do if you got a thing in your hands that can fulfill your every desire? What would you wish if you once got the opportunity to turn the whole world, change history, return to the past and do the impossible?"

Ainz just silently looked at the Grail.

"I made a wish to the Grail," Caster grinned, "So that he brings my Jeanne back to life again.

"But I loved Jeanne, I loved her more than my own life," Caster smiled sadly at his thoughts, "And therefore I did not want Jeanne to die again, to be betrayed again, to be slandered and executed again. And so I desired another Jeanne from the Grail. Jeanne, who would be strong. Jeanne, who would not indulge the whims of other people. Jeanne, who would not be blind to human filth and abomination. Jeanne, who would not allow herself to die because of her ideals. Jeanne, who would remember her betrayal and would not let this happen again."

Ainz sighed. Gilles nodded at this.

"So the Holy Grail summoned my Jeanne — the one you call the Dragon Witch," Gilles closed his eyes, "The Power of the Holy Grail surpassess that of Servants and people, powerful and invincible. But…"

"The Grail does not fulfill wishes," Gilles only grinned, after which he raised the goblet to his face. "It was created as a mockery to our miserable desires and silly dreams. And so it corrupted my desire."

"Dragon Witch," Gilles closed his eyes, "The Creature of the Holy Grail. Strong, powerful and... Forever crippled."

"I wanted to create a strong Jeanne — however, instead of strength, she got only weakness," Gilles said it calmly, "I wanted her to remember the betrayal, and the Grail perverted my desire. All her thoughts, all her memories were just about that. She spent every moment of her life in endless agony, remembering her betrayal. Every moment of her life, the Grail tormented her, forcing her to feel the fire burning her again and again. Every moment of her life she went through it again and again - despair, bitterness, pain and death. Every second of her life, the Grail returned her to the flames of that fire - and never let her forget about it."

"I wished that Jeanne would not let herself be killed, would not allow people to dispose of her life again, would not put other people's ideals above her life," Gilles slowly smiled sadly, "And the Grail fulfilled my desire. That Jeanne that was born was deprived of this. Her emotions - kindness, joy, love... All of them were strangled. All that remained of her was rage and revenge, anger and pain. Infinitely nourished by her memory, again and again returning to her betrayal. There was nothing human in Jeanne - only hatred and pain. She could not see the good and could not feel the kindness, did not know pity and did not see ideals. All that led her was only endless pain and bitterness from the betrayal. All she wanted was to make this pain disappear. Destroying France, killing Jeanne, subjugating the Servants... But the Grail did not allow her to do this - each time, she only had to do an act - and it only showed her visions of her death, reminded her of her pain, made the fire devour her faster. And she fought, trying to throw out her pain, realizing that she would never be able to do it."

"I wished to return my Jeanne, Jeanne, that would not allow herself to be killed," Gilles weighed the Grail on his hand, as if a useless thing whose only use is to decorate a distant dusty shelf, "And instead, the Grail created Jeanne that wanted to be killed. Rushing into attacks, fighting the whole world, experiencing pain, she strove for death - and did not receive it. She won battle after battle, even meeting her death - the Grail returned her to life again and again, not allowing her to break the vicious circle. Time after time, she strove to free herself - and my desire bound her, making her suffer in eternal agony. She wanted to throw out her pain - but the Grail did not let her die. She sought liberation - and could not afford to kill herself. She sought liberation - but was forced to return again and again. My desire, by which I wanted to save her, cursed her to eternal suffering."

"Tell me, mage," Gilles took his hand with the goblet to the side, "If the Holy Grail was created only to mock our desires... If God is really so cruel that his reward is a punishment... What is the meaning of the Grail?"

After that, Caster let go of the Grail, which loudly hit the stone floor and slowly rolled to the side. Gilles looked up at Ainz.

"Jeanne was a Master for all the other Servants," Gilles looked at the magician carefully, "And I was the one who summoned the Jeanne. But she was not a Servant - my desire only supported her existence. I wanted to serve Jeanne - and the Grail did not let me die. Jeanne was called by me - and I did not allow her to plunge into the depths of madness. However, then, in that battle... Saber, that Gilles de Rais, attacked Jeanne."

"Nobody wanted to fight for Jeanne. Crazy tyrant, annihilator, whose goal is to bring pain and suffering to people," - Gilles covered his face with his hands, - "Who will fight for this? The fear of death was what made people and monsters obey her. Her madness destroyed the mind of her Servants, as rust destroys steel, penetrating into their essence. But I loved her. Loved her as a parent loves his crippled child. I served her, defended her, corrected her mistakes. I was the only one who did not refuse her - and Jeanne could no longer cling to anything in this world except me. But Saber took part in that battle. That one me that did not accept the new Jeanne, the one that did not find my despair and did not fall as low as me. But still he was me, the distant past of me. And Jeanne saw me in him."

"The Grail was created only for our suffering," Caster smiled weakly, "And Jeanne remembered everything. She remembered how I had not saved her from captivity, how I had betrayed her then. And now she saw my betrayal again. Betrayal from the only person who fought for her."

Gilles interrupted, and then slowly brought his hand to his heart.

"My body is getting weaker," he smiled, "I have so little left... Good..."

After that, Caster leaned back in his throne.

"In that battle, Jeanne lost control," Gilles sighed, "And I lost my connection with Jeanne. The Grail subdued her mind - and her insanity swept over her. Her pain turned her into a monster - into the monster which she was called. a Dragon Witch."

"You know what happened next, mage," Gilles sighed and his sigh came out a little hoarsely, due to his slowly collapsing lungs, "And Jeanne... She stopped her torment. She left this world."

"Maybe... Truly... This is my punishment and a lesson... About humility," - it became harder and harder for Caster to speak, - "I was... So afraid... To let Jeanne go... But the only way... To release her... From torment… Was... To allow her die... Again…"

Gilles coughed, feeling the visions in his eyes darkening.

"Tell me... Mage," Gilles looked at Ainz with a barely seeing gaze, "God... Is cruel... He does not forgive sins... And I will go down to hell again... But Jeanne... My compassionate Jeanne... Will she forgive me?"

Ainz continued to look at Caster, silently.

"I... I thought so..." Caster grinned sadly, "Then..."

"Yes," Ainz said calmly.

Ainz did not know if his answer was a lie or not. Ainz did not know if Jeanne could forgive Gilles for creating a monster with her name. Ainz did not know if the Witch could forgive Caster for the torment and pain she had suffered.

Ainz knew none of this. But…

"Yes," Ainz said firmly and confidently, "She will forgive you."

Gilles fell silent for a second, after which he grinned.

"If this... Had been said by the holiest of the Saints - Caster sighed intermittently, - "I would not have believed him... But if it… You... The Devil... Even if it is a lie... Then I will believe you…"

After this, Caster, Gilles de Rais, the cause of the First Singularity, the last opponent of Ainz Ooal Gown and Chaldeas, closed his eyes forever.

A second later, Ainz felt how slowly reality began to distort around him, and the crumbling Singularity unravel at the seams, after which he looked at the fallen Holy Grail goblet.

After that, Ainz looked up at the sky, watching a ripple ran through the sky, slowly beginning to distort, but the distant black sun in the sky continued to shine down with a gold rim.

There were many questions in his head. Much more than it was originally.

"Chaldea is in touch!" Came the chief's joyful voice.

"Get us out of here," Ainz said, continuing to stare at the slowly collapsing sky.

"Urgent evacuation?!" came Roman's voice nearby.

"No, we did everything that was necessary" - Ainz said this, after which he looked at Caster, whose body began to crumble to mana.

"Wow!" - Roman was surprised - "How so?! Have you killed all the Servants?! What about the Holy Grail?!"

"Roman, shut up!" - it was heard as the chef with his elbow pushed the guy away from the microphone - "One moment!"

Ainz felt his connection with Chaldea slowly growing stronger, after which he turned his gaze to Caster's body.

After a second, he took a step and picked up the Grail, which had previously been on the floor, after which he looked at the Grail.

The golden goblet continued to shimmer in the sun with glare. Ainz, glancing at the goblet, only put it in his inventory.

* * *

"Hello!" - Olga-Marie's joyful voice was heard right away, as soon as Ainz took a step a second after his transfer, "Welcome to Chaldea! Damn it, you quickly beat the Singularity!"

Ainz just nodded at this, after which he glanced at the Servant left behind.

Kiyohime was not a Servant of Ainz, so she could not return with them to Chaldea. Archer still had a slight limp. Cu Chulainn leaned on his staff. Mashu was holding on to her right side. Medusa only powerlessly took a step forward, almost tripping over her own legs.

All who remained.

All other Servants perished.

"That's less then we sent," - Olga-Marie immediately thought about the same fact, taking a look at Ainz and the remnants of his servants.

Ainz only nodded slowly.

"Apparently, we will have to re-summon them," Olga-Marie sighed. "It is good that the Servants called by Chaldea do not remain dead ."

Ainz blinked several times, straying even from his past thoughts, "What?"

"I say that they will have to be called back," Olga-Marie immediately glanced at the magician, "Otherwise the banquet table will look empty."

Ainz paused for a few seconds, waiting for what would happen next.

"Okay, let Roman do it for now," the chief immediately turned to the exit from the room, "Roman!"

"Yes, yes," the guy immediately leaned out of the aisle.

"Re-summon the dead Servants", - Olga-Marie immediately gave the order, and then turned to Ainz, - "But you…"

"I should change clothes and go to the shower," Ainz said immediately, after which, having waited for a confirmative nod in response, he went to his room.

* * *

Roman punched a few numbers he knew into the control panel, after which he glanced at the light slowly beginning to appear. After a second, several rings located in the central part of the machine twisted and a sharp flash of light blinded him for a second, causing the man to blink.

"I have come as bidden by the summons..." - a second later, however, the cold voice broke off, "I recognize this place..."

"Arthuria," Roman immediately smiled at the newly called-up Saber, "You are right on time!"

"Ah..." the girl immediately turned to the guy, "You... Roman?"

"That's right," Akkiman smiled at her. "Are the memories coming back?"

"Yes," Arthuria frowned, "I was summoned here... By Ainz... Then we went to Singularity... There were several battles... Lancelot... Marie Antoinette... And then I died... The Phantom of the Opera."

At this moment, suddenly Saber's hand twitched, as if from a spasm, but the girl immediately squeezed this hand with her second.

"Is everything all right?" Roman looked at Arthuria a little worried.

"Yes, everything is in order, I remembered everything," Arthuria only nodded. "Summon the others."

"Good," Roman nodded, after which he returned to the console.

Arthuria's hand twitched one more time, after which she squeezed it harder and took a step from the place of her call.

* * *

Ainz continued to look in the mirror, feeling how slowly, drops from the shower water flows down his hair.

The Dragon Witch brought a lot of suffering to people. Gilles de Rais was responsible for creating the Dragon Witch. On their hands was the blood of thousands, maybe even millions of people. Trying to defend them would be hypocritical.

However, this was the crux of the problem.

Ainz was a hypocrite.

Most people agree that people's lives are equal and valuable in and of themselves - therefore they do not allow themselves to kill, to commit genocide, or to terrorize people. However, if a choice is presented to a person - whether to let one random person whom they never met die, or the person they care about - their spouse, child, or parent - few would agonize over their choice.

Many people would not consider their choice hypocritical - but Ainz considered it to be just that. And considered himself to be a hypocrite.

Ainz considered himself a hypocrite, a real hypocrite, for whom the suffering of people on the other side of the earth is always insignificant compared to the fact that he poured coffee on himself today or crashed into a door at work, gaining a large bruise on his shoulder. For him, the suffering of one person before him was much more important than the suffering of hundreds in the distance.

So now he was looking in the mirror.

Dragon Witch. Defective Jeanne d'Arc.

A lonely and abandoned girl, locked inside her own mind and inside her own painful memories, each time forced to experience the worst moments in her life and the moment of her own execution, her own execution and betrayal. One abandoned person who was simply afraid to stay alone inside his own mind forever, alone with pain and loneliness.

Mad Caster of the Witch. Gilles de Rais.

A lonely man, forever deprived of the meaning of his life, in the pursuit of a miracle dooming himself, the one for which he made a wish, and thousands of people to suffer. Damned madman, that he simply wished to regain what he had lived his whole life for.

Ainz did not know.

If he knew that only one person was responsible for the closure of Yggdrasil, if he found out that if he died, Yggdrasil would survive, if he knew that with the death of this man his whole Ainz Ooal Gown would return to him... What would he do?

Ainz did not know.

Human life is valuable in itself. But people are hypocritical.

And Ainz was a hypocrite.

The Holy Grail.

Ainz recalled his first singularity, where he ended up with Mashu, Cu Chulainn, Olga-Marie. Where he first met Lev.

In that Singularity, everything that happened was the result of an outbreak of the Holy Grail War. War for the Holy Grail, a wish-fulfiller with unlimited power.

The change in ritual that has taken place and the many things that have happened have led to the Holy Grail War not happening correctly. But it still remained a war for the Holy Grail.

In the Holy Grail War, the rules are simple. Kill all Masters, kill all Servants, kill your Servant - and you will receive the promised Holy Grail.

Ainz did just that. He killed all the Servants. All Masters died without his participation. His Servant - Mashu - was not part of the summoning of the Holy Grail - therefore, her death was not needed in the end.

Ainz won that war.

And he took the prize.

Then Ainz took the Holy Grail for himself, not understanding what he wants to do with it. It was just a trophy, a well-deserved reward for the quest. Ainz took it with him, throwing it in his inventory as an honorary prize, and then forgot about it. Ainz collected a lot of data crystals at that time, in which he was much more interested in, and then discovered that he could call Servants with their help - and the Grail simply ceased to be necessary for him. He did not even think that the Grail could fulfill his wish.

Revive Ainz Ooal Gown.

Forty of his friends, true friends, his family. If he wished, the Grail would recreate them next to him. If he wished, he would return to his world. If he wished, the Grail would give him a world in which Yggdrasil never closed, his friends never left the game. Where his joy would be eternal.

However, now, looking at the Dragon Witch, at Gilles de Rais, at their words, Ainz did not know.

Ainz knew nothing.

If he wished to return to his world - what would he find there? An empty apartment, daily grinding work, a gray world - and death in the next forty years.

If he wanted an endless Yggdrasil - what would happen then? An endless game, perverted by the Grail, in which he was forced to watch forever as his friends from Ainz Ooal Gown, locked inside, try to escape from the captivity of the game. How they try to leave the game in order to return to their lives - to work, to friends, to families. He would have forever locked his friends in a game without a way out, looking at how slowly they burning from the inside.

If he wanted to bring his friends from Ainz Ooal Gown - what would he create? He remembered HeroHero, an old friend, always tired of his job and a guy suffering from many medical problems due to overwork. Would he recreate it? He would have received an eternally suffering person, slowly crumbling to pieces, experiencing suffering, and unable to die.

Ulbert? A lonely and embittered man without achievements in life - what would he get?A crazy maniac tormented by anger and unfulfilled ambitions, locked inside his own mind alone with its complexes and weaknesses?

Touch Me? Noble and merciful guardian of order and justice - what would happen then? A punitive and intolerant of other views, obsessed with the idea of establishing a "world order" and eradicating "evil" - and all that he considers evil?

Yamaiko? A level-headed and cheerful mother and teacher - what would have come out of her? A being incapable of making decisions, locked in the circle of observing the hatred that is happening in the world, endlessly mourning the evil done in this world?

The Grail does not fulfill wishes.

Ainz understood this.

The Grail does not fulfill wishes.

It was created only to make us suffer.

The words of Gilles de Rais floated in his mind.

The Grail does not fulfill wishes.

Ainz closed his eyes.

"Hey!" Someone tugged at his sleeve and Ainz opened his eyes to look at Olga-Marie sitting next to him.

Blinking several times, Ainz looked around.

He is sat at a huge table full of various dishes - delicacies, snacks, alcohol, fruits...

'I have never seen such a variety, except in Yggdrasil' - Ainz blinked again.

He was plunged into his thoughts so deeply that he missed everything. How he changed clothes, how he went down to the banquet, how he took his place at the head of the table...

Slowly Ainz looked at those at the table.

Archer - he looked better now. Apparently, he chose not to drink alcohol today - in his hand was a glass full of orange juice.

On his right sat Hassan. In his hand was a glass with a little wine - he did not want to drink, but did so out of politeness, as befits etiquette.

Cu Chulainn was sitting on his left - judging by the abundance of toothpicks, decency rules did not particularly concern him and he managed to fill himself with a dozen canapes, continuing to reach for a new one even now, while holding a wine glass filled to the brim with red wine.

Arthuria sat behind Cu Chulainn - also holding a wine glass on her outstretched hand, in which a little wine was poured - but apparently, unlike Hassan, she nevertheless decided to celebrate today's event.

Opposite to Saber, Medusa was sitting - she was also raising a glass, but Ainz could hardly make out what was poured into it - apparently, white wine, with just one sip worth of it.

Mashu was next to Medusa - apparently she also wanted to drink something alcoholic , but Roman didn't allow her, so now the girl was raising a glass full of grape juice.

Next to her was Roman himself - smiling, he also preferred this time to do without alcohol.

The closest one to Ainz and the chief was Serenity - carefully looking at Ainz, she tried not to touch anything on the table, just in case, so as not to poison the other Servants.

Ainz blinked, after which he looked at the chief sitting next to him.

Olga Marie carefully looked at him, raising a glass of white wine. Roman also tried to forbid her to drink today, but was sent away with his recommendations.

"Well, what are you waiting for?!" The chief could not wait, "Say something already!"

Ainz looked up.

He will not forgive himself if his friends from Ainz Ooal Gown are cursed because of his desires. He will not allow it.

So Ainz looked at himself and his glass of red wine, after which he lifted it into the air.

"For Chaldea."

* * *

**Yggdrasil:** _(E-) (Case)_

ACCESS_LIMITED

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Okay, so this chapter marks the end of Orleans Singularity! Who-hoo, it's finally here!  
****Those who were so furious with Servant's death - come one, it's Chaldea's Throne Of Heroes, of course they don't die!  
Yet...**

**Regardless, now what awaits is the inter-Singularity chapters about life in Chaldea, Servants and the likes, after which - yet another one Singularity. This times though, since the original case of Septem kind of dead - the Singularity itself will be... A little bit different. Or not a little.  
**

**And yep, here is an obligatory reminder that at**** my Pat reon \rure I have 4 new chapters right now! Orleans already ended here... And inter-chapters almost ended there! Sure thing, one day it will all be on this site for free - but if you want FOUR new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.**

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	38. Chapter 38

Ainz stood in front of a huge machine, which facilitate the summoning of Servants, and began to think.

He needed to evaluate the capabilities of all the other Servants. He needed to figure out his own power. He needed to go to the next Singularity. He was supposed to save humanity.

From the point of view of logic - more Servants were not necessary for him. The six Servants with whom he had gone to the Singularity with ,from the very beginning, completed their task. Of course, it would be foolish to believe that in the future all the Singularities will be as easy as the first, but at the same time, if his guesses were confirmed, then the need for additional Servants would disappear by itself.

And yet, he now faced the pseudo-"Throne of Heroes", it's material embodiment in the form of a machine, and laid out the data crystals collected in the Singularity from the killed mobs. Unfortunately, he never collected the data crystals that dropped from the killed Servants, he was too busy with his thoughts - for which he now reproached himself a little. The singularity collapsed, burying with itself all the remaining resources that he could still get, and now he could not collect it. Of course, at that time he was busy thinking about the death of the Servants - however, when he learned that those who died in the Singularity could be summoned again, he felt twice cheated. Not only was his self-recrimination useless - he still had not collected the data crystals, an extremely valuable resource at all times, because of these unnecessary thoughts.

Ainz first considered the Servants to be his collection, then to be an incredible threat, then ordinary people devoured by their desires and decisions, and eventually returned to where he started once again. Gathered as a collection.

On the other hand, it wasn't so bad. Perhaps he would really find a really strong and dangerous Servant this way? In any case, this way of thinking will help him dispel doubts as to whether or not he will find a Servant stronger than himself, or whether those called upon will further convince him in the thought that he somewhat... Underestimated his power.

"Is everything ready?" Romani's voice distracted Ainz, after which the magician nodded. In addition to Ainz himself, the summoning was attended by several more people - Romani, as the chief operator of the machinery, a chief who was interested in issues so intimately related to Chaldea, Serenity, who, having being re-summoned again, did not leave Ainz's side for a second, and Mashu, who came here, apparently, because she had nothing to do. The rest of the Servants preferred to do their own things- Archer was now working in the kitchen, having driven out several workers who had previously worked there, Medusa chose to relax with a book in her hands, Arthuria and Cu Chulainn went sparring - apparently, Caster was still affected by the fact that he never killed a single enemy, and Arthuria agreed to help him vent out his annoyance. Hassan... What Hassan was doing now - Ainz had no idea.

As well as what Da Vinci was doing now. She even found out about Ainz's arrival only a day later, accidentally colliding with Ainz himself in the corridor. She only briefly greeted him, after which she gave him a strange look, full of thought, and went off somewhere to do her own business, muttering in an undertone about "the paradox of an existence of pure information," Ainz did not particularly delve into this.

And now he was standing in front of a machine, watching how Romani was typing something into the keyboard.

Ainz sighed and closed his eyes.

A second later, a huge machinery came to life. Somewhere in the middle of the machinery, an impulse started, after which, several half rings in the center of the machine slowly began to rotate.

The machine itself was a complex and large device, full of sensors and wires - and although Ainz was a child of an era far superior to this in technological development, he still did not understand the device, the techno-magic computer in front of him and only saw a huge machine stretching from wall to wall of the rather large room, as well as the central podium, where the Servant was summoned, surrounded by a cocoon of half rings, which were currently rotating at a tremendous speed. And the small control panel with the keyboard was a little way away, behind which Romani himself was sitting, who at the moment had driven in some predetermined numbers and continued to observe the summoning process with interest.

In the end, after the rings made another turn, a flash of light flashed through the room for a second, after which Ainz heard a slow step of boots clad in steel armor.

"Servant Ruler, Jeanne d'Arc! I'm really glad to meet you!" A girl's voice came to Ainz, after which, at the same time as the dimming flash of light, the face of the Saint, already familiar to him, was illuminated by a smile.

"Jeanne d'Arc," Ainz nodded. It was logical that the central person of the Singularity will appear during the summoning , - "Glad to meet with you again."

"Again?" The girl smiled, after which she glanced at Ainz, "But we have never…"

After that, the girl suddenly cut off her sentence and fell silent, staring at Ainz.

"Wait, we did... we met..." - Jeanne looked at Ainz carefully, after which she thoughtfully took a step towards the magician, "In a distant dream..."

"In the Singularity," Ainz said, "There, we fought together..."

"Against the Witch," Jeanne remembered, after which her eyes brightened and a smile appeared on her face, "Exactly, I remembered! Then it was you who defeated the Witch!"

"Something like that," the mage answered evasively.

"Then I am glad to fight together with you again!" Jeanne smiled and immediately extended her hand to the magician, "Now I have been called up in full force and will be able to help you with all my abilities as aServant!"

"I will hope so." Ainz held out his hand, after which the contract was immediately formed.

Ainz sighed. It seems that the first summoning went well. This was clearly a good sign.

"Welcome to Chaldea," the chief's voice instantly reached Jeanne, forcing her to look at Olga-Marie, "I hope you will like it here."

"I will be in your care," the girl smiled right away, looking around the room. Ainz, then the chief, after which two people nearby - Mashu and a man whose name she did not know. As well as…

Jeanne looked at Serenity, that, noticing her gaze, took a step closer to Ainz and then embraced him with her whole small figure, clasping her hands on the magician's chest.

"Is something wrong?"Serenity stared at Jeanne, after which the Saint, sensing how she began to blush, turned away.

"No, no, nothing of the kind!" Jeanne immediately tried to excuse herself, instantly stepping off the podium and stepping aside, trying to not look at Serenity and Ainz, though sometimes throwing glances at them.

"Hm," Ainz grunted vaguely, after which he glanced at Serenity, who, having felt his gaze, immediately stepped back a step.

Then another summoning followed - and on this instance Ainz's forebodings were right.

And wrong.

As soon as the flash died out - another sound of plate boots, so reminiscent to the sound of Jeanne's boots, attracted attention.

"Servant, Avenger" the voice of the speaking one was very similar to the voice of Jeanne, but was a little sharper and a little deeper, "Summoned upon your request."

"Dragon Witch" - Ainz stated, looking at the girl who appeared. She looked just like Ainz remembered her. Not like in the last moments of her life, no. This time her black armor sparkled as if polished before a parade - on her shoulders lay a black cloak, lined with fur, and a confident grin rested on her face.

"What's with that look?" The girl smirked, after which she extended her hand overlooking the room, "Come on..."

The Dragon Witch's gaze instantly went over the figure of Jeanne d'Arc. The Saint also did not take her eyes off her alternative version.

"Oh, it means that fate has predetermined for us to meet again," the Witch instantly reached for her blade, "Fine, then..."

"We are not your enemies," Ainz intervened, forcing the Witch to stop and look at the magician, "At least not anymore..."

"Anymore?" The Witch thought for a second, after which her pupils dilated, "You! You are the one who fought with me! You are the one at the end... You... You!"

After that, the Witch pointed an accusatory finger at the magician, looking angrily at him - although Ainz could see in the girl not only anger and accusation, but also some embarrassment, which she tried to hide behind anger.

'She's probably embarrassed that she lost to me' - Ainz misunderstood the girl's embarrassment a bit and then tried to fix it - "Don't worry, that moment means nothing."

"Nothing..." Ainz made it worse by his own words, "Doesn't it mean?!"

"Yes, of course, we'll just forget about it," Ainz nodded immediately, forcing the girl to clench her fists.

"You... You... You..." - now the girl's embarrassment was completely hidden behind her anger, "Go to hell!"

"Ahem." - Ainz was a little surprised at this reaction, but nevertheless tried to continue the call, "Still... A contract?"

"Yes, damn it," the Witch instantly agreed, and then immediately walked away, not noticing either the magician, the chief, or the rest of those present, heading to the farthest corner that she could find, as far as possible from everyone else, continuing to be incensed by her situation, which is why, even the chief did not dare to approach the girl.

'Hmm, so I can even summon her…' - Ainz thought for a moment. Gilles de Rais claimed that the Witch created by him was a crippled creature, but the Witch who had been called now, although angry, did not look like a creature tormented by constant pain. And her meeting with Jeanne was much milder than one would expect...

Was it possible that Caster lied? Or is it something else?

Ainz could think about this later, while he was now worried about several other things.

The magician turned to Roman, that, after coming out of a trance, looked at him in response, and continued to lay out crystals for the next summoning.

Due to the fact that he failed to collect the drops from a lot of enemies and Servants - the number of crystals he collected was very small and he had at best two more summon. This saddened Ainz the most.

The next batch of crystals took its place, after which Romani clicked again and the half rings began to rotate.

'And who else can I summon by this machine?' - Ainz looked at the machine carefully. Technically speaking, he had already summoned Jeanne and the Witch, as well as Arthuria, Medusa, Cu Chulainn, Hassan and Archer - all of them he had met in the past, in the form of an enemy or ally. But Serenity...

Ainz looked at the girl next to him, which caught his eye and smiled a little in return.

He had not met Serenity before and was able to summon her in spite of this. Does this mean that he didn't really need to meet the one he summoned for? After all, Hassan, for example, at his first meeting with Ainz, was barely intelligent and barely able to talk - but this did not unable Ainz from summoning him as a full-fledged Servant. With Serenity, he used a slightly special data crystal, the one that he received from the dead Lev. Does this mean that he needed some special data crystal in order to call on some new Servant whom he has not yet met?

Even before the light from the flash had dimmed, Ainz heard a joyful, joy-filled voice.

"I am Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart!" - a joyful voice came, - "Leave battles aside, I promise only to decorate your life!"

The man who appeared from the summoning circle looked joyful without end - however, looking at Ainz, he suddenly froze for a second, remembering something, after which he smiled even wider - "Ainz, what a fortuitous meeting! Just to think, I didn't know that we are able to see each other again!"

"Me too." Ainz sighed and held out his hand. Mozart accepted the contract without any problems, after which he began to look around.

"Oh, Jeanne," he smiled, finding the Holy One's gaze, "Mashu... You two, please forgive me, I don't know... And…"

After that, Caster stared at the Witch in the corner and blinked.

"I didn't think I would ever meet with you again..." Mozart blinked. "Especially now that we are allies."

"Allies, ha," the Witch only grinned. "The fact that we have one Master does not make us allies - do not think too much about yourself, musician."

"I have to agree," Mozart nodded instantly, after which he took a step from the podium towards Jeanne, taking a seat next to her.

Ainz looked at the miserable amount of his data crystals, and then poured them all out into the machine.

'So, to summon someone special, you need some special catalyst for the summoning,' Ainz blinked. This thought sounded logical. Very logical.

And even tempting...

Ainz was lost in thought, so that he woke up only from the next voice of the Servant who arrived.

"Servant, Kiyohime," came the quiet and calm voice of a woman, even more like a girl, who took a step from the flash of light, "Even though I look like this, I'm a Berserker you know? I'll be in your care, Master."

After that, the girl who appeared opened her golden fan, immediately covering the entire lower part of her face, after which, after a second, she froze, gazing atAinz with a peculiar look.

'It seems that she is also trying to recall the Singularity' - the magician came to the most logical conclusion.

"Anchin!" And was instantly wrong, "How long have I been waiting for you, Anchin!"

The girl immediately tried to rush at Ainz, but Serenity instantly posed as an obstacle in her way, immediately hanging onto Ainz. Kiyohime, having seen this, instantly stopped and looked at the unexpectedly appeared rival.

"Who the hell are you?" The girl asked coldly and angrily, looking at Serenity, who was wrapping her hands around Ainz, like at ant crawling unexpectedly onto a dining table.

"I am the wife of the Master," Serenity said instantly, forcing everyone present to cough in surprise immediately — most of all Ainz.

"What nonsense," Kiyohime laughed softly to this statement, but her eyes remained cold, "Lying to me? Know that, I could detect a lie - however, in order to smell the stench of your lies, one may even not be a dragon."

"It's the truth," Serenity smiled "The Master himself called me his wife."

After that, Ainz choked on air and coughed.

"Anchin?!" Kiyohime immediately looked toward the magician, after which he, embraced by Serenity and therefore unable to raise his hand and scratch his head in embarrassment, only sighed.

"Technically speaking, it's true, I did call her my wife," Serenity only smirked triumphantly at her,Kiyohime then backed away, looking at the two "spouses" with an expression of pain on her face, as if she had just been hit.

"Anchin?!" Kiyohime looked at Ainz almost imploringly, "Why, Anchin?!"

"It was necessary," the mage answered evasively, recalling his experience in the Singularity.

"Anchin?!" Kiyohime took a step back, almost falling from the edge of the podium, "Anchin... Ah, I understand!"

Berserker instantly filled with anger, after which the girl took a step forward, pointing at Serenity with her fan, "You forced him! for sure!"

"No, the Master himself did it," Serenity smiled, "I will remember this moment until the end of my life... And in all my subsequent ones."

"You little shit, you have bewitched him!" Kiyohime took a step, after which the tip of her fan almost struck the face of the smiling Serenity, "Anchin can only be with me, for I love him more than anyone!"

"You will have to wait in a long line to prove it," Serenity triumphantly smirked, after which she looked at Ainz, "Isn't that so, my husband?"

Kiyohime, furious at such a treatment, held out her hands in order to push Serenity away from Ainz. The Assassin only smiled at this fact, expecting Kiyohime to kill herself with Serenity's poison. Serenity did not consider the killing of rivals a worthy tactic - but she also did not plan to prevent them to die on their own.

"Enough," Ainz interrupted the conversation between the two girls, after which he looked at Kiyohime, who was in distress , "This matter can be discussed a little later. For now... Contract?"

"Yes," Kiyohime nodded distractedly, after which she shook the wizard's hand. The contract was successfully formed and Serenity, enjoying her complete superiority over her rival, who slowly left the podium, also moved away from Ainz.

However, Ainz was in a hurry to make a contract not because he was worried about Serenity and Kiyohime. He was impatient to try something new.

"Is that all, I suppose?" Roman looked at Ainz, but he, despite the fact that he had already spent all of his data crystals, answered in the negative.

"I can call one more... Servant," Ainz looked at the circle of summoning with interest. A special catalyst for a special summon, hmmm...

"Yes? It seemed to me that you had run out of crystals," Roman looked at Ainz with interest, but returned to the control panel.

Ainz took a step and his hand disappeared into his inventory.

Roman typed something in the control panel. The chief was trying to explain something to Kiyohime, who was barely thinking, while Serenity looked at the new completely defeated rival with a triumphant smile. Mozart and Jeanne led a dialogue in which Mashu joined in, while the Witch, standing in the corner, continued to stare at everyone present, periodically throwing glances at Kiyohime and Serenity and immediately hiding her eyes so that they could not notice her. No one paid any attention to Ainz.

Such a foolish act.

Roman typed the last number, after which the half-rings of the machine slowly spun, and looked at Ainz, who was watching with interest the machine running.

"I thought you spend all of these... Data crystals, that's how you called it?" Roman looked at Ainz while the machinery continued to spin.

"Yes," Ainz confirmed, "They are all spent."

Roman looked inquiringly at Ainz, - "And what then did you use as a catalyst?"

Ainz smiled. "The Grail."

All disputes in the room instantly subsided, and only the hum of a running machine continued to break the silence.

"Wait," Roman said slowly, "You just used... The Grail... The Holy Grail,an object capable of fulfilling any desires, the most coveted prize among all the Servants existing in all legends and stories ... As... A summoning catalyst?

"Yes," Ainz answered simply.

The machine, which had previously worked on a routine, suddenly stopped for a second - after which its half-rings immediately spun at a frantic speed, which had not happened before with any summons. The screen, which was quietly working before, suddenly sharply turned into an alarming red and issued a huge, flickering, menacing error that filled the entire screen.

"Attention!" - came from the husky speakers, - "The system is overloaded! Error Code: Unknown! External change detected! Discovered... Discovered... Discovered... "

"Mother of God," Roman said in shock, looking at how the unstoppable rings of the machine now spinning with inhuman speed, while the errors covered the screen one by one.

"Fuck," the Animusphere was more precise.

The rest of those present only watched as the most coveted reward in history, the Holy Grail, was used as a catalyst for summoning.

After a second, the machine suddenly turned itself off. The rings returned to their original position, the screen went blank, after which the machine fell silent.

"Didn't it work?" Ainz looked at the machine with disappointment.

After a second, the room was flooded with light.

The flash of light was more powerful than with any summoning before - even stronger than all summoning combined. It was as if a light grenade exploded in the room - instantly all those present, except Ainz, protected from such trivial trifles, closed their eyes - after which they could hear the sound of quiet steps and a voice.

"Well, well," the speaker seemed to be disappointed, "You could even managed to summon me, what luck — or or perhaps misfortune ? Hmm, and who is the unworthy dog who decided to pose as my Master? If he kneels now and begins to lick my boots with and offer an apology, then so be it, I will let him be my slave."

Ainz looked at the girl. The girl then took a step and looked at Ainz.

The speaker was very young - she was only sixteen or so in appearance. She was very short - her height was approximately at the level of Serenity, but everything else was different from Assassin. The girl possessed white, as if chalk,translucent skin, behind which however, veins did not appear - except for her eyes. The eyes of the summoned were red, as if bloodshot - however, not of anger, but in as a red pupil, the color of fresh blood.

The girl had a magnificent mane of white hair, descending over her shoulders and shoulder blades to the very ground, almost touching the floor. However, her white hair and white skin only made her black clothes contrast even more. It was as if the anthracite-black dress was woven from the very night sky and was laid on her body like clothes for an expensive porcelain doll - multiple snow-white lace like snow only further accentuated the darkness of her robes.

In the hands of the girl is an umbrella, currently closed and pointed onto the floor in the manner of a cane.

The summoned one reminded Ainz of Shalltear with something elusive, but she could not be summoned by Ainz, since she was part of his Phantasm.

However, the girl, the longer she gazed at the magician's face, the more pale she turned, although it seemed impossible with her skin.

The Grail corrupt desires. However, not all.

The Grail is a tool for satisfying desires. It is able to make all that its wielder desire for, into reality. Change history, gain immortality, grant power.

However, the Grail was not meant to be used this way. The true use of the Grail is not "fulfillment of desires". When creating the Grail, God's will was different - "for you will not take your wealth to paradise". In other words, the Grail is the embodiment of worldly desires - those petty and insignificant desires that were coveted by people. Money, luxury, delicacies, alcohol - all useless and miserable things that have no value in life in themselves - this is what the Grail actually granted.

The Grail did not fulfill all desires, it was true. The Grail only enabled a person to fulfill his desires.

Food for the dying of hunger or gold for the suffering poor is what it gave. Possibility.

But the Grail also did not fulfill wishes. A sufferer who has tasted food and wished from the Grail something more than the most base, most miserable things, would be punished for his audacity. The Grail was only a tool that allowed you to move towards your desires - and not giving it to you them if you wish.

Of course, this truth did not apply to all the Grails - some of them were really vicious in their granting of wishes, defiled and broken - however, this was not the case at this time.

The Grail does not fulfill impossible desires - it only allows you a chance to achieve them.

Therefore, if Ainz simply wished to recreate his friends from Ainz Ooal Gown, the Grail would corrupt this wish like any desire for the impossible. However, Ainz used the Grail to summon.

The summoning was entirely possible on its own. Hundreds of Servants were called without using the Grail - therefore, the Grail could not corrupt Ainz's desire on its own. However, Ainz did not only want to summon a Servant.

He wanted to reach out to his Ainz Ooal Gown. To his home, Yggdrasil. To his distant, forgotten adventure in the dead world. And in no circumstances, affect his friends and their lives.

If the Grail fulfilled such a desire, it would corrupt it, most likely by giving Ainz a curse from his native Yggdrasil, or by trapping him in a dead and deserted world, which would turn his whole existence into a nightmare.

However, Ainz used the Grail as a catalyst to summon Servants.

Paradoxically, it was the best way to fulfill Ainz's wish.

Because the summoning of Servants was possible. It was not even the Grail's machinations at that moment - it was the machine that was engaged in the summoning of the Servant. The Grail was used only as a catalyst. To allow him to summon an unusual Servant. A Servant not of this world.

The Grail was just a catalyst and a source of mana. It did not summon the Servant itself - it only acted as the target. And this, just the same, was not an impossible act.

Therefore, after a second, the girl, standing still, said in shock, - "Momonga…"

Ainz finally realized who was standing in front of him, "Cainabel..."

A second later, Cainabel fell to her knees, pressing her forehead to the floor.

"I ask you to forgive me for every stupidity and insolence I placed upon you!" The girl literally exploded in a panicked cry, "I will faithfully serve you as long as you wish! You will not meet a slave better than me! It is an honor for me to give you my life and honor to live for you!"

Ainz stumbled back a little from the speaker, after which all those present looked a little disbelievingly at the magician - then at the Servant, who only a second ago had suggested licking her shoes for the right to serve her.

"Yes, of course," Ainz eventually managed to gather himself, "Cainabel, we have not met for a long time."

"Of course, my lord!" - the girl shouted as joyfully as she could, without raising her head or even loosening the pressure of her forehead on the floor, "In my life there was no happier day than when I was able to give you my life! It is an honor for me that my power has been able to serve you, my lord!"

"Um, of course," Ainz hesitated a little. They met only once in the game - and that time they killed Cainabel, after which one of the players Ainz Ooal Gown took the title "Elder Blood" granted for the victory over a rare event boss, which Cainabel himself had been.

"Rise," said Ainz, after which he added uncertainly, "My child."

After that, Cainabel stopped pressing her forehead to the floor and slowly got up, so that she would be on her knees in front of Ainz, not daring to raise her face, still with a print of the floor on the thin skin of her forehead.

"Look at me," Ainz said, a little hesitantly, while trying to suppress the uncertainty in his voice. Cainabel slowly looked up, trying to look as subservient as possible, however the horror in her eyes would have been obvious to anyone but a blind man.

"This is a Servant's contract," Ainz held out his hand to the girl. She did not even begin to listen to the magician, instantly extended a hand to him.

"I agree to serve you forever, my lord," the girl smiled, "All my life and until death."

"Yes, of course." Ainz sighed. In the game, of course, they did not have the best of relationship - although what kind of relationship could be had with an NPC, who only boasted about his invincibility at the beginning of the battle, and then transformed into a huge monster? But in any case, Ainz would have expected hostility - but not that primal horror that was now hiding in the eyes of the girl.

He urgently needed to discuss something with Olga-Marie.

Only after sensing how the connection with the new Servant was formed, Ainz instantly turned to the chief - "Olga-Marie?"

"Yes?" The girl was a little shocked, obviously not expecting such a scene from Ainz she knew seemingly so familiar guy. The girl did not even pay attention to the fact that he did not call her chief.

"We need to talk," Ainz said, and then headed for the exit. The chief followed him, as if on a leash.

"Don't fight in here," Ainz said the last parting word, and then came out.

* * *

Cainabel continued to stand still, watching the girl back disappearing behind the sliding door and... The creature.

The creature in front of her could stretch a human shell over itself, such that even the girl herself spent several seconds to unravel the disguise - but it was impossible to hide what was inside, behind an empty shell, from her for sure.

Cainabel felt her Master moving farther and farther away, after which, only at that moment, when she realized that Momonga had really left, she was able to exhale and slowly, powerlessly fall to the floor, not even trying to get up from it, so as not to dirty her expensive clothes.

"Fine," she said, "Just fine. My plan failed, they killed me, my strength was taken away - and as if that was not enough, my killer also summoned me... And not anybody else, but Momonga himself! This is worse than being in hell! Worse than to be in all the hells of all religions at once! At least there is hope for at least some kind of salvation…"

After that, the girl removed her hands and said something into the air, not seeing anything in front of her.

All those present - Roman, Mashu,the other Servants - when they heard these sounds twitched, they wanted to wash themselves, manually collecting all the words spoken by the new Servant and throwing them away, the speech was so disgusting. However, none of those present understood a word in the long discussion- this required an "Speak Evil Tongues" trait, which only Ainz now possessed in the whole world except Cainabel. And if he heard what was said, he would only be surprised at how dirty and vile a curse in the language of the uncreated can be.

Cainabel covered her face with her own hands, after which she continued to lie like that for several seconds.

"Hey," Roman tried to take a step toward the girl. "Are you all right?"

"Close that shithole that you call your mouth, human trash," the girl instantly glanced at the guy, making him stumble in place, "If you even dare to think about..."

At that moment, the girl suddenly froze, remembering the words of her new Master. Don't fight, damn it!

"It's all right," the girl immediately said, rising from her seat, "Good... Human. Tell me what does Momonga's slaves do here? How not to get placed on the experiment table? What does he usually kill a slave for? What world is he taking over now?"

"What?" Roman blinked.

"A dumb human inbreed," the girl swore, after which she finally stopped paying attention to the guy, considering him something like a table, and turned to Mashu, "You!"

"I?!" - the girl was surprised.

"You look a little less stupid," Cainabel sighed. "What project is Momonga working on now?"

"He," the girl blinked. She was not accustomed to such outright rudeness, therefore, instead of firmly putting the girl in her place, she simply began to answer, - "He is saving humanity."

"Saving?" - Cainabel blinked and nodded right away, "Oh yes, of course, saving them from themselves and the like, okay... So, how is the conquest going?"

"What conquest?!" - in the end, the Dragon Witch could not stand it, that someone was trying to occupy her niche as a crude and strong Servant, "Who even are you?!"

"Shut up, trash," Cainabel didn't even turn in her direction, "Or I will suck all the blood from your body and make you drown in it."

The Witch sighed with indignation, but the girl only continued to look at Mashu, "You. How is the conquest going? Where are they being sent to fight? Who are the opponents? How many gods are there among them? Dragons? Demon lords? Great angels? Are other Higher Beings seen or... World Enemies?"

"What?" Mashu only blinked again, "What are you talking about ?! And why do you call Ainz, Momonga?"

"I am surrounded by idiots, brainless idiots!" Cainabel grabbed her head and then turned to Mashu. "I call him that, because his name is Momo..."

After that, Cainabel suddenly realized what was said.

"Repeat, what did you call him?" The girl suddenly tensed, "Ainz?"

"Yes," Mashu nodded.

"Ainz Ooal Gown?" Cainabel's white skin turned so white that it seemed as though it could be transparent, "That is... I heard correctly... Ainz... Ooal... Gown?"

"Yes," Mashu nodded. "That is his full name."

"That is, it's not just Momonga…" - Cainabel looked like a puppet whose strings had been cut, falling to her knees, - "Of course... Of course! Of course, because the leader of Ainz Ooal Gown will embody the entire Ainz Ooal Gown, of course!"

Those present simply did not know what they should do now with Cainabel.

"Don't tell me..." the girl suddenly started, and primitive horror flashed in her eyes, "That in this place... Is his palace now too... Together with him?!"

"What?" Mashu looked at Cainabel uncomprehendingly, but she stopped listening to anyone, lost in thought.

"The whole damned palace... The whole Great Tomb... The whole of Ainz Ooal Gown," the girl muttered as if in a delusional trance, "What happened... What have you done to call upon yourself that thing?!"

"We didn't do anything!" Mashu finally got a little bolder and tried to timidly protest at Cainabel, "Ainz came here to help us, he is saving humanity!"

"Good," Cainabel suddenly and abruptly calmed down when the deluge of information in her head crossed a critical threshold, "What are your plans for the day after tomorrow?"

"What?" Mashu lost her mind completely.

"I understood what he's going to do tomorrow, okay," Cainabel sighed. "What about the day after tomorrow?"

"Mankind was destroyed!" - in the end, unable to stand the words, Mashu exploded in a fury, "Do you even understand what this means?!"

"Do you even understand who Momo... Ainz is?!" The girl looked at Mashu and it seemed to her that madness blossomed in Cainabel's eyes, "You pulled out the most terrible creature in all of existing and nonexistent universes and yet don't understand a damn thing, do you? Do you know who this is?! Do you even realize what kind of being became your Master?! What stand near you?!"

Cainabel sucked in air - "He personally killed the Seven Deadly Sins. Not demons, not incarnations - Sins themselves! He killed the Twelve Great Virtues! He killed the Five Ways of Enlightenment! He, damn it, personally destroyed the Root - and recreated it again! He killed as many gods as has existed in your world! He killed the Eight Primordial Foundations of the World - the eight pillars that hold reality itself! He destroyed nine worlds with fire and sword, destroyed more countries than have ever formed in this world, uncovered greater secrets than all the secrets of your universe combined, did things that make your Creators tremble with fear and admiration! By the way - he also killed the Creators of his worlds! He has more wealth than any legend will describe, and more power than any madman can imagine, more minions than all people in the whole universe combined, and each of them is so strong that alone they can grind your universe to the ground! He destroyed whole races, whole species, whole worlds - and you don't know anything about this! The fact that you still exist is simply a misunderstanding that he still hasn't fixed! Brainless idiots!"

After this tirade, Cainabel finally became silent and sighed slowly. All the listeners could not understand what they should do now with this information.

"Is that true?" Serenity finally asked, causing Cainabel to turn slowly toward her.

"I don't even know which is worse," the girl blinked. "That this is all true — or that it is a list of the least significant achievements of the **_Last Being_**."

After a second, the door leading from the room opened, and Ainz appeared on the threshold, without the chief.

"I apologize for the delay," in the light of what was said about Ainz, this sounded like a mockery, startling everyone, "Your rooms are ready."

"I thank you, my lord, that you care about this wretched and unworthy slave," Cainabel immediately hit the ground with her forehead.

"Ah, yes, of course," Ainz hesitated, "Cainabel, you know... You don't have to do this every time..."

"Yes, of course, my lord, forgive me for my stupidity," the girl immediately rose from the floor, but remained on her knees, not looking at the magician's face, "From now on, I will better understand your desires."

Ainz only blinked at these words in incomprehension, after which he looked at the girls around the Servants, who recoiled from his gaze, as if it was fire. Other than Serenity, who did not change at all; instead, just smiling more at Ainz, and Kiyohime, in whose eyes a firm determination appeared, and then left the room.

They're all strange, these Servants.

* * *

**Last Being** \- lesser skill included in the **YGGDRASIL**

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Okay, so the new Servants were summoned. I also took the courage to include an Yggdrasil Servant. You might have guessed about it from reading the chapter though.**

**Regardless, now what awaits is the inter-Singularity chapters about life in Chaldea, Servants and the likes, after which - yet another one Singularity. This times though, since the original case of Septem kind of dead - the Singularity itself will be... A little bit different. Or not a little.  
**

**And yep, here is an obligatory reminder that at**** my Pat reon \rure I have 4 new chapters right now! Orleans already ended here... And inter-chapters almost ended there! Sure thing, one day it will all be on this site for free - but if you want FOUR new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.**

**Or if you want to influence the way this story unfolds, like what the chapter you want to read next - while also having FOUR chapters right now - then I have a 5$ pledge on my Pat reon \rure too.**


	39. Chapter 39

Olga-Marie chewed a pen thoughtfully.

She really wanted to smoke, but there were no more cigarettes in Chaldea.

On the first day after her 'rescue', she collected all the cigarettes from all the survivor, under the pretext of destroying things that could cause a fire, and then she smoked it all with pleasure, but since then, for obvious reasons, she could not find more cigarettes.

'Damn!' - the girl mentally cursed, after which she threw the pen on the table and moved away from it, then she got up and stepped aside, staring at the large stained-glass window behind her.

Unfortunately, it was useless to look out the window now. Previously, from Olga-Marie's office one could see the beautiful view of the snowy distant peaks of the Alps and the pure nature, untouched by man. Now all she could see was just the bluish dome of the shimmering barrier and the flashes of orange-red flame barely visible behind it.

Reports, reports, reports...

All this made her head hurt. She just wanted to smoke a couple of cigarettes and forget about what happened as a nightmare.

But it was impossible.

The girl closed her eyes, after which she massaged her head and returned to the stack of documents lying on the table.

Report on the functionality of the main core...

The girl looked at the dry numbers.

The first block... Destroyed, restoration impossible.

The second block... Destroyed, restoration impossible.

The third block... Damaged, partially restored, functionality at sixty percent.

The fourth block... Damaged, work is underway to restore the functionality possibly at least increasing functionality by ten percent.

The girl leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

The overall functionality of the core is at twenty-six percent. According to estimates, it will be possible to increase it to forty percent after completing all possible repair. The remaining parts must be rebuilt, for this they would need materials, which needs money and suppliers. All things that they can't get.

"Dog shit," the girl cursed almost helplessly. Forty percent of the core... And what she was supposed to do about the rest?

The core was an incredibly powerful thing, capable of creating so much energy that it would be enough to power half the world for a couple of months. But it was not without limit.

There were no perpetual machine in nature. At least none achievable by a simple mind for sure. Of course, once her father, Marisbury Animusphere, came dangerously close to unraveling this phenomenon, creating the core of Chaldea, but even he failed to create an eternal source of energy. One hundred, two hundred, three hundred, five hundred thousand years? Yes. Forever? No.

Under normal conditions, the Animusphere would not even have thought about it. For her a century of reserves would have been enough and a thousand times more. But the conditions around her were anything but definitely not ordinary.

What happened behind the barrier was unexplainable from the point of view of any normal person, scientist or mage. There was no way to even assess what level of damage the Chaldean shields were holding back now.

Chaldea would have survived even if it had been stuck in the center of a supernova explosion. The only question is - for how long?

At the time before the calamity, Chaldea possessed ninety-seven percent of its maximum capacity of energy. After the explosion, twenty-five.

"Lev, what the hell?" - the girl looked at the document in front of her as if it were her personal enemy.

But it was not scary.

The important thing is that now, after the restoration of some part of the core functionality, the energy level was equal to twenty-four percent.

Several teams were able to restore part of the core functionality, but the energy reserves did not increase. They decreased.

The shields of the Chaldea could withstand even the hell created outside its borders. The question is - for how long?

Olga-Marie reached into her pocket for cigarettes and cursed. Empty.

Ainz also gave her an additional source of headache. Okay, she could get along with the Servants, but the creature he summoned... Animusphere wasn't even sure she wanted to know where he had dug it from. All that Ainz said was that she was an evil vampire god who once wanted to destroy an entire world. And she almost did it, but at the last possible second she was stopped.

By Ainz himself.

Who the hell is Ainz - the third question that haunted Olga-Marie.

Mechanically, she patted the pockets of her pants, checking for a pack of cigarettes before pulling herself together. Ugh, she's losing her mind!

Having escaped from the report again, the girl went to the chair placed nearby and then fell on it like a doll whose strings have been cut.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door - after which Olga-Marie looked up and rose from her stupor immediately, then trying to take on the most respectable of appearance.

"Come in!" She commanded, making sure that her hair was not tousled after lying down. Although considering that she changed her hair and began to wear it in a long tail, this was not a problem for her.

The front door to the office then slowly opened, after which the one about whom Animusphere was just thinking about appeared on the threshold.

'Speak of the Devil' - the girl sighed, "Ainz?"

"Chief," the magician greeted, after which he took a step inside.

"Did something happen?" The girl asked instantly, after which she looked around the magician.

"No, nothing, I just wanted to formally report on the completion of the mission," the mage answered calmly, closing the door behind him. The girl looked at him, and then sighed.

"It would be worth doing it while in the presence of both Roman and Da Vinci," Olga-Marie nevertheless sank a little on her chair, relaxing her back a little.

"I thought about it, but decided to report to you first," Olga-Marie glanced at Ainz, after which she remembered that he had behaved in the same manner with her in the past and relaxed a little, "Good, but still it would be better to talk about with their full company, if there is not something that concerns me specifically."

Ainz, stopping for a second, thought for a moment, recalling everything that had happened in the Singularity, after which he shook his head, "No, nothing of the kind."

"Good," the girl nodded, "Finally, some good news."

Ainz, however, having waited a second, also gave a voice again, - "I would also like to know about the Servants."

"About what exactly?" The chief looked at the magician carefully.

"Do they cause problems?" Ainz explained, "I am particularly interested with Cainabel."

"Ah, that one," Olga-Marie remembered the girl, "Nothing special. Offends everyone right and left, refuses to approach people, scares the especially frisky ones - but nothing really irreparable happened. I confess I expected the worst."

"Me too," Ainz nodded thoughtfully, "I admit, I thought she would kill a couple of people on the first day — especially given her background..."

For a second, Olga-Marie froze, reflecting on what was just said. Servants could kill people as much as other people could kill people. Even their Master is not safe - although the Master was protected by the Command Spells. However, if the Servant was no longer bound by such restrictions - there was no direct prohibition on killing their own Master - although for most Servants this meant suicide, since very few Servants could survive without the support of the Master especially without his mana.

However, what interested Animusphere more in this matter was not a question regarding killing people.

"You never told me about who this one is..." the girl sighed. "Cainabel. And why her name is so similar to the two that I know of - Cain and Abel."

"Ah, that," Ainz paused for a second, "This ... Not quite the information I would like to share."

"Hm," Olga-Marie only sighed. In the end, she expected something like that.

"She is the god of vampires," Ainz said, in the end, "You can call her... The true ancestor of vampires?"

"True Ancestor, huh," Olga-Marie grinned, "Just what we need right now."

After that, an awkward silence fell in the room.

"And you killed her?" The chief looked at the magician carefully.

"Not really me, but yes, that's true," Ainz nodded. "There were several of us... Although, I could do it alone, probably..."

After that, Ainz suddenly stopped short, as if he had given out extra information. Olga-Marie grinned at what was said.

'Who the hell are you, Ainz Ooal Gown?' - the girl reached for her cigarettes, and then she jerked her hand. No, she'll definitely go crazy with this!

"Chief, is something wrong?" This time, Ainz himself asked the girl what she had just did.

"I just really want to smoke," the girl explained.

"Smoking is bad for your health," as if some caring older brother Ainz uttered a warning, causing the Animusphere to grin.

"Whoever is destined to burn will not drown," the girl grinned at her own fatalistic joke. "The only problem is that the cigarettes are gone."

"Hm," Ainz thought for a second, "Do you really want to smoke that badly, chief?"

For a second, Olga-Marie wondered if this was some kind of test from the magician, but remembering who she was talking to, drove away these thoughts from herself - "Very much."

"Okay," Ainz sighed, and then held out his hand, "Just don't tell anyone that I did this. _Create Greater Item_."

After a second, Animusphere felt a strong wave of mana. It seemed as if it would cause her to be knocked down, smacked into a wall and smeared into a thin layer - but the image subsided as quickly as it appeared. Olga-Marie, having thrown off her stupor, looked at the magician, after which she saw a pack of something resting on his arm.

More precisely, Animusphere guessed that it was a pack of cigarettes. The small box was absolutely black, with gold embossing around the edges, which made it look no worse than some kind of jewelry box in which the heirlooms are kept.

"Is that?" Olga-Marie glanced at the thing that had been offered to her.

"Cigarettes," Ainz sighed, "I, of course, have never done anything like this before, but there are no theoretical prohibitions on creating this — it's still not food, so Create Greater Item should do the work."

After that, Olga-Marie somehow stared at the pack of cigarettes in a special way, after which she extended her hands to Ainz and took it.

Real.

That is, of course, Servants were able to create physical objects, magis could also do it. Magecraft is generally an amazing tool that could be used for many things.

But Olga-Marie did not remember a single mage who would create cigarettes with his magic. Nobody would have thought of such a thing.

Poison, creatures, weapons, anything. But cigarettes?

'Although I guess this is also poison in some sense,' the girl grinned, and then opened the pack.

Surprisingly, the smell of cheap tobacco did not hit her nose.

'Although' - she took out a cigarette from the pack and set fire to it with a small spark made by her own magic - 'Is creating cigarettes really that amazing compared to everything he can do?'

After that, the Animusphere drew in a deep breath and broke into a blissful smile. Yes, that's exactly what she lacked all this time.

The girl again smoked the cigarette, after which she closed her eyes.

Ideal. The light taste of tobacco, without impurities, a barely noticeable smell...

The girl could not resist and smoked again.

Amazing!

Ainz, looking at the Animusphere, sighed, - "However, I still think that it is unhealthy."

The Animusphere just nodded at this incomprehensibly, feeling how with a new puff her body becomes more relaxed and she felt her problems slowly fade into the background.

A second later, the ash fell from the end of the cigarette and fell on the girl's finger, causing her to jerk reflexively. Ash, obeying the laws of physics, immediately flew off her finger, falling to the floor. The Animusphere, opening her eyes, looked at it, and then peered into her hand.

A small burn. It will disappear in about ten minutes. After that, she looked at the cigarette, which continued to smolder, and then at Ainz, who grinned.

"And really, the fish will not teach you to breathe underwater," the girl sighed and looked at the magician, "Tell me... How do you do all of this?"

"Do what?" Ainz looked at Olga-Marie carefully.

"All this," the girl vaguely waved her hand, outlining a circle in the air, "You understand management, control a bunch of Servants, fight on the front line, make friends, kill gods, solve world-class problems in a couple of weeks... How do you do all of this?"

Olga-Marie grinned and smoked a cigarette again.

"I don't know if this is just my feeling or not," the chief this time rose from her seat and moved to the table. In the drawer of the table lay an ashtray, in which she shook off a smoldering cigarette, - "But I seem so insignificant next to you... I envy you, you know."

Ainz, having heard this, stopped for a second.

'Of course,' the chief grinned. 'I am not the first one to tell him this. What is the use of my words for such a person?'

Ainz, froze, as if thinking deeply.

"Chief..." Ainz sighed, but the girl interrupted him.

"Olga," the girl said calmly, "You can call me Olga. I don't think that I have the right to make you call me a chief."

"Good, Olga," Ainz sighed, "I think... You overestimate me."

After what was said, Olga burst out laughing, almost dropping the cigarette, - "Really? Overestimate? I would think that you are fishing for compliments or are displaying pretentious modesty if I knew you a little less."

"Although," the girl sighed immediately, "It's not that I know a lot about you. How long have I known you formally - about four weeks?"

"Yes, something like this," Ainz nodded. "Although, it's a very long time, actually..."

"Long?" Olga-Marie looked at the magician.

"Yes, there are not many people with whom I talk with," Ainz said, and then corrected himself, "I talked with. Four weeks is a good length of time."

"It is possible," the girl did not argue with the magician, "But it doesn't matter. I'm not talking about that anyway. You know, modesty is not quite right for you. At least that kind of modesty."

"I'm just not very used to this," Ainz looked at the girl carefully, "I... I'm used to the fact that most of the people I talk to are not quite alive."

"Alive?" Olga-Marie looked at the magician, and then remembered. Right, necromancer.

For some reason, right now, the mention of such an important information sounded completely inappropriate. Frankly, she even managed to forget about the fact that he is a necromancer. That he is a terrible mage who brings sacrifices and kills on a massive scale, a terrible vivisector of a scientist.

Somehow the girl could not match this information with the image of the Ainz that she knew. Quiet, modest, charismatic. Caring even...

Well, to some extent.

After that, the Animusphere glanced at the cigarette and extinguished the smoldering stump.

However, Animusphere remembered. She remembered this eerie figure of a huge skeleton, dressed in the mantle of the most perfect cut that you can imagine, decorated with gold embroidery and arcane symbols. She remembered the oppressive presence of a huge powerful and completely indifferent mass, devouring all light and hope with one's aura of indescribable power.

"Who are you?" The girl looked at the magician carefully.

After asking a question, he froze.

"I..." he began, after which he fell silent for a couple of seconds, "I cannot tell you this."

"I didn't expect any answer," the girl grinned, after which she opened the pack again and took out a new cigarette, "But still... Can you tell me something?"

Ainz thought for a second, after which he finally took a few steps to a standing chair and sat on it, "Something... Something about me, maybe yes."

The Animusphere sighed with satisfaction. It is small, but still a victory.

The girl glanced at the nearby sheets of paper, after which she closed her eyes. Reports may wait a bit. She already has ripples in her eyes from the endless lines and numbers.

"Tell me about your victory over this... Cainabel," the Animusphere finally decided.

"This…"- Ainz thought for a second, -"This is not the most exciting of story, actually. Backthen, an event happened, as a result of which Cainabel gathered enough strength to pose a threat. She has existed for a long time, but did not appear directly in the open, most of the time just remaining something like a rumor or a famous figure of legend, but then she appeared in full force. She had gathered enough strength to threaten the whole world - many subordinates, many pawns, many spells. She gathered in her fortress the most powerful of servants and attacked the whole world. It was... somewhat expected of her to attack with her full force, what is unexpected however was just that it was she herself who is leading the attack. We then considered her a great threat and set off with eight people — I was among those who went against her, but... In the end, it was a disappointing battle."

"Disappointing?" The Animusphere glanced at the magician carefully, "In what sense?"

"We thought that if she was such a dangerous god, then she would be very strong," Ainz exhaled, "She was... No, she was still a problematic opponent, it would have been difficult for me to win one on one in battle then. But there were eight of us, so at that time we... At first we didn't even believe it when we defeated her - we expected that some kind of trap would be activated and it would kill us, or she would be reborn stronger than before, or something else would happen and maybe one of her henchmen had taken her place... But no. We did indeed just killed her. It was very... Unpleasant."

"Unpleasant?" Animusphere tightened her hold on the cigarette. "Interesting choice of word."

"Unjustified expectations," Ainz sighed. "We knew so much about her and heard rumors about her so often, we expected an invincible leviathan, and yet, we found a simple god. Not the weakest - but not even the strongest with whom we fought with before."

"Before?" Olga-Marie grinned at the chance of gathering more information, "So you killed other gods then?"

"Well, ahem." Ainz suddenly hesitated. Olga-Marie understood that he clearly did not want to share this information, - "We... We killed other gods on some occasion."

"How much?" Olga-Marie looked at the magician.

"A certain number," the magician answered very evasively.

"A certain number is a very loose concept," Olga-Marie looked at the mage with a mocking gaze and drew in a cigarette again, "I can say that you killed one hundred or two hundreds."

"More," - from the utterance Olga-Marie suddenly choked on the smoke and coughed.

"What?" She glanced at Ainz, speaking with her still short breath.

"This number is more than two hundred," Olga-Marie stared disbelievingly at the magician.

"Yeah," she said vaguely, blinking a couple of times, "If you said the first, then say the second. How much... I can't believe that I am asking this... How many gods did you kill?"

"I'm not quite sure of the answer," Ainz said, "There were too many. I lost count."

"Yeah, sure," Olga-Marie sighed. "Communicating with you is an easy way to earn an inferiority complex. How much is the approximate number?"

"Not sure," Ainz sighed. "Some of them looked like gods, but they were not called gods — and some called themselves gods, but they were not."

"Okay, then," the Animusphere thought, "Then tell me how many of them were equal to the Servants?"

"I…" - Ainz hesitated, - "I'm not sure what level the Servants is exactly…"

"Okay, how many of them were stronger than" - Olga-Marie fell silent, - "Stronger than Mashu?"

"Mashu?" Ainz suddenly stared at Olga-Marie, "I... I'm really not sure about the answer for that. I did not count such opponents."

Olga-Marie burst out laughing with the absurdity of the answer.

"Great, just great!" The girl smiled happily, "And this man says that I am overestimating him! Just great!"

After that, Olga-Marie could not resist it any longer and just laughed.

Ainz, left standing, only looked at the girl, who fell out of reality for several minutes, literally bursting her guts at what was just said.

"Ha ha ha... Just great!" The girl finally brushed the ashes from the cigarette away and was able to pull herself together again, looking at the magician with a smile, "Okay, let's go from the big numbers and we will reduce them gradually. More than a million?"

"More," Ainz nodded, causing the Animusphere to choke.

"I didn't expect such an answer," the girl answered honestly. "Well, then... More than a billion?"

The worst thing, in her opinion, was that after what was said, Ainz was deep in thought for a moment. He was really counting the total, trying to remember the number in his mind, then slowly nodded.

"Most likely yes," Ainz nodded. "Something like that number."

The Animusphere, astounded, only pulled another cigarette.

And what can she say to that?

Billion... Billion...

There are currently only seven and a half billion people on Earth.

Looking at the window, behind which only a shield flickered, protecting them from the fiery inferno, the girl corrected herself - that existed until recently.

A billion is thirteen percent of the world's population.

According to the most optimistic of estimation, for the entire length of time that humanity has existed as a species, there were only about one hundred billion people that have ever lived.

A billion is one percent of the world's population that has ever existed. A whole percent.

How many of them were as strong as Mashu?

This was a phenomenally stupid question.

Mashu was far from being the strongest Servant. There were magi stronger than Mashu. But how many were there?

On the whole earth, when it used to have seven and a half billion people, there were no more than one and a half, maybe even two millions of magi. Mages comparable in strength to Mashu, a Servant albeit a very weak one, but a Servant, out of these two million... Not more than five thousand? Maybe even ten.

Total is the ten thousand.

Even if one takes into account the past, even if one takes into account the Age of Gods, the great heroes of the ancient world, the ancient myths of the Earth... How many of them were so strong? Yes, in the Age of Gods, magic was accessible to most of the people, great heroes were born time after time, myths arose on their own and monsters that could not be found in the modern world plied the earth. But this does not mean that every person who lived at that time was as strong as a Servant. Even if we assume that there were a hundred, no, a thousand times more - it would still leave only ten million.

This is exactly a hundred times less than the number recalled by Ainz.

"How did you do this?" The Animusphere glanced at the magician and grinned. "If anyone had said that he had killed even a hundred Servants, everyone would have looked at him like a madman. A billion is a number of statistics. In a nuclear war, it is estimated that only four hundred million will die…"

"That calculation is wrong," Ainz suddenly interrupted the girl. "Seven hundred and twenty milliom will die from the explosions itself and another two and a half billion in the next ten years, from hunger, diseases, chaos, and local conflict."

Animusphere suddenly broke off her train of thoughts and looked at Ainz.

Ainz looked at her seriously. Not at all in his usual manner. Without even stating a fact.

He looked at her seriously.

"In a nuclear war, seven hundred twenty million will die on the first day," Ainz said this clearly, and then began to list, "USA, Russia, China, India, Israel, Japan, Germany, Great Britain, France, Pakistan..."

With each spoken name, Animusphere seemed to be sobbing from the effects of nicotine.

"Only forty-eight countries will become priority targets for the nuclear strikes," Ainz said this calmly, and then sighed, "But absolutely all countries will suffer. In sixty-eight countries, the overthrowing of its government will occur in the first year. Another forty - five years. No government could retain their full control of their own country. One hundred and fifteen new countries will be formed. Of these, eighty-four will collapse in the next twenty years. Another seventy-four wars will take place, from global to the local scale, in the next hundred years. As a result, the population will only regain its original number of population before the nuclear attacks of seven and a half billion people in sixty-five years."

Animusphere was silent.

Slowly, she put out her cigarette and looked up at Ainz.

"How do you know that?" She asked. Ainz suddenly looked up at her.

"I just know that," said the magician, after which became silent.

Olga-Marie was silent. Ainz was silent.

Both of them were thinking about something different.

Olga-Marie silently took out another cigarette.

"You know," she said suddenly, "Just a minute ago I thought that I envy you - that I would kill to have your strength, knowledge and skills... But now... I'm glad that I am not you. I do not have to know what you know and did not have to see what you saw."

Ainz was silent.

"This is strange," the girl sighed, "In but a second — and you are just an office worker, good-natured and soft. In another second - and you say that you have killed hundreds of gods. Another second - and you talk about a nuclear war as if you saw it yourself."

"I haven't seen it," Ainz said, "But I saw the consequences."

The girl looked up at the magician.

Ainz continued to sit silently for another couple of seconds before he nevertheless rose slowly from his chair, "Yes, I guess I'll go... I still need to deal with the Servants. Good luck, Olga."

The Animusphere nodded silently.

For some reason, she did not want to let the magician go.

Perhaps she wanted to hear about how he fought with the gods and called his battles with them "disappointing." Perhaps she wanted to know what else he could do with his magic. Perhaps she wanted to ask a couple of tips on how she could better herself in leading Chaldea.

Perhaps she simply did not understand why the words about the deaths of billions of people, about wars, about hunger and chaos from his mouth sounded so dry, strange and scary. As if he knew it himself. As if he saw the nuclear fire fall on defenseless civilians.

Animusphere extinguished her cigarette and looked at the black pack lying on the table, surrounded by a gold rim in which the cigarettes rested, and then pulled out another one. She lit one and drew in the poisoned smoke.

Perfect taste, perfect smell, perfect strength.

The girl looked at the closed door, behind which Ainz had long been hidden by, and took a puff.

Who the hell are you, Ainz Ooal Gown?

* * *

Ainz walked thoughtfully along the corridors of Chaldea.

He did not see the nuclear war.

He didn't see how the bombs fell, rockets fly, explosions devouring the cities.

He did not live in the chaos of the postwar years. Years after the Third World War.

He did not see the great famine, the nuclear winter, the long night and the ashes that covered the sky.

He was born later.

After they re-established society. After the Arcological Agreements were signed. After the full support complex was first developed.

He was born much later. He read about this once upon a time.

He received only primary education. The minimum necessary to understand the world.

But understanding the world requires knowledge of history.

Ainz remembered this.

He remembered the lines in the book describing the end of the old world.

The full list of countries. Estimated count of victims. Years of the Great Famine.

He remembered them because he knew that these lines were important.

And then he ended up in this world.

And vowed not to allow it to happen again.

"Servants," Ainz suddenly smiled. The collection, of course, is beautiful.

But there is still something else for which he fights for.

* * *

**Commander** \- one of the basic classes, useful primarily for various leaders, such as strategists or raid leaders, as well as for some types of summoners. This class focuses on various types of support, enhancement spells, and also the removing of some types of curses or debuffs from other players. An interesting fact is that despite the fact that this class is playable and completely accessible from the start to any player, due to the close integration of the gameplay of this class and the role assigned to the player,what usually happens is that most often this class is chosen by those players that are already leaders or commanders in a team on their own, which theoretically can contribute to the effectiveness of using such a class due to the coincidence of the class's abilities and the player's ideas about their own tactics, strategies and abilities.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Well, hmmmm... So people were not pissed about the Cainabel. That's great, I think. Let's see how it goes further.**

**Regardless, now what awaits is the inter-Singularity chapters about life in Chaldea, Servants and the likes, after which - yet another one Singularity. This times though, since the original case of Septem kind of dead - the Singularity itself will be... A little bit different. Or not a little.  
**

**And yep, here is an obligatory reminder that at**** my Pat reon \rure I have 4 new chapters right now! And inter-chapters ended there! Sure thing, one day it will all be on this site for free - but if you want FOUR new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.**

**Also, since my Pat reon goal was reached - I think I can even go as far, as to influence my productivity. In which way? That remains to be seen. Though, at my Pat reon you can even influence the way it would all go.  
**


	40. Chapter 40

Cainabel trudged through the corridors, feeling extremely irritated and somewhat furious. In just the time, the last few days, that Cainabel was summoned it was already becoming quite a familiar state of mind to her.

"Fight me!" Came the cry of a girl just behind Cainabel, a sound as loud like thunder.

More than anything, Cainabel wanted to crush this "Dragon Witch" like the worm she is. Cut off her hands and feet, and then finally chop off her head and enjoy draining the blood from the miserable still living remains - in general, just do what Cainabel did all her life before.

'No fighting' damn it.

"Fight me, jerk!" The girl's scream at the already annoyed Cainabel makes her even more annoyed than from the fact the she has to endure being near humans. But still a little less than from the fact that Cainabel was just summoned as a Servant, and not just by anyone, but by Momo… Ainz himself.

It was worse than all the cries of the worm put together.

"A brainless creature," Cainabel could not stand it anymore and turned around after another scream from the girl, almost making her bump into her at full speed,"Even in order for your brainless yapping to actually annoy me, you still need to become a couple orders of magnitude more powerful."

It was a bluff - Cainabel had no patience with anyone regardless of their level of strength. However, the worm did not know this, and Cainabel in any case could not kill this annoying louse, being tied hand and foot by the words, orders really, of her Master, so the worm, with a little more than a glance, took a different approach to the situation.

"The omnipotent True Ancestor is afraid to lose?" The worm tried to grin smugly at Cainabel.

Cainabel clenched her fists.

She now wanted nothing more than to crush the head of the girl in front of her.

Who does she think she is?! Does she even understand who she is talking to?! Does she realize how easy it is for Cainabel to just break her head and look inside her skull in search of a brain that was clearly absent?

But still, Cainabel could not do this. Not while she is being bound by the orders of Ainz.

But still she wanted to retaliate to the girl in front of her with at least something.

Cainabel did not spend much time with the rest of the Servants - except for one interesting exception. And this entertaining exception provided her with some information.

"I really don't understand how it was possible to betray you," Cainabel glared at the girl in front of her with a scornful look, "When trash is dumped to a neighbor, this can be considered a betrayal of the neighbor, but not a betrayal to the trash thrown out, it is treated just like all trash should be."

The girl opposite her choked on her own words. Anger, hatred flashed in her eyes for a second, but most importantly - pain.

Cainabel saw this pain and immediately broke into a cruel smile, - "On the other hand, a brainless cattle taken to a slaughterhouse to a neighbor is more likely to be considered a gift, especially if after it is just barbecued. Tell me, are you garbage or cattle?"

The girl opposite her silently lowered her head, clenching her fists in anger. However, in this expression there was not only anger - but also pain. Cainabel's words hurt the girl deeply - and that was good. The more Cainabel hurt her, the longer she will fall behind her. Of course, then she will confront her with a vengeance - but then Cainabel will just need to redouble her efforts in order to trample the girl in the mud for a little longer.

"Oh, I apologize," Cainabel finally decided to deliver her finishing blow. Perhaps a little later she will regret it, but now she will enjoy the moment to its fullest, - "I completely forgot, you are not able to determine who you really are. You, after all, are just an unsuccessful alteration of a real person without your own name, the one with only a nickname from the unwashed masses. Tell me what does it feels like to live without a name, Dragon Witch?"

The Witch could not bear this anymore and swung her hand. For Cainabel , the movement seemed insanely slow and awkward, but she did not bother to defend herself. A second later, a resounding slap in the face was struck at Cainabel by the hand of the Dragon Witch.

"Excellent," Cainabel grinned. "Now I can say that I was just defending myself."

In the next second, Cainabel felt her summons seething, trying to be the first to get out at the call of their mistress.

Chaldea will not be able to withstand her Noble Phantasm, but in order to kill one little thing, she has enough of the meager part of her power that she possessed now. Yes, the Witch will probably be reborn later, but Cainabel will receive the pleasure from killing her.

"Cainabel," came a voice, stopping the girl in her tracks instantly. Damn, it's Ainz!

"My beloved Master," Cainabel instantly fell on her knee, without looking up, "How can I serve you?"

"What is happening here?" Judging by Ainz's voice he was ... A little confused and angry.

But for what?

Cainabel did not kill any of the people - she even specially turned off her abilities that could kill them by accident. And the Witch hit her first, so Cainabel's intention to defend herself could hardly mean anything wrong.

"I hate you..." said a voice behind Cainabel, and the vampire smiled, "And you too! I hate you all!"

The next moment, when the Witch rushed away, Cainabel grinned. Disrespecting Ainz? That sounds like carte blanche to trash her fucking brains out!

"My lord!" - Cainabel hid the pleasure in her voice behind the pretense of hardly restrained anger, "This scoundrel dared to offend you! Let me, your most faithful servant, present her head to you as a gift!"

Cainabel had already prepared to hear the encouraging "Yes" and was severely disappointed.

"No," Cainabel winced. Why is it "no?" "And we need to talk for a moment."

Cainabel froze. Where did she miscalculate?!

Ainz was ... a Dark Lich Mage who killed entire pantheons for fun, exterminating peoples and nations, the Root of Evil - he should have been glad that he would get rid of the annoying girl in the form of this Witch. Instead, Ainz sounded like... A very saddened father.

'Where did I miscalculate ?!' - Cainabel panic soared immediately in her mind. That is, she was told that she was not to fight - but it was a simple rule, like when Cainabel herself forbade her minions from killing each other. She didn't have to love them - and, in general, if one of them even thought about speaking in her presence without her highest permission - she herself would have killed them, not to mention shouting words like "I hate you".

However, Ainz, who reached for the nearest door, behind which is one of dozens, if not hundreds of unused dorm rooms, was discovered, only inviting Cainabel to follow him with a gesture and then entered the room himself. Cainabel rose, and then slowly trudged along after him.

The room was small, narrow, with only one bed, a wardrobe and a table. Cainabel winced, remembering her beautiful huge bed made of black gold and dragon stone, which remained in her ruined castle. She lived surrounded by a lot of luxury and trying to fit her here was... Just insulting, to say the least.

Ainz took a step, after which he pulled up a chair and sat down on it.

"Close the door," he gave the command, and Cainabel obeyed, closing the door behind her, remaining standing in front of Ainz, "Sit down."

According to the words, she sat opposite to Ainz on the bed.

'This bed spring's stick into my thin skin' - Cainabel grimaced internally - 'This rubbish is for Servants and people, not for me.'

Not that , currently, she was not a Servant herself.

"Cainabel ," Ainz sighed. She really did not like the sigh, - "Why did you do this?"

It was foolish to assume that a creature with his experience and acuity of mind would not be able to add two plus two, however, for this case Cainabel had a plan prepared - "My Master, can that miserable fake of a Servant be worthy of the honor bestowed by you - to fight for you? I just wanted to weed out those unworthy of this honor. My lord, the Servant should be an ideal tool in the hands of his lord, and not a brainless beast rushing at every red flag…"

"Enough," Ainz interrupted Cainabel with a practiced gesture of his hand, "Cainabel, my well-being, you cares for it a lot less than what you shows."

Ainz knew.

Cainabel froze.

Of course he would have known about it sooner or later, but Cainabel hoped for later. At least until after she managed to 'retire' several Servants from the game and strengthen her position for Ainz as someone who understands him perfectly.

But Cainabel still understood that the probability of such an outcome was far from zero. She was a god, and not just some trifle that manage to crawl itself into the grains of the Root and imagines itself omnipotent, but a real, Elder God, who have already existed from the birth of the world. However, when she came to the world - Ainz was already old and legendary.

Technically speaking, Cainabel was right and wrong at the same time. She really did exist in the game from the very beginning of the "world", from the very start of the game, appearing in the form of lore, however, she "came to the world" in the flesh only in the fifth anniversary of the launch of the game in the form of a real interactable NPC. By this time, Ainz have managed not only to grow to the maximum level, but also to complete a large number of quests - therefore, in some strange literal sense of the word, Cainabel was right - she did exist from the very birth of the world, but Ainz was already old and legendary at the time when Cainabel appeared in this world.

In any case, it didn't mean anything now - it only meant that Cainabel was aware that her actions and thoughts were like an open book for Ainz. It's just that Cainabel thought that she could avoid Ainz's attention long enough.

Sadly, she failed.

"My lord," no matter how much Ainz knew about her, she wasn't even going to show openly that she could even theoretically dislike Ainz, for this would result in painful torture at best — Cainabel knew, she used to do that herself, "I don't crave for anything more than serving you and it hurts me to realize that you have to be content with so... Pitiful Servants."

"Pitiful?" Ainz looked at the girl, letting her explain.

"Humans," she practically spat out the word, and there was no pretense in this hatred, "Brainless worms swarming in the shit of history... Are they worthy to serve you, my lord? Wouldn't it be better to get rid of them all and allow more worthy servants - perhaps like me, to serve you?"

In this way, Cainabel could hope to grow into one of the trusted lieutenants - Cainabel knew that they were usually not killed for fun. At least Cainabel herself has killed no more than a dozen in her very, very long life.

"Cainabel," Ainz sighed, "I don't think you understand why I need Servants at all."

Cainabel froze for a second. Damn, she is in a bind!

"My lord," the girl smiled the most seductive smile that she could — however, while still not looking up at Ainz, "I, in the worst of my nightmares, could not imagine that I could offend you even with the thought that you are unable to do anything. I am just saying that not every job is worthy of your personal presence. Someone must communicate with the mob, fight hordes of annoying flies and serve you wine during the festivities. All I want to do is make sure that the chosen Servants are worthy of this honor."

"No," Ainz's voice sounded like a thunderbolt from the blue, "This is also not the reason why I am gathering the Servants."

Cainabel froze. So he was not looking for minions... Damn it, why else were the Servants needed?!

"Ah, my lord," Cainabel nodded knowingly, trying to hide her ignorance behind a false understanding, "How could I be so blind! I understand it now!"

Cainabel nervously sweated.

"How could I have been so blind that I hadn't deduced about your ingenious plan before!" Cainabel tried to hide the lies in flattery right away, "Truly, just by looking at everything I know, I can touch part of your wisdom!"

Cainabel hoped that flattery was enough to hide her misunderstanding.

"Really," Ainz said calmly, "And what is my brilliant plan?"

Cainabel froze.

He saw through her! He saw her deception through!

Cainabel wanted to laugh nervously and straighten her collar — although she didn't even have a collar — it suddenly became so hot and stuffy in the room.

"I…" - Cainabel tried to come up with a suitable lie, -"I would not dare to express your ingenious plan into words, because even words can steal part of its genius - I do not have enough intelligence to even imagine all the layers of your plan…"

"You have no idea, do you?" Ainz interrupted her. Cainabel froze in horror. Of course, she could have guessed that someone with his mind and experience could reveal her lies at a glance - "Don't worry. This is something like a "birds of a feather"... Ahem, in any case, you probably don't understand why I collect the Servants."

Cainabel did not understand.

She didn't understand why at all.

Any reasonable man, not burdened by stupid dogmatic morality, moved only for one thing. Power.

To gain power, however, there were two paths - conquest and personal strength. Cainabel herself pursued this goal - in the past, she gathered henchmen and gathered strength in order to devour the whole world - to bleed the blood from all the monsters, heroes, gods - and to drink it all, to devour without leaving a trace, in order to gain ultimate power. To become a World Enemy.

This did not happen. In the thousands of world lines that she knew of, this did not happen. She was always defeated, destroyed completely - although Ainz Ooal Gown rightfully took the prize in terms of how to defeat her in the most cruel way. They did not just level her down into the earth - as an Elder God, she could return again, just a couple of hundred years later. Ainz Ooal Gown however took her power - he absorbed her power just like she drank the power of other lower beings, and then threw her into the abyss.

This proved that Cainabel and Ainz were alike. Cainabel wanted to have power - Ainz too as well, their endless search and accumulation of strength told her about it. Cainabel wanted to rule - that was her plan after gaining strength. Ainz Ooal Gown also wanted to rule - he constantly competed with many other forces, powerful and not. They managed to subjugate the whole world... For a short while, all of Yggdrasil - only for a few moments. But they did it.

Therefore, Cainabel did not know what Ainz was seeking now. To seize the world, to subordinate all the remnants by force - to rule at his pleasure. Wasn't that Ainz's ultimate plan?

"No," Cainabel was forced to admit, "No, I don't understand."

Ainz sighed, while only looking at Cainabel.

She will not be killed for her stupidity? Cainabel could only hope so.

"Cainabel," the lich under the mask of a human, "Our personal acquaintance was short and all that you can know about me is somewhat... One-sided."

Cainabel jerked like a slap in the face. She really did know only little about Ainz - at least no more than any other inhabitant of Yggdrasil - but even that was enough for her.

"At the moment I am not pursuing the same goals as before," the magician finally said.

Cainabel froze, startled. In what sense is he not pursuing it?

"I do not want to rule this world," Ainz finally said unequivocally, "And I do not want to see the Servants only as my minions."

Cainabel thought deeply, quickly sorting through the options in her head.

The desire for strength and conquest was as natural for any Yggdrasil creature as breathing - at least for those miserable creatures who had not gotten rid of this bad habit a long time ago, for example, by becoming an undead.

But…

Cainabel suddenly froze, carefully examining the thought from all sides.

Ainz said only of an unwillingness to conquer. Not about personal strength.

"Servants..." - Ainz paused, "Are very valuable to me. This does not mean that I will not be able to sacrifice them... Or that I will value them above myself. I already did this before - and when the need arises - I will do the same. However, they are very valuable."

In what sense, are they valuable?

Cainabel thought about Ainz and his words.

If he did not want to rule, to conquer and enslave - he did not need trusted lieutenants, soldiers or even slaves. Ainz also did not force the Servants to fulfill all of his whims - although Cainabel was sure that some of the Servants would not refuse even the very personal and dubious orders of the magician.

However, he did not really say that he did not need personal strength.

Why did he need the Servants? If he wanted to experiment on them, he would have long ago taken apart the most intrusive and useless ones. Use all the body parts that are usable for artifacts, potions, or even food - and then throw away the useless residues in the trash. Cainabel herself would have done this if she had not needed one of her servants.

"Servants…" - Ainz paused, - "Are somewhat special."

Cainabel pondered. What does it mean that Servants "are somewhat special?"

The Servants were weak, stupid and annoying. There was nothing in them that Ainz himself did not have.

Except one.

The thought so distracted Cainabel from her thoughts that she unconsciously raised her face and looked at Ainz, who was sitting in front of her.

The Throne of Heroes.

Ainz just smiled at the girl. This smile could fool anyone, but Cainabel knew what the monster was hiding under the mask of the human.

The Throne of Heroes is a mystical place or concept that houses the souls of heroes. Even their Shadows and reflections from real heroes, they were inferior and the Throne of Heroes itself would hardly be worth a note from Cainabel herself, if not for one detail.

The Throne of Heroes also existed in Yggdrasil.

Of course, to compare the perfect system of Yggdrasil with the Throne of Heroes was offensive - but in a sense they were similar. The last gift from the Creators is their only hope. The Rebirth System.

Yggdrasil's beings were different in nature - resurrection or reincarnation was possible and trivial for the vast majority of its inhabitants. However, the Higher Beings possessed a power greater than anyone could have ever imagined.

Long ago, at the dawn of the creation of the world the Creators lost their battle. They lost to the World Eater - all that they accomplished was a single wound. A wound from which thousands and thousands of unborn souls of worlds long ago devoured by the World Enemy gushed forth. The Creators was lost in that battle - but the Creators committed their last revenge. They created the Rebirth System.

A system that allowed the unborn souls of the devoured worlds to incarnate in the worlds of Yggdrasil and continue the struggle that the Creators lost. A system through which thousands of thousands of those who later became Higher Beings entered the world.

Ainz was one of them.

Ainz possessed power, and he had a connection with the Rebirth System.

The Throne of Heroes was like a miserable copy of the Rebirth System, as the Servants were only a miserable forgeries of the Higher Beings. However, despite this - it was still a powerful thing. The Servants possessed only one thing that Ainz did not have.

Access to the Throne of Heroes.

"I understand you, my lord," Cainabel smiled. "You strive for what you have lost."

Ainz suddenly froze at these words and Cainabel smiled - 'Bullseye!'

"This…" - Ainz thought for a moment, - "Is not so far from the truth, but still not entirely true."

"I understand," said Cainabel. She really understood. Ainz did not want to get his own imprint on the Throne of Heroes.

He wanted to absorb the power of the Throne of Heroes.

Everything finally fell into place in Cainabel's head.

Ainz intentions really was clear to her - she just underestimated his scale a little. Ainz did not want to only rule one miserable world. He wanted to absorb the power of all the worlds.

Cainabel suppressed her urge to laugh. Just think, and she thought to fool someone whose plans extended so far! What naivety on her part.

"You see," Ainz eventually sighed and glanced at Cainabel. She saw a timid smile spread across his lips - but it was not a shy smile, as anyone who did not know Ainz might have thought. She saw that it was like the feigned modesty of someone who was enjoying his plan - "That's why I really don't want you to fight with the Servants."

Cainabel was suddenly embarrassed. But why? After all, the Servants, weak as they are, remained Servants - Cainabel did not plan to cut away their connection with the Throne of Heroes. Even more, Cainabel did not know how to do this. Ainz certainly knew how, but that was natural — it was Ainz.

"I do not want to simply return to what once was," Ainz said and Cainabel nodded. Of course, the connection with the Throne of Heroes could not even be compared with the Rebirth System - "I only wish to make the life of the Servants a little better."

Cainabel blinked.

"I would like them to enjoy this life as much as possible," Ainz said calmly, "So that they themselves come naturally to what they desire."

Cainabel could not restrain herself and a smile nevertheless crept out onto her face.

Genius.

Cainabel could not have come up with any other word for this, except as "genius."

Ainz did not want to simply absorb the power of the Throne of Heroes through his own power, through bloody rituals and thousands of victims. It was simply inelegant.

He desired that the Servants themselves bestow upon him this power.

Of course Cainabel herself did not understand this! Perhaps the fault lies in the inertia of her way of thinking.

Yggdrasil was full of creatures whose power could not be measured or described in simple words. Higher Beings or World Enemies, they were all nearby, you could die every second. Therefore, Cainabel was forced to act quickly. Attack with lightning speed from all sides, destroy everything, then gain power.

Ainz didn't have to rush.

Ainz was as close to omnipotence, as close to omnipotence as anyone who was not omnipotent could be. He was incredibly strong before killing her - but, after becoming the Last Being, he grew to the greatest heights.

But it was still not enough. He desired more.

Ainz was ambitious, but he was not touched by the greatest sin of all the ambitious and hungry for power. Haste.

Why would Ainz destroy the Throne of Heroes, and fight the whole world? He could just wait.

Surround the Servant with care. Build relationships. Gain their love and trust, slowly leading them to the thoughts that are beneficial for him, after which - let the Servants themselves come to the correct conclusion. Give him the key, open the way to the Throne of Heroes.

Genius.

Ainz was an undead. He is not bothered by such trivial things as time or a short life. He planned like that of a great leader - for dozens, hundreds of years in advance. Whether it was twenty years - or twenty thousand - Ainz was not bothered by this. Slowly he could corrupt the minds of the Servants, acting slowly and unhurriedly, like the lazy spider that weaved the most incredible web - and now need only to slowly wait until the caught flies themselves become entangled in its web. He could wait - he did not need to rush. In a world where no one present a danger to him, he could just wait. Just a couple of dozen generations - and the world will become completely his. He does not even need to do anything - he just had to wait. Becoming an integral part of their life, allowing people to bring him to the top themselves, open the way to all their secrets and riches.

Then, with one movement, cut off all their lives.

Genius.

Cainabel restrained herself so as not to laugh. She really wanted to.

Just think, and she thought she could outwit him? How frivolous of her!

She could see for years to come - Ainz could look through the millennia as if reading an open book. Sow sprouts that birth seedlings when everyone have already forgotten about it, getting result when no one could even think that everything that happened was interconnected. She looked at the world as a goal. His thoughts are much wider.

"So I would like you not to fight so much with the Servants," Ainz said in the end, making Cainabel nod. Of course, because she is Ainz's subordinate, fighting with the Servants, could cast a shadow on Ainz himself, while his goal was to attract all the Servants to his side.

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel nodded knowingly. However, in all this plan there was only one flaw, - "However... What is my goal?"

Cainabel was a Servant, however she was a Servant not summoned from the Throne of Heroes. She had no integral use to him. This meant that Cainabel was not needed for Ainz's plan. Even more than that, now that she knew of his plan, she was dangerous.

Cainabel did not want to die and would never have dared to fight against Ainz. However, she herself would kill anyone who knew of her plan that could jeopardize it. And Ainz had plenty of opportunities to end her life.

"You?" Ainz looked at Cainabel and she froze, "I have no particular plans for you... Your presence here is quite enough. It... Reminds me of the past."

Cainabel was a trophy.

Not the best of roles. But far from the worst.

Cainabel was needed here simply as a small trinket, reminiscent of past trifles.

Cainabel should have gotten angry at this - and had it been anyone else in Ainz's place, she would have done so. Perhaps she would have killed the insolent.

But with Ainz, being a trophy wasn't so bad. In the end, at the very least, it was guaranteed that she would not be killed in the process of capturing the power of the Throne of Heroes. This fact alone was somewhat reassuring.

"My lord," however Cainabel still tried to ingratiate herself more, "I am ready to serve you, in any matter, no matter what you order of me."

Cainabel was ready for much to save her life - and even more to receive a reward.

"Hm," Ainz looked at Cainabel, "Of course. We can expect much troubles ahead - battles and traps. I will need someone to help me…"

Cainabel could not suppress a big smile.

It was wonderful. Just great. Being a helpful servant was really good. Especially a servant who perfectly understands the plan of his master.

"In that case, I suppose," but Ainz did not finish his soliloquy, "You will need... Payment or something the like."

Cainabel froze for a second, feeling her wildest dreams come true.

"However, I can offer little," Ainz looked at Cainabel and she exhaled. Of course, leftovers from the master's table. However, if these were scraps from the Throne of Heroes? Cainabel was more than pleased with such an offer.

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel lowered her head to prevent Ainz from seeing her joy. He did not intend to kill her even now, when she knew of Ainz's plan. Not that she had ever planned to divulge it to anyone - Ainz was clearly prepared for this and Cainabel's life still depended on his actions. However, offering a reward for loyal service motivated Cainabel best.

'Perhaps this was exactly what my servants lacked?' - Cainabel thought - 'Maybe I should have promised them something for their faithful service, and not just forced them to serve... Hmm, what difference does it makenow. I don't think I will be able to gain control of anything now.'

"However, I will not force you to become a different person," Ainz glanced at Cainabel "You are free to not like any of the Servants and clash with those with whom you want. I just want to make sure that you will no longer provoke such... Extreme actions. Otherwise I will have to intervene."

The subtext of this speech was extremely simple and understandable. Cainabel was needed in order to be the "bad guy" in the group, to act as a scapegoat l to divert anger, distract the attention of others from Ainz's actions. However, if her actions go beyond personal conflict and have an effect on the Servant, causing them to trust Ainz less - her death will be a foregone conclusion.

'But that is exactly what I just did!' Cainabel suddenly froze. Of course, the damn Witch - her fight with the Witch made her swear at Ainz! Damn, that was exactly what Ainz didn't need - he didn't need the Cainabel actions to touch himself! Up to this point, the actions of Cainabel perfectly fit his narrative - Cainabel acted as an acceptable target of hatred for the rest of the Servants. Ainz had to intervene due to the fact that her actions began to violate the boundaries of his plan.

"Besides, I think you should apologize," confirming Cainabel's thoughts, Ainz pointed out her mistake.

"Of course, my lord, I crossed the line," Cainabel bowed to the magician, "Can I go?"

"If you understand everything," Ainz just in case made sure that Cainabel understood the essence of his plan, and then nodded. "Go."

Cainabel instantly went out of the door, trying to restrain the emotions that are overwhelming her.

Ainz not only crafted a plan that stretched hundreds of years in advance, in which Cainabel played a role without suspecting it, but when her actions began to violate his plan, he could easily point out her mistake, and then to involve her in the plan, tying her by the strongest leash - the desire for strength.

Cainabel had previously experienced great fear and some respect for Ainz, but now, for the first time in all that time, Cainabel was experiencing something new.

Admiration.

Admiration for his genius, his plans, his actions. After all, Cainabel herself, even with knowing his experience and strength, could only barely discern his plan - and had no idea about the things that Ainz himself wanted to hide from her - and he clearly wanted to hide a lot from her. Cainabel admired this monster hiding behind a mask of a lich that was hiding behind a mask of a man.

Cainabel smiled. After all, perhaps the idea of serving Ainz was not so bad in the end.

* * *

Ainz sighed, leaning back in his chair. It's good that Cainabel understood him correctly!

He simply did not want the Servants to conflict among themselves, that was all.

Servants... Yes, they were a collection. And, of course, they were Servants. Ainz did not lie when he said that he was ready to sacrifice them. They were funny, and interesting - but Ainz knew that in the end they remained just Servants. A collectible that he could throw away.

"You are striving for what you have lost" - these words of Cainabel settled in Ainz's head.

He strove.

His days in Ainz Ooal Gown have passed. Really gone. For a long time they did not even get together, did not go to raids, did not complete quests, simply throwing jokes to each other and chatting about their affairs. So long ago…

The suppression of emotions worked again and Ainz straightened up in his chair.

Servants could not replace his Ainz Ooal Gown. Never.

But... He really did not communicate with anyone else. Outside and inside the game. He did not encounter other players, did not complete quests, did not fight, none of this.

Servants were the first with whom he experienced... Adventure?

Indeed an adventure. With battles, plans, traps, betrayals and the long-awaited finale.

It was as if he was in Yggdrasil again, as if he had gone on another quest again, as if he was alive again...

Emotion suppression activated for a second time.

It is just pointless.

Ainz sighed and closed his eyes.

Servants will not be a replacement for his Ainz Ooal Gown. Never.

Then Ainz sighed again.

No matter how much he thinks about it.

* * *

**Servant**: Cainabel

**Class**: Foreigner

**Status**: ? (Incorrect summoning)

**Gender**: Female

**Alignments**: Neutral-Evil

**Attribute**: Beast

**Strength**: A

**Dexterity**: B

**Endurance**: A++

**Luck**: A++

**Mana**: EX

**Noble** **Phantasm**: EX

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**What can I say right now? Only that my beta - ****DiscereEstVivet - you know that guy - beta-ed my first chapters... A month ago? I just always forgot to say about it in the AN. Regardless, it was done for the good.**

**Anyway, now what awaits is the inter-Singularity chapters about life in Chaldea, Servants and the likes, after which - yet another one Singularity. This time though, since the original case of Septem kind of dead - the Singularity itself will be... A little bit different. Or not a little.  
**

**And yep, here is an obligatory reminder that at**** my Pat reon \rure I have 4 new chapters right now! And inter-chapters ended there! Sure thing, one day it will all be on this site for free - but if you want FOUR new chapters RIGHT NOW - then you could have them for a 1$ at my Pat reon \rure.**

**Also, since my Pat reon goal was reached - it look's like my writing will increase in quantity... After some time, though. And also, it looks like my expenses would go even higher after that... That's a little bit paradoxical, don't you think? Or it's like in that paradox "more money means more buying; more buying means less money; more money means less money", hm.**


	41. Chapter 41

Medusa turned over another page.

"The Company of the Ring stood silent beside the tomb of Balin. Frodo thought of Bilbo and his long friendship with the dwarf, and of Balin's visit to the Shire long ago. In that dusty chamber in the mountains it seemed a thousand years ago and on the other side of the world..."

This was the normal pastime of Medusa. The girl turned over the page, after which she moved her blindfold around to be more comfortable, which is now resting peacefully on her chest, removed due to the need for it to be absent on her eyes while reading. Of course, Medusa could easily navigate the world without the aid of vision, in a magical environment or not. Otherwise, she would have faced many obstacles in life, ranging from walls to just normal people, the amount of mana in which was too insignificant for the Servant to determine their very presence next to her. Medusa could perfectly navigate the world around her, but even she could not read without using her eyes. Theoretically, of course, she could learn Braille and learn to read in this way, but she did not want to bother doing it.

'Well, I can read no more for a long way,' said Gandalf, 'except the word gold, and Durin's Axe and something helm.'

Medusa turned over the next page.

She liked to read. Really enjoyed reading. But, unfortunately, it was not so easy to do. In order to read, she needed to remove her blindfold. But having removed the blindfold, she was forced to look at the world with her cursed gaze.

You cannot live comfortably with cursed eyes. Her eyes were really damned, anyone who looked into her eyes would die. Not immediately, but inevitably they would. Even if the gazer was strong, even if he was a Servant, her damned gaze would sooner or later kill the gazer. The unblinking gaze of the eternally disfigured and damned eyes of Medusa.

At first it could be a little discomfort. Then - fear and cold. Then - only cold stone would remain from her victim.

This was not always a quick process, but it was inevitable. A simple person needed only to look for a moment - and he would have become petrified instantly. It was safer for the Servants - and yet it was inevitable. Even if her opponent was strong, they could not escape from her damned gaze. Even her sisters could not.

Medusa stopped for a second when she realized that being lost in thought, she completely missed the contents of the previous paragraph and began to re-read again.

Her damned eyes was really a curse. Of course, perhaps in battle its usefulness could not be underestimated, but outside of a battle there was not a single positive thing associated with it. She was forced to wear a blindfold not because she wanted to, but only because she had no other way to live. It's hard to live knowing that your one casual look can - and will - kill random people. She had no control over this ability, only power, which she could not control.

Therefore, Medusa loved to read.

Somewhere in the distance, at the other end of the library, a door suddenly opened and Medusa carefully listened. Not many people wanted to visit the library at such a late hour. Exceptions of course existed, but there were very few.

If this was a simple visitor, they will sit in the central hall and simply go about their business. Medusa was in the farthest corner of the library, where no one could disturb her.

"Leadership secrets for young leaders," the girl read the name of a book, which was standing next to her on a shelf and looked away. The entire rack next to Medusa was crammed with volumes of such useless literature, so that she could be sure that no one would come near to her in search of a book. Who could ever need such a thing?

Medusa sat still for a few more seconds, listening to the unknown visitor walking on the other side of the library, as if they are checking and inspecting something, and then she returned to reading.

Medusa loved to read.

It was like her little consolation and small salvation from her curse.

To read books she needed to remove her blindfold, and it was wonderful. Indeed, in this case, Medusa was not afraid that her damned eyes could bother anyone. The book could not turn to stone at her sight. The heroes on the pages were not afraid of her actions, did not know about her existence, did not even know that they would be dead, if they only met with a gaze from Medusa.

Medusa liked to read because she needed to look at it with her cursed eyes- but at the same time she doesn't have to be afraid of her curse. As if her curse, created only to destroy her life, broke free and then powerlessly gritted their teeth and only returned with nothing.

It was to Medusa her little rebellion against the universe. Miserable, insignificant, but still real.

"A sudden dread and the horror of the chamber fell on the Company. `We cannot get out,' muttered Gimli. 'It was well for us that the pool had sunk a little, and that the Watcher was sleeping down at the southern end."

Medusa smiled. She liked to read. She liked the lines written by the author, far away, in time and space. She liked to read and imagine that she was not here. That she was there, in a distant world in the book. Even if she was just a powerless observer watching how the great adventures of the heroes unfold - Medusa still liked it. As if she were a witness to great events in which she did not exist.

Medusa did not want to cease existing. She did not want to part with life and did not seek death. But she did not want to be Medusa. The Medusa that she was. A monster created by the wrath of the gods and human perception. She simply did not think that there was a place for her in this world. Therefore, she liked books.

She liked books in which there was no place for Medusa, there was no place for squabbles of the Clock Tower, there was no place for the Holy Grail War and the history of Shapeless Island. She just liked to watch a world in which there was no conflicts like this.

The visitor to the library nearby took a few more steps, after which they sighed noisily and began to delve into the books, methodically scrying through it. Strange, not many people visited the library. Mashu - more often than not, she already knew what book she wanted, so she would simply read the book for her half an hour break between trainings, she would be settled in a small armchair, after which she would begin to read. Hassan, if Medusa somehow managed to catch the Assassin entering the library, which was not a frequent occurrence, given his specialization, simply took a book, leaving any previous one, and then immediately disappeared about his business. The third possible visitor was Mozart - and he was the only one who would do something like that now.

Finally, having found the thing they wanted, the visitor sighed and moved along the library.

If it was Mozart, then after going through several rows and shelves he would find something that attracted his attention, after which he would sit down at the nearest ottoman and read.

The visitor went through one rack, then the second, third...

Medusa blinked when she realized that the visitor was slowly approaching her.

Medusa sat in the farthest corner with the most useless of literature, no one would even theoretically approach her. This was not the behavior of someone like Mozart.

Medusa froze, focusing on her senses before she realized who the mystical visitor to the library was.

When the steps of the man approached Medusa, she laid the book aside and immediately put on her blindfold.

"Master," as soon as Ainz took a step from behind the shelf, Medusa greeted him with a nod of her head, "Do you need something?"

"Oh, Medusa," the man suddenly froze for a second, finding Medusa in such a place, after which he looked at the bookcase filled with the literature that stood on the shelf behind the girl, the bookcase clogged with useless and possibly insulting books to someone like him regarding the basics of personnel management.

Medusa, having guessed the thoughts of the magician, immediately hastened to explain herself - "Master, I am not here for this."

"Ah, sure, of course," Ainz shook his head immediately, after which he looked closely at Medusa, "What are you doing here?"

"I read," the girl answered calmly.

"Ahem, of course," Ainz nodded, after which he glanced at Medusa, "But... Why here?"

"It's just that this place is the most convenient for reading," Medusa answered bluntly, "This is the farthest corner that no one will go into... except for those who may be interested in such a literature."

Medusa pointed to the shelf behind her and Ains froze for a second, "And you, Master."

"Yes, exactly," Ainz smiled, trying in no way to betray the whole storm of emotions that swept through him for a second before it was overwhelmed by his skill, "Yes... That's why I came here too, to retire from everyone."

Medusa understood Ainz. Of course, she had her room, but she did not like to be inside it. Medusa wanted to be next to society. Not at the center of attention , Medusa did not like that - interacting with people was too exhausting for her, but this did not mean that she wanted to be alone. She just wanted people to be around. Not far from her - that was enough.

However, everything was different with Ainz; Medusa understood this. Most likely he chose this place because in his room it was impossible for him to remain alone. Serenity's actions in relation to the Master were very clear, but with the addition of Kiyohime it became really annoying. Medusa heard that over the past five days since the summoning of Kiyohime, they had already fought at least three times. Not seriously of course - otherwise Serenity would have simply poisoned Kiyohime, and Kiyohime, would then turn into a dragon, then they would have smashed half of Chaldea, it was not a serious fight but enough to break a couple of walls because of some very important thing like "the right to stand in front of the Master's door and wait until he comes out."

Medusa understood Ainz, he clearly did not want anything like this around him, so he preferred to retire to the library, a place where people visited as rarely as possible. At least that was probably the only reason Ainz would choose this place.

Medusa did not believe for a second that someone like Ainz might want to read a book on personnel management.

It is unknown to Medusa, but at that moment Ainz suddenly felt someone coming dangerously close to unraveling his lies.

"Master," - Medusa nodded in any case, - "In that case - I will go to my room."

"No-no, don't have to do that ," Ainz shook his hands immediately, "Unless, of course, I am bothering you ..."

"Of course not," answered Medusa reflexively, before she realized that a blindfold was resting on her eyes at the moment. It was impossible to read her book with a blindfold.

Noticing the same fact, Ainz smiled, "By the way, regarding your blindfold... You know, I'm immune to the effects of your eyes, so you can take it off with me."

Medusa immediately froze.

Yes exactly. Ainz was not affected by her cursed gaze.

Nevertheless, the Medusa froze for a second, doubting it.

She already gazed at Ainz with her cursed eyes. Moreover, she looked into his eyes as well - this meant that she had already exposed him to the strongest possible curse of her eyes and Ainz withstood it.

But what if it was just a fluke? a coincidence?

Medusa froze for a second.

"Ah, I'm sorry," Ainz apologized suddenly, "if you don't want to do it, then..."

"No, no, I'm sorry," Medusa immediately dismissed the thought. She always wanted to remove her blindfold and look at the world with her own eyes. But she did not want her Master to fall prey to her cursed eyes. Perhaps of all the people in the world, she least of all wanted to hurt her Master. He was the first person to take care of her. The first, after her sisters, to look after her.

But she did not want to offend him with her refusal. As a result, Medusa decided to do what she did in the Singularity. Trust Ainz.

Medusa slowly raised her hands, after which she pulled the blindfold down and opened her eyes, glancing at her Master. He appeared the same way he always was - a white shirt, black trousers, a short haircut, almond-colored eyes.

Medusa froze, realizing that she was gazing again into her Master's eyes. She again put him at great risk and he could see all the ugliness of her damned eyes.

However, Ainz smiled. Looking into the eyes of Medusa, he suddenly smiled and took a step, after which he quietly sat down next to Medusa.

It was a small sofa set up that could accommodate three people, so Medusa and Ainz were not really close to each other, but still much closer than anyone else near Medusa.

Medusa froze at the thought.

Ainz, sitting next to her, however, only held out his hand forward, after which his hand disappeared into a black hole that arose out of nowhere. Medusa watched this, and saw as a book appeared out of the black nothing.

The book was a work of art. The huge cover was as if it was made of darkness itself, of black obsidian, polished to a mirror shine, and upholstered at the edges with an edging of unknown red stone that was so expertly fitted that it seemed as if it had grown from the book itself. A large clasp of red stone also kept the book closed from any outside observer, which made its pages made of a strange black material seem like an incredible treasure, keeping secrets inaccessible to ordinary mortals.

The book itself exudes an aura of power and mystery around itself, clearly being a grimoire of great power, Possessing knowledge that could ruin - or ascend - the life of a simple mortal.

However, Ainz easily opened the lock, after which he opened the book on one specific page that he knew. It might have seemed as if he had chosen a page at random, but Medusa understood that this was impossible. For Ainz, such a book was probably something light, like a one-time novel taken for an afternoon break.

Medusa could not restrain her curiosity and looked a little into the book.

White letters were printed on black pages made of an unknown material, which seemed to flicker slightly in the rays of light.

"... a violation of the rule of the divine of the second order, also known as the Baal paradox - gaining access to the fundamental forces of divinity while bypassing deization..." - were the dry lines written by an unknown author - "... although such an action is possible from the point of view of the first order, since despite circumventing the Yonte constant, the equation still remains within the framework of the Root system, in view of the fact that in this case one of those who made an attempt to achieve divine power with his own hands would have to suppress the right of the Eight Pillars in control on the fundamental principles, so such an equation have no other answer for the X, but -4, which is technically impossible, as Fanterisa index indicates that any X, that is not of positive value... "

Medusa strayed away from the book and closed her eyes. She did not understand a word.

Medusa did not consider herself the most intelligent person in the world, the knowledge Medusa possessed was very limited. She could not understand about the most complicated of magic theorems, nor about the rules of quantum physics, but still, she considered herself smart enough to catch at least the general meaning of such a discussion. However, what was written on these pages was above all she could understood by several leagues. She did not understand out of all the paragraph a single word - except for the fact that the discussion in this book was about something unimaginably complex, magical and powerful.

Medusa looked at Ainz - and saw how he calmly browses the page, moving his gaze after the words, after which, having reached the end, turned the page and began to read the next one.

Medusa glanced at Ainz once more.

"Is something wrong?" catching her gaze, the Master suddenly turned to her, making the girl startled a little with surprise.

"No, no," she immediately shook her head, "It's just... This book is too complicated for me to understand."

"I understand," suddenly Ainz smiled at her with a kind smile, and Medusa suddenly thought she was standing in front of an older brother - understanding and kind, who gently pats her head, saying "well, don't be upset," when she tried to solve a complex equation and suddenly could not. Of course, for Ainz, such a book was most likely as simple as two plus two, Cainabel - no matter how much Medusa disliked her - clearly conveyed to the Servants the idea that Ainz, who looked like an ordinary person next to them, was not at all the simple person that it was so easy to consider him as one. However, having looked at it with her own eyes, Medusa could be convinced of how great was the gap between them.

However, Ainz, distracted from the book, did not return to reading it, only looking at the book of Medusa. Medusa suddenly felt a slight shame from the fact that she was reading an adventure fantasy, while Ainz could easily read the most complicated of scientific and magical literature as if he were reading a daily newspaper.

"And what are you reading?" Ainz asked a question suddenly, forcing Medusa to twitch from what was said.

"This is…" - Medusa tried to come to a good answer and could not, - "Lord of the Rings."

"Oh," - Medusa prepared for regret from Ainz, - "It's a great book, I heard."

"Hm?" Medusa suddenly looked up at the magician, "What?"

"This is a good book," Ainz suddenly smiled again. "My friend praised it very much."

Medusa blinked several times, after which she slowly nodded, not expecting such an answer, "Good... I see."

"Hm," Ainz suddenly thought, "This is a story about the hobbits and Gandalf... Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli... Hmm, something like that?"

"Yes," Medusa shook her head. Ainz knew. Ainz really knew.

There was nothing special in itself, just another person who knew the same book that Medusa was reading. But for some reason she was feeling... Strange from this?

Yes, it was a strange feeling, but it was not unpleasant.

"I admit, maybe it would be better for me personally to read it myself," Ainz suddenly put down the book from his lap. Medusa was a little surprised - it was strange to put off something so important for the sake of an ordinary adventure book. But Medusa nevertheless, in a strange way, became pleasant.

"Of course," the girl easily gave her book to Ainz, after which he accepted it calmly.

Medusa smiled a little, at the very corner of her lips, at this fact.

After which she was overtaken by understanding.

There is not a second copy of The Lord of the Rings in the library.

The girl suddenly stopped when Ainz took the voluminous volume from her hands.

"Did something happen?" Ainz looked at the frozen Medusa, a little worried. The anxiety of Ainz for Medusa again became a little strange feeling in her soul.

"Nothing special," the girl tried to brush aside the words of the magician, "It just seems to be the only copy..."

"Ah, I'm sorry!" Ainz apologized immediately and handed the book back to Medusa.

"No, no!" Immediately Medusa shook her head, "I already read it and simply re-read it..."

"And yet I feel a little uncomfortable taking your book from you," Ainz said.

Medusa thought for a second, before she finally decided, "Then, Master... Could I... Take one of your books?"

"Hm?" Ainz looked at the girl with a blank expression and she nodded to herself. Of course, why would he have to... - "Yes, of course."

Ainz nodded, and then reached out to the black hole that had arisen.

"However," Medusa tried to add, "Is it possible to give a book... Which will not be... So difficult to understand?"

Ainz froze for a second, "Oh... It will be quite difficult to find one."

"The fact is, I'm not really good at determining the complexity of the books in my possession ..." Ainz said a little bewildered. Medusa instantly understood what he meant - for him all his books were simple and easy to understand , so he simply could not evaluate them from the point of view of Medusa which books were difficult to understand and which ones were not. It was natural for someone like Ainz.

"Then I hope for your judgment," Medusa bowed.

Ains froze for a second, after which he slowly pulled a book out of the black hole.

This book was not as richly decorated as the previous one - however, it was still a work of art in its own sense. It was a reddish-metal book with wrought-iron wings on its braid — however, its appearance did not made Medusa stand still, but the sheer power exuded by the book.

While the previous book made it clear that it contained incredible knowledge in it- this book was actually full of magic, like the oldest and most magical of the grimoires, which contains spells that are unattainable for magi of the current age. Medusa saw such grimoires only a couple of times in her life. It would not be strange if some Caster kept such a grimoire as his Noble Phantasm.

"Here," Ainz handed the book to Medusa unexpectedly, completely ignoring its rarity and power, "This is… "War and deception," written by Baal. I think it will be easy enough to understand."

Medusa took such an invaluable load in her hands, looked at it, and then at Ainz with disbelief. Under no circumstances was this book equal to a great, but still simple fantasy adventure.

"Master," Medusa blinked, "I... I don't think it's an equal exchange."

"Why?" Ainz looked at the girl. "If you want, I can find a more powerful one..."

"No, no," the girl shook her head. "That's not what I meant. This book... This is a powerful grimoire."

"Not really," Ainz shook his head. "Besides, I have many copies of it, so you don't need to worry."

"Really?" Medusa glanced at the book in her hands, then at Ainz.

"Yes," Ainz nodded.

Medusa slowly looked at the book, and then opened it.

Unfortunately, her happiness, which had begun to emerge, was short-lived. Opening the book, the girl stumbled at the rows of unknown symbols and letters.

"Ah," - Ainz also noticed at this moment, - "Probably it's because this book was written by a demon, hmmm…"

Medusa looked at the book in her hands with even greater incredulity. It was a grimoire written by a demon. Would someone in their right mind agree to share access to such a treasure?

'On the other hand,' Medusa nodded. 'This is Ainz.'

"Here," Ainz suddenly handed something to Medusa. She instantly accepted what was extended to her, after which she glanced at what was offered.

These were glasses.

Very beautiful, with a carved bow made of gold, with clear lenses made of an unknown transparent crystal.

"This thing was used for translation," Ainz said to Medusa, looking at the girl, "Try it."

The girl put on glasses, and then looked at the book.

Suddenly the previously unknown to her symbols suddenly turned into legible letters.

"The authorship of Prince of Deception, Baal, the Seventh Uninheritable Emperor of the Demons of Muspelheim," she read the first page.

Medusa blinked, and then looked at Ainz.

"Thank you," she said, to which Ainz just smiled.

"Okay, in that case, I suppose," Ainz stood up and stretched, taking with him a book handed over by Medusa, "I will probably go."

Medusa could surely have stopped him - and perhaps she should have done it, but the girl was astounded by what had happened, so she made no attempt to stop the magician.

* * *

Ainz took a step outside the library and exhaled. He almost got caught several times at once!

At first he came for a book on personnel management - and suddenly he found Medusa there! He barely found the strength to somehow dissuade her, after which he pulled out a random book, which he found among his inventory- and did not understand a word! Some graphs, numbers, and some strange lingos- he did not understand anything written in the book, except that all of it was a couple of orders more complex than his ability to understand. But in the end, Medusa asked him for a book!

There were many items in the form of books in Yggdrasil, but there were few real books. Some people liked to transfer works of art into the game or create their own inside the game, objects describing their adventures or simply keeping a personal diary - but Ainz could not give any of this to Medusa for obvious reasons. In the end, he had to choose a book at random.

There were many book-like items in Yggdrasil, so it was easy to assume that they had really turned into books now, however, for obvious reasons, he did not read any of them! He was forced to randomly draw one - taking a low-level grimoire, which in the game simply kept several spells for use - and these spells were not even special or high-leveled - and almost failed when he suddenly found out that the book was written in the language of demons! It's good that Ainz's inventory still contained a quest item that was needed in the game for one of the long quest-chains for deciphering ciphers. It was just a miracle that Ainz managed to keep it at all.

In the end, Ainz, however, still exhaled. He did not accomplish what he wanted, but his intention was not mistaken anywhere - this in itself was not so bad.

Ainz sighed and patted his back. Well done, well done, he did everything right!

The most important thing was that his random actions to not have some great and unimaginable effects.

* * *

Back in her room Medusa continued to read, swallowing page after page.

"... this was the most difficult." - through the pages Medusa literally heard the narrator's voice, a little smug and slightly condescending - however, she probably did, given that it was a demonic grimoire - "Only two sides participated in that war - and this was unpleasant since both sides were equal. The positional war between the two sides can last long, but never endlessly. At some point, one of the parties will not be able to withstand the pressure and attack with their full force - after which the result, whatever it may be, will become clear. After the war, gaining profit will become impossible - so my decision was very clear. It was necessary to find a third party to the conflict, opposing both the fighting... "

Medusa read page after page.

There was a knock on the door, but Medusa was carried away.

"Three sides, each of which is irreconcilable with the other two, are much more stable. So far, each side is afraid not only of its opponent, but of the fact that in the event of its victory, it will remain face to face with another enemy, easily surpassing them after all the losses caused to them in battle. In such a condition, not a single side will take decisive action. "

Someone knocked on the door again, this time much stronger and more insistently.

Medusa paid no attention to this, turning the page.

"However, a logical question arises - how to get a third party to enter into the conflict?" - the narrator clearly enjoyed his superiority and intelligence, talking about his plans - "There is a simple and boring option - gold, power, promises - all those things for which both rulers and common people are greedy for. However, although this method is effective - it is still old and liberally used, and therefore well studied and detected. Much more promising is the case is the variant, when from the very beginning..."

This time the door to the room opened wide open, after which Olga-Marie took a step inside.

"I understand that you like your privacy, but not opening the door when the chief of Chaldea was knocking on it?" Olga-Maria was annoyed above her usual norm, "Did the notion of politeness and respect for superiors finally disappeared in this world?!"

Medusa, finally realizing what happened, looked up from the book, glancing at Olga-Marie.

She imagined to herself the chief a little differently. Perhaps a little taller, and without a tied ponytail of white hair, descending at the middle of the shoulder blades.

Olga-Marie looked into the eyes of Medusa. and she looked back into the eyes of Olga-Marie.

And blinked from incredulity.

Then she turned away and rushed away, "Chief!"

"No need to scream," Olga-Marie frowned defiantly, "I didn't come here for that."

"Chief!" Medusa squinted with all her might. "Are you alive?!"

"Contrary to the efforts of Lev and my subordinates - yes," Olga-Marie snorted in an utterly inelegant tone.

"But... How?" The Medusa did not open her eyes. She looked with her damned eyes at Olga-Marie, straight in her eyes - and she remained alive! How was that possible?!

"Medusa, I understand that you are a Servant of Ainz and so on, but not looking at me while I am talking to you is already too much," Olga-Marie sighed.

Medusa fell silent for a second, then slowly opened her eyes.

First, she looked at the floor, then at Olga-Marie's shoes, after which she walked up the trousers before looking into Olga-Marie's eyes, which is looking at her carefully and a little misunderstood.

"I admit, the girls have not yet studied me with such intensity," Olga-Marie frowned, "And I am not that happy with such news."

"Chief... Why are you... Alive?" Medusa stared blankly at Olga-Marie.

"Because I still can't afford the luxury to just lie here and die," the chief sighed, returning to her usual image, "And by the way, what are the glasses on your eyes?"

"The Glasses!" - it suddenly dawned on Medusa. Of course, the glasses! The one that Ainz gave her!

As if by magic, as if summoned by her thoughts, the magician's foot stepped into the threshold of her room.

"Hm, Medusa," Ainz looked at Rider, who looked at the magician in confusion, "Ah, chief you are here."

"Ainz?" Olga-Marie looked at the magician with as much confusion as Medusa, "Do you have any business with Medusa?"

"Not really," Ainz said embarrassed, "I just wanted to know if she liked the book."

Medusa blinked in confusion.

"And the glasses suit you," Ainz suddenly said, finally knocking the earth out from under the feet of Medusa.

"Master," the girl said, confusedly, looking at the magician, "Glasses..."

"What is it?" Ainz looked at the girl with concern? "Is something wrong?

"My gaze doesn't work because of them," Medusa said quietly.

"Ah, I'm sorry!" - Ainz suddenly bowed low, apologizing, "Indeed, this is a magical item that blocks the wearer's special abilities associated with their eyes. I should have told you about this before."

"My eyes... It does not work," Medusa, not completely believing what was happening, said again, "It's just... It doesn't work."

"Yes," Ainz sighed. "I'm sorry, that is an unfortunate side effect."

Medusa glanced at the magician. For a long time, she looked at the magician, because of which Ainz suddenly feeling uncomfortable, fidgeted in place.

"You know, I have other glasses who don't block abilities," Ainz said.

"Don't," Medusa objected quietly, "I... I like these."

"Sure?" Ainz looked at the girl. Strange, in fact she lost one of her strongest abilities, but still did not want to discard it. It was very strange, - "Ahem, well... In truth, I had no use for them anyway…"

"Then consider it a gift," Medusa finally lost her balance.

"What?" The girl looked at Ainz, completely ceasing to pay attention to Olga-Marie.

"If you like them, then I think it can be considered a gift," Ainz was still able to get the book he needed from the library a little later and now checked the advice from it, the one that concerns the distribution of gifts in case of a subordinate successfully executing a major contract - or, in this case, the defeated Singularity.

Medusa blinked once, then a second and third time.

Suddenly a tear fell on her bed.

"Oh," Ainz said nothing. He did not expect such a reaction to his words. He should have checked whether the book said something like this about the reaction to the gifts, "I... I should probably leave."

"Yeah, me too." The chief also instantly disappeared from the room, closing the door behind herself and Ainz.

The Medusa was left alone.

Her whole life... Her whole curse... Her whole existence she suffered from her damned eyes...

And so, in one wave of his hand, her Master, Ainz Ooal Gown, decided everything.

She never received gifts. She never thought that someone would suddenly take in one action - and solve all her problems.

And that was exactly what happened.

The second and third drops fell from her eyes and the girl slowly, with trembling hands, took off her glasses.

Beautiful, carved... Priceless.

Medusa felt tears fall from her eyes.

Just like that, in one action- and everything was over.

Medusa tried to stop crying - but instead, she suddenly felt tears block her eyes completely.

These were the most pleasant tears in her life.

* * *

**Name**: Medusa Gorgon

**Race**: Heteromorphic

**Title**: Shapeless Island Monster

**Occupation**: Servant of Ainz Ooal Gown

**Residence**: Chaldea, the main library in the residential wing

**Karma**: +150 (Neutral Good ~ Good)

**Racial** **Level**: Medusa (3)  
Gorgon (1)

**Class** **Level**: Rider (15)  
Rogue (5)  
Assassin (5)  
Monster (5)  
Beast Tamer (5)  
Others (15)

**Total**: 4 Racial Levels + 50 Class Levels = 54 General Levels

**HP**: 20

**Mana**: 60

**Physical** **Attack**: 60

**Physical Defence**: 0

**Agility**: 80

**Magic Attack**: 0

**Magic** **Defense**: 60

**Resistance**: 10

**Special Abilities**: 90

**Ability**: Bellerophon

**Level**: 90

Very strong summoning ability. Summons a special summon named Pegasus, Bellerophon, fighting on the side of the summoner. The summoning is not very long lived, but the summoned creature in itself is very strong, has good physical characteristics, speed and strength and has the ability, an advanced "Charge"-like move, moreover, it can act as a mount for the summoner.

**Player** **Comments**:

\- Okay, a Summoner with a Gorgon-based rogue class. Awesome! I applaud while standing!

\- I can understand high dexterity, attack and even the hell with it, special abilities with a complete lack of HP and defense, but a summoning? That beats me.

\- The summon is beautiful. This is the only plus in this build.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**What can I say right now? Well, we are heading to the end of inter-Chapters - so another Singularity awaits us. It also already started at my Pat reon, well, you know, that, but... Thank you to all my patrons I finally was able to get some money from Pat reon and so increased the number of chapters written per month to 6, so 1.5 chapters per week. So, logically, now my Pat reon contains 5 new chapters, not four, and it will take... Still, a month for me to get there. Because this chapters are additional chapters about Chaldea and Servants out of the main focus and whatnot, I'm not a douchebag enough to purposefully stall the progress of this story just to get more money, contrary to what some of the people wrote before. So, all in all, after a month amount of chapters written per month would increase - though, it still would lag behind Pat reon by quite a few chapters.  
**

**Well, to sum up - now Pat reon has 5 chapters instead of 4, for 1$. That's all.**


	42. Chapter 42

Ainz sighed, after which he tried to take on the most noble and intelligent appearance that he could. The one with whom he is going to meet now was perhaps the strangest person from the point of view of the magician. And at the same time one of the most important.

Sighing again, Ainz still raised his hand and knocked on the door.

Silence reigned for a few seconds before a female voice nevertheless answered him, "It's not locked."

Ainz opened the door, and then took a step inside the room, immediately his nose poked book, which almost fell out of its closet.

Da Vinci's office looked exactly as Ainz himself remembered - despite the fact that the room itself was very spacious, it was crowded with tables, shelves, littered with drawings, models and various fixtures, whose purpose Ainz could not even predict that it seemed as if the room is like a tiny closet littered with all kinds of useless trash. Inexplicable drawings, mechanical products, half-completed - or unfinished - models and figures lay in a chaotic and very picturesque mess, driving away from his head any thought that the owner of the room was at least to some extent concerned about the cleanliness of her own workplace.

In support of this thought, Da Vinci herself was in the center of this creative chaos. Directly in front of her, on a small table, was a small notebook, filled, it seemed, without the smallest of margins, with small, slime-like handwriting, in which she nevertheless continued to write something at the moment with her right hand. However, completely distracted from this matter, Da Vinci's left hand continued to do something else at the same time- peering closer a little, Ainz could see how, without directly looking, Da Vinci was using her other hand to draw something on a small sheet, with a small pencil neatly marking line by line.

On the table in front of Da Vinci was a small crystal.

"Oh, Ainz?" The girl was distracted from her notes, looking up at the magician, but her hands didn't even flinch - even looking up at Ainz, she continued to draw and write at the same time, while not even looking directly at them, "I admit I didn't think that I would see you in my workshop. Did something happen?"

"No, no," Ainz shook his head, and then took a step inside, closing the door behind him, "Just passing by."

"Hm, Is that so?" Da Vinci smiled, not ceasing to go about her business, "In that case, I hope you will not mind if I continue to go about my business?"

"Ah," Ainz nodded. "I'm distracting you."

"Not at all," as if to confirm her words, the girl, without lowering her gaze, finished writing the last sentence, after which she put a neat dot at the end and put down the pen, nevertheless, continuing to draw with one hand, "Even so, I'm glad you are here. Tea or coffee?"

Ainz sighed, "Tea, perhaps."

After finishing the final touch with one hand on a piece of paper, the girl nevertheless cleared it away from herself, after which she smiled at the magician, "Black, green?"

"Green." Ainz sighed, then looked around. There were several chairs in Da Vinci's office, but they were all occupied — some were packed up with a lot of papers, some contained things that Ainz would call equipment or artifacts.

"Ah, right," Da Vinci smiled, noticing the magician's gaze, and then she got up from the small sofa that she had occupied before and pointed to it. "You can sit here."

Ainz nodded and took a step passing by Da Vinci, going to the vacant seat, after which looked back to talk to the girl, but she already disappeared somewhere in the wilds of her own office and, twisting a little in place, the magician looked at the crystal that had attracted his attention from the very beginning.

At first glance, the crystal lying in front of him could be mistaken for a data crystal. From the second, third and even tenth looks, perhaps, too.

Data crystals did not have any uniform form - depending on the quality, effect, and even the source, they could differ greatly in appearance, taking the form of a fragment of glass, a roadside cobblestone or a beautiful carved figurine depicting some god or demon with inhuman accuracy, because of which sometimes players could not find the data crystal they needed for years when in fact all this time it was under their nose. Ainz remembered how, just four years after the start of the game, one of the newcomers realized that one of the highest-level data crystals could be found very early in the game, disguised as one of the pieces of coal lying on the side of an old abandoned mine near the beginner city.

Ainz smiled - those were good times.

However, Ainz, for more than a decade of the game, developed a peculiar sixth sense for data crystals. He could confidently distinguish a piece of useless ore from the data crystal hidden by the developers, and therefore, looking at the small crystal in front of him, he could shake his head with confidence.

Not that the crystal in front of him was so different from the classic look of standard data crystals. That is, it was a crystal, multifaceted, it even glowed a little, like one of the main currencies of Yggdrasil should be. But something was missing from this creation - the cut were a little sharper than needed, the insides of the crystal were slightly cloudy and the light glow was slightly stronger than usual for a data crystal, so Ainz could confidently conclude that it was not what he needed.

"You are studying my creation?" - as if out of nowhere, Da Vinci appeared next to Ainz, carrying two cups in her hands, after which she handed one to Ainz, "Do you like it?"

Ainz took the cup from her hands, after which he took a sip and grimaced. The Tea was hot.

However, it was at least tasty, in comparison with all the teas Ainz had tried before in his life. Not that this was an achievement - but it once again convinced Ainz that he made the right decision when he chose to inhabit a human body.

"Are you trying to create a data crystal?" Ainz sighed and asked what he thought was the most appropriate question.

"Tried?" The girl froze at the word, then grunted. "As I can tell from this remark, I failed. Can you tell me how you determined this? Cainabel needed to at least pick it up to say for sure."

"Ahem," Ainz thought, "Experience, I guess."

"Of course," Da Vinci shrugged, as if she hadn't expected another answer.

Ainz took a sip of tea, pausing to think of subjects for further conversation. He was not a communication master, so he could hardly have picked the right words to eventually lead to the topic is interested in, so he decided just to continue the conversation, "So you talked with Cainabel?"

"Yes," Da Vinci answered simply, after which she took a sip.

Ainz asked a question that seemed appropriate to the conversation, "And what do you think about her?"

"The same things as everyone, probably," Da Vinci answered with a little shrug, "A disgusting woman and a bastard, occupying space that someone else could put to better use in this world. But a very interesting person, this is at least something positive about her."

"Interesting?" Ainz tried to ask a question.

"She is very knowledgeable," the girl nevertheless explained. "She is difficult to communicate with, but many interesting things can be learned from her. Tell me, what exactly is "_Supertier Magic_"?

"Ahem." Ainz choked on tea from the unexpected question, then coughed a couple of times. "What?"

"_Supertier Magic_," Da Vinci repeated again, "Cainabel touched on this topic, but could not speak too much about it. She said only that only the Higher Beings possessed this power, and that no one except them, even the gods and demons, was able to achieve such abilities. I am very interested in this matter."

"This…" - Ainz was silent for a second. He did not have an answer to this question except "this is the ability that the mages gains after the seventieth level" - "It will be difficult to explain."

"I'm not afraid of complicated explanations," Da Vinci smiled with a broad smile, "Do not underestimate me, I'm still Leonardo Da Vinci, the greatest scientist in the universe, a man who conquered all the sciences of the world."

"Although," Da Vinci immediately stopped short, "Now I am technically a woman. We can say that as a man I managed to conquer even being a woman. Is this not yet another proof of my genius?"

Ainz was not sure whether this question was rhetorical or not, so he simply took another sip of tea.

"So what about _Supertier Magic_?" The girl looked at Ainz carefully, immediately distracted from her thoughts.

"I," Ainz stopped short. He came here with a specific purpose, to get information, and if he now refuses information to Da Vinci, then she could easily refuse his request. Another problem was that Ainz himself simply could not answer Da Vinci's answer to this question. The problem was that Da Vinci didn't know about this fact, and even if Ainz himself had told her the simple "I don't know anything about it," she would probably have considered him a liar, - "This is... A really difficult question."

"Then I will listen carefully," Da Vinci smiled at the magician, after which she took a step to Ainz and sat down next to him. Of course, this was obvious, given that there were no free space for Da Vinci anywhere else in the room, however, at the same time, the girl was very close to the magician, literally touching to his hip, much closer than Medusa did.

Ainz froze.

Not that he was so struck by the proximity of the female body - yes, he had not done anything like this for quite some time, but now he was very much interested in a different thought.

Oh damn, the plan was so simple!

So, the chief and Roman managed to connect to the next Singularity, so in the near future Ainz would have gone there after a short briefing with everyone involved in this matter. However, some things that Ainz was very concerned about, he could not clarify.

One of the most troubling - the power of the Servants. From the very first day he appeared here, Ainz knew that something had put the knowledge into his head that the Servants were one of the strongest entities in this world. And Ainz, knowing himself, even though he was a hundred-level player, was far from the strongest among them, he simply took the information for granted. Throughout his days in Yggdrasil, Ainz worked around the simple idea that his strength was based solely on information gathering and the usage of the right tactics and equipment against his opponents. Therefore, faced with the idea that the Servants were the strongest, he simply accepted this as a fact and continued to act based on that information. Recent experiences though showed to him that he was somewhat... Inaccurate.

Servants were one of the strongest beings of this world. But they're not the strongest creatures that Ainz have encountered.

On the other hand, he still could not so easily ease his paranoia and say, "All Servants are wimps." They were equipped full with interesting abilities and even sometimes unpleasant surprises and specialties. In addition, the Servants also differed greatly in strength - it was impossible to completely deny the possibility that one day he would have to fight with a Servant, whose strength can compare - or even surpass - his own.

And this was only one of his many questions - Servants, Grail, Summoning, Resurrection, Data crystals - and, of course, why did Ainz found himself in this world? His list of questions was very extensive.

But to whom could he possibly talk about it?

All the people he knew were either Servants, whose pool of knowledge is not sufficient, or the Chief and Roman, who no matter how much he trusted their judgment, Ainz was very unsure that they would be able to answer his questions.

Just in case, Ainz also looked in the library, but as expected, it could not give him anything except the information that Ainz already had. In this case, there was only one possible option that had at least some chance of success - Da Vinci. At least, judging by the Chief, the words of his old friends and the behavior of the girls around him, he had the greatest chance of receiving information here. Even if he did not receive a direct answer to these questions, he could at least clarify something for himself.

But as this meeting showed, his plan could not stand the clash with reality. Even before he could even try to move on to discussing his own issues, he was grilled for information first. It was dangerous.

If he did not answer now, then it would be logical that Da Vinci would refuse to answer his questions too. That was bad.

But Ainz couldn't answer anything himself. Even if he had lied to her, sooner or later his lie would have been discovered. It was bad.

Ainz was distracted from his thoughts and looked at Da Vinci, who continued with one hand to support the cup of coffee, from which she took a sip, then look at Ainz with a slightly narrowed and slightly studying gaze, and with her other hand to write something in a small notebook, not looking at the notebook itself.

'I wish I could do this,' thought Ainz, after which he sighed. He needed answers to his questions. To do this, he had to answer the question of Da Vinci and not lie. What did that mean?

This meant that his answers would need to be mysterious, impressive and as vague as much as possible.

So Ainz should now be doing what he was slowly getting used to doing. Allow people to lie to themselves and pretend that he understands what he and they are discussing.

"Hmm," Ainz made a final sip after making the decision, then put down his cup and looked at Da Vinci, who was sitting very close to him, "Let's just say... An agreement in which only one party benefits can hardly be called a mutually beneficial agreement. I think you would agree with that."

"Oh, have we already moved to the stage of making contracts?" Da Vinci looked at Ainz with a smile, "I am not ready for this yet - although I would completely agree to the marriage contract in the future."

Ainz coughed several times, to which Da Vinci only smiled. "I'm sorry, just a joke. In any case, I do not think that all your other possible ladies would let me in, even if I wanted to."

Ainz sighed, and then concentrated on the conversation, - "In any case, Da Vinci…"

"Call me Leo," Da Vinci looked at the magician. "I think it's kind of silly to use my last name all the time."

"Good, Leo," Ainz sighed, "What I want to say... What if you and I make an agreement? I will answer your questions if you answer mine."

"Now you sound like you are pulling me to the dark side," Da Vinci thought for a moment, then looked up at the ceiling and put a finger to her chin, not ceasing to write something with her second hand, "Do you have cookies?"

"What?" Ainz blinked.

"Just a joke," Da Vinci smiled, and then sighed, "But I agree... Until the conversation goes on how best to destroy humanity."

"I don't think there will be problems with this in the current situation," Ainz stared expressively at the large stained-glass window somewhere in the distance of the cluttered office, after which he looked at Leo and smiled, "Just a joke."

"Hm," Da Vinci grunted, "In that case, I think, as a true gentleman, you will let the lady go first."

Ainz nodded graciously at this, after which Da Vinci smiled and looked at the magician, "So, in that case... What is _Supertier Magic_?"

Ainz sighed - 'Of course, she immediately starts with the most difficult one.'

"That is an ability," Ainz could have stopped at that, however, the completeness of his answer would surely affect the completeness of Da Vinci's answer. In addition, the more he says now, the more likely it will be that Da Vinci will not ask a random question, to which Ainz will not be forced to come up with even more vague answers, "Which the most powerful of magicians themselves possess. Only the strongest of them, with abilities comparable with dragons and gods. In a way, this is a form of magecraft and in some ways not quite. Unlike magecraft, this ability does not use mana, but it is available only to the strongest of magis. You can consider it to be the "highest form of magecraft."

After that Ainz fell silent. It seems that he managed to say what was needed, not to lie and also not to give out any weird details.

However, Da Vinci froze in shock after what was said. Even her hand recording something stopped, and the girl's pupils dilated with shock.

"Hey, Leo," Ainz snapped his fingers a couple of times, causing the girl to come back to life.

"Ah?" She glanced at Ainz with confusion, after which she suddenly realized and started writing without looking at triple speed, literally jumping over the paragraphs.

"Now it's my turn," Ainz sighed. "How strong are the Servants?"

Da Vinci froze for a second, after which she carefully, very attentively and studyingly looked at the magician. For several seconds, she tacitly evaluated him, before she nevertheless came to some definite conclusion and nodded slowly - "It varies. It depends on the particular Servant. Some of them are strong, but can be defeated by sufficiently trained strong specialized magis and a whole lot of preparation. Some of them alone pose a great threat to the modern world. There is a huge difference between the Servants, therefore it is impossible to say for sure."

Ainz grimaced inwardly - it was an answer of about the same detail as Ainz's answer, if not less.

"So you're a magician?" Da Vinci instantly grabbed onto the thought, "A real magician? A true magician?"

"I am not familiar with this concept," Ainz replied with a light soul, "I was called as such before - like so many others. Who is the strongest of my Servants and how strong are they compared to the rest?"

Da Vinci paused for a second, pondering her thoughts, not stopping scribbling something in her notebook before answering - "It's hard to choose between Jeanne, the Dragon Witch and Arthuria. They are approximately equal at the moment, but Arthuria is the only one whose strength I saw with my own eyes. She is clearly strong, extremely strong, even by the standards of Servants. I would say that it is at the level of the strongest, but still weaker than the highest possible level. I'm not sure how strong she will be against even more powerful Servants, but I suppose that even Gilgamesh, probably the strongest of Servants, that I know of, will not be able to kill her easily, but such guesses on my part remain only guesses. Eighty percent of the rest of the Servants that I know are probably weaker than her."

Ainz sighed. So his caution really was all in vain. He was too wary of the rest of the Servants.

No, Arthuria was strong... In a way. She had a very strong attack, especially with her Noble Phantasm and high parameters, however, comparing her with level 100 players... Taking into account only her characteristics, Ainz would be able to defeat her at about the seventieth level. Given the issue of equipment, ability, and variability, level sixty seemed like a fair assessment. Situationally, with the help of her Phantasm, she was stronger, but without taking into account her Noble Phantasm, she simply did not have the arsenal of abilities that the player would possess at that level. In addition, her equipment, although it was very decent, did not quite reach the quality of the "great artifacts type of equipment". Also, she lacked consumables, such as scrolls or potions, which a player would have in abundance, so it could be said that the sixtieth level was even a generous assessment for her.

"How did you achieve such a power?" Da Vinci looked at Ainz carefully.

"Over time," Ainz democratically dropped the words "grinded the hell out of the game," "Training, teachers, ancient manuscripts and a lot of time and study , the selection of tactics and strategies. I slowly became stronger until at one moment this magic came to me by itself."

'This is called an ability that opens with level-up,' Ainz said in his head. He just got to level seventy and, as expected, got a slot for the _Supertier Magic_ spell, like all players. Inwardly, the magician grinned - he didn't even have to lie, he was telling the truth.

"What is the Holy Grail?" Ainz looked at the girl carefully.

"The vessel in which the blood of Christ was collected," Da Vinci sighed, "Or at least that's what they believe it to be. It is impossible to say for sure - it may be a magical anomaly, it may be God's will, it may be a piece of his power, it may even be a gate to the Root. It is not known for certain, but magi and the church are equally hungry for it. Magis believe that it is simply an extremely powerful and unattainable artifact, the church - that it is a holy relic of the Lord. More precisely, no one knows, not even me."

Ainz grimaced internally once more. Useless information.

"Who else has this kind of power?" Da Vinci looked at Ainz carefully.

"At the moment, no one that I have met personally," Ainz answered calmly, "But I know about a multitude of people that possessed such a power. Previously, they had this power, but now I do not think that in this world there is anyone other than me."

Da Vinci sighed intermittently. Ainz began to like this situation- he only needed to speak the pure truth, which was completely useless information for Da Vinci, just changing the details a little, and in return he received important information, - "Why does the Grail not fulfill wishes?"

"The premise is incorrect," Da Vinci glanced at the magician. "The Grail does fulfills wishes. There are simply many kinds of wishes. The True Grail is supposed to be able to fulfill any desire, but its location and existence itself remains in question. The Lesser Grails are weak, but capable of fulfilling desires to a lesser degree, while any great wishes remains beyond their powers. Some things may appear to be a Holy Grail, some of it could be imitations, some of them simply could be great magical artifacts susceptible of being currupted by monsters or black magic. Why do you need to use a Grail?"

"Ahem." Ainz choked. He was already used to answering questions about _Supertier Magic_, and the question took him by surprise, "I want it for..."

Ainz stopped.

He pondered this question.

Da Vinci did not rush him, taking a step back and hiding with two cups in his hands behind the next rack.

And really.

Why does he need the Grail?

That is, of course, collecting it was his side goal. His true wish was of Ainz Ooal Gown. His friends, his family, his life. But…

What will he do with the Grail?

He decided that he would not make his friends suffer. Will not make his friends fall victim to his stupid desires. To let them simply live their life.

All he wanted was to let his friends live peacefully.

In this world or in another. Let them live fully, independently. Just live, as people should.

This world... In this world, his friends have yet to be born. This world has to endure the horror of the third world war, hunger, poverty, devastation.

Or...

Da Vinci returned as unexpectedly as she left, handing Ainz another cup of tea. He took it, took a sip and smiled.

"I want to create a better world for my friends," Ainz smiled while looking at Da Vinci. She, having heard this, stopped for a second.

"You know you have to tell the truth, right?" The girl took a sip of coffee and looked at Ainz.

"And I'm telling the truth," Ainz smiled, "I simply want a better world for my friends."

Da Vinci silently looked at Ainz for a few seconds before closing her eyes. "Who are your friends?"

Ainz smiled. Fond memories of Ainz Ooal Gown returned to him.

Emotion suppression soured it instantly.

"Second question in a row. Our conversation is over," Ainz said instantly, after which he looked at the cup in his hands, "Thank you for the tea and for the dialogue."

"The pleasure is all mine," Da Vinci instantly retreated, after which she looked at Ainz. He is unemotionally turning the cup in his hands, then drank the rest in one gulp and then set it aside.

"Soon the chief will call you for a briefing before the next Singularity," the magician calmly remarked, after which he took a step to the door, "I was glad for the talk, Leo."

"Of course, Ainz," Da Vinci smiled back, after which she watched the door close behind the magician. After a second, the smile began to slowly slide off her face. Da Vinci took another sip of coffee, after which she went to the sofa where Ainz was sitting a second ago, and then sank down onto the sofa and her notes.

The Notebook of Da Vinci was written in fine handwriting, written in a way so that only Da Vinci herself could make out what was written. An important fact was that the records were encrypted.

It was not the most reliable code that Da Vinci could come up with - but the fastest she could write with.

"Ainz Ooal Gown" - was listed on the first line.

"Magician" - this word has been circled several times.

"Trying to assess the strengths of the inhabitants of this world" - emphasized three times.

"Friends whom he wants to protect" - this phrase Da Vinci newly added herself.

So, Ainz Ooal Gown. The necromancer, possibly the strongest in the world.

Da Vinci leafed a few pages back.

"Ainz Ooal Gown" - was also written on the page.

Cainabel was a disgusting person, it was impossible to communicate with her and to call her a "bitch" would be like giving a compliment. However, Da Vinci herself did not lie that she was an interesting conversationalist.

Cainabel did not hide her intentions. If it weren't for Ainz, she would have turned this world into a bloody mess long ago, she would have killed everyone and everything, would have increased her strength and set off for the next world. But Ainz was here.

Cainabel willingly shared information that related to her achievements - and especially the achievements of Ainz. Da Vinci herself believed that it was a kind of defense mechanism - Cainabel was extremely self-confident, but at the same time she did lose to Ainz. She definitely could not lose to a weakling, so in a sense she loved to retell Ainz's adventures - after all, they all proved that he was not just strong, but monstrously, divinely strong. In other words, she lost to him only because his strength could not be described in words. A defense reaction, classic.

Therefore, Cainabel loved to talk about the achievements of Ainz. In a sense, his achievements were part of her achievements.

Da Vinci glanced at the notes.

Ainz Ooal Gown, conqueror of the worlds, lord of the undead, god of undeath.

He conquered thousands, thousands of countries, and destroyed whole worlds.

He also saved them.

From the _World Eater_, a creature that has absorbed all the power of the Root. From the _Eight Great Dragons_ crippled and corrupted by the evil of the _World Eater_. From the _Twelve Seraphim of Sephiroth_, who decided to destroy the unclean world. From the _Seven Lords of Sins_, trying to seize power in all worlds. From the _Five Rainbow Buddhas_, trying to restore the world to its original state of "purity." And from the _Lord of Six Heaven_, who was trying to regain the power of the _Creators_ in order to recreate past worlds destroyed by the war.

Ainz was full of controversy.

The horrors created by him, the murdered heroes and annihilated kingdoms would be enough for a thousand villains.

His heroism, saved worlds, killed monsters and prevented catastrophes would be enough for a thousand heroes.

That was weird. Funny, to some extent, even.

Apparently from what Da Vinci knew about Ainz, he can only act in two ways out of all.

To conquer this world, destroy, enslave and force humanity into cruel experiments.

Or heroically save them, without demanding anything in return, and then go into the sunset, without telling anyone his name and without even giving a hint that he did it.

Leonardo Da Vinci leafed a few pages back, after which she peered at the notebook.

There were two pictures on the pages.

On one of them was a skeleton. Although to call this creature simply a skeleton was impossible. It was the embodiment of death - dressed in the most luxurious mantle woven from pure darkness, nine rings of divine power on its fingers, in the red fire of its eyes - great secrets and infinite power.

On the other page was a simple person. He was an ordinary looking, weakly smiling person, in a white shirt and black pants, with a cup of green tea, looking thoughtfully into the distance. One of the most ordinary of passers-by. One on whose shoulders rests the fate of the whole working world.

Da Vinci took a sip and peered at the two drawings.

Access to the power of the strongest soldiers in the world. Search for the greatest of artifacts. To gather power for battle.

Only two kinds of people would do this.

Arch-villains.

And great heroes.

But what is the truth?

Da Vinci smiled.

This remained a mystery.

And if something in the life of Da Vinci loved and hated more than anything, then it was a mystery.

"Ainz Ooal Gown," - Da Vinci smiled at her thoughts and looked at the door, behind which the back of her friend hid for a long time, - "How many more mysteries will you throw me?"

"Leonardo Da Vinci" - a voice came from the speakers suddenly - "Your presence is required in the main conversation room."

"Hm," the girl sighed. Of course, the second Singularity.

Whoever Ainz Ooal Gown was, they fought on the same side.

And Da Vinci really hoped that it would remain so. Where else would she find so many interesting puzzles to solve?

* * *

**Name**: Leonardo Da Vinci

**Race**: Human

**Title**: Natural Born Genius

**Occupation**: Commandant of the Chaldea Security Organization (self-nominated)

**Residence**: Chaldea, Da Vinci's office in the administrative wing

**Karma**: +150 (Neutral Good ~ Good)

**Race** **level**: -

**Class Level**: Mage ~ Academic (15)

Genius (5)

Archmage (5)

Magic Explorer (9)

Scientist (10)

Others (15)

**Total**: 59 Class Levels = 59 General Levels

**HP**: 10

**Mana**: 90

**Physical** **Attack**: 10

**Physical** **Defense**: 0

**Agility**: 40

**Magical** **Attack**: 100

**Magical Defense**: 0

**Resistance**: 60

**Special** **Abilities**: 100

**Ability**: Uomo Universale

**Level**: Special

One of the rare "special" abilities. While most abilities, no matter how strong they are, are subject to the general game rules, some unique builds have "special" abilities, abilities that violate the usual game logic. Specifically, in this case, this ability spends a certain amount of mana for a certain level of damage dealt and deals exactly one hundred percent of the current health of the target, including all the defenses it possess, damage reduction and regeneration. In other words, it is an unblockable magic instakill that circumvents all defenses against instakills due to the fact that this spell deals damage. On the other hand, if the target has the ability to resurrect, block damage, invulnerability, or the user does not have enough mana to completely destroy the target with the ability, this ability will actually be useless, since its mana costs are incredibly high.

**Player** **Comments**:

\- So, what is the right name for it? Zero stats, zero health, zero defense... And perhaps one of the strongest abilities I've ever seen. This is a Lethal Joke Character, by all means.

\- Unique build. One time use, of course. After using the ability it's useless. But for that one ability, this is a great idea.

\- You can kill it with one blow. One hit - and she's dead. If you do not have time to make the blow - you are already dead. Simple, huh.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Anything else to say? Not really... Though I'm kinda glad that people love snek waifu. She is pretty adorable and I quite liked to write her interlude as well.  
****Well, anyway that was the last interlude. Beware, for after this one plot would finally start to move again.  
**

**Also, shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 5 chapters right now, for 1$. That's all.**


	43. Chapter 43

Ainz was the last to arrive to the meeting, entering the meeting room at a time when all those present were already seated and were only waiting for his appearance.

"I'm sorry for being late," Ainz sighed, after which he looked around the room.

This room that was called the "main meeting room" solely for a lack of other suitable rooms for the role. In fact, it was most likely some kind of reception room or even a lounge for staff - at least it beared such an impression - a small room stuffed with small sofas and armchairs, with a couple of small tables nearby and a somewhat large plasma TV, that was, of course, lifeless at the moment hanging on the wall.

'Not the best choice for a serious discussion' - Ainz remarked to himself, after which, looking at those present, he took a couple of steps and sat on a free space on a sofa, leaning back on its soft back.

In addition to Ainz, there were three more people in the room, who at the moment were the triumvirate of power in Chaldea. The chief, Olga-Marie, who is silently and thoughtfully looking at Ainz. Roman, a man who at the moment could be called the responsible deputy of the chief, is massaging his head - apparently, overwork and stress have caught up with him. The only one who did not seem to be busy with something was Da Vinci, who was seated with a cup of tea in her hand in the corner, preferring to sit on a low window sill, shifting to the side some regular potted plant, one of those that was put in the room "to create comfort". Ainz thought for a second that in all the companies that he had to work in, he had never seen living plants - only plastic imitations. It was to some extent even funny that he saw some living vegetation only now, when the whole world was already destroyed. Some kind of strange irony.

The door behind Ainz finally snapped its automatics, closing the door, thereby snapping the chief out of her strange fugue, after which she blinked a couple of times and started talking, "So, everyone is here."

Ainz nodded and Olga-Marie immediately turned to the main topic - "We managed to establish a connection with the second Singularity. You can go there now."

"Okay," Ainz nodded in confirmation, "What is known about the Singularity?"

"Nothing really useful," Olga-Marie sighed. "But I still managed to find out something. Judging by the facts reported by our observations system, this Singularity is located quite far in the past, much further than the previous one, and is connected with one very definite place."

"It is connected with Rome," Olga-Marie said, "During the time of The Roman Empire, the date is no later than the first century AD and no earlier than 1 AD. The peak of the power of Rome, when its legions were strong, the people were united, and the generals and politicians paid attention to distant lands without doubting their own power and the possibility of conquest."

"Hm," Ainz nodded. He has heard about the Roman Empire - it was hard not to hear about such a historical civilization. He was even quite sure that he had heard something about the Punic Wars - in the end, Punnito Moe chose his name in honor of this event, about the Triumvirate, about Caesar and Caligula. Even more so, if Ainz thought a little, maybe he would even be able to remember what exactly caused the Third Age Crisis…

'Thank you, Punnito' - Ainz kindly recalled his old friend, who had been a fan of the history of Antiquity and had managed to provide Ainz with some understanding of that era.

"We were also able to determine the place of the greatest accumulation of mana," Olga-Marie sighed. "This is Rome. Region Latium, to be more precise."

Ainz nodded at this yet again - it was nice that he did not need to do something like investigating the vast territories of Rome and moving throughout the empire in some kind of treasure hunt.

"Unfortunately, there is another problem," Olga-Marie sighed. "The concentration of magic signatures within Rome and its environment is simply phenomenal. It is safe to say that there are Servants - many Servants. More than ten, that's for sure."

Ainz nodded. Ten sounded like a very unpleasant number. Of course, according to Leo, most of them should not be very strong, but it was impossible to completely discount the fact that among the Servants there there could be someone really dangerous. On the other hand, if all of the enemy's forces were concentrated in one place, this also meant that Ainz's action plan was very simple and clear, there was no need to look for allies in hiding or was on a long journey, if all of them were somehow concentrated in one place.

"Regarding the Singularity, that's all the information I managed to get," Olga-Marie sighed and Ainz nodded. Not that this information would have helped him much - most likely, of course, that the Servants summoned during this time period were probably connected with Rome, but firstly, this still did not give Ainz any additional information regarding their abilities, and secondly, nothing explicitly forbade the servants of other places and epochs to appear in this Singularity, just as Kiyohime or Bathory appeared in France at the time of Jeanne d'Arc.

"However," Olga-Maria interrupted his thoughts suddenly, "This is... Not everything that needed to be discussed this time. Roman!"

"Yes, yes, chief," when the man heard the shout, he sighed and rubbed his neck a little, looking thoughtfully at Ainz, "In general... There is a certain problem with the Servants."

"Cainabel?" Ainz immediately thought about the most probable cause of the problem, but the man only shook his head.

"Not that kind of problem," Roman sighed. "In general, the matter concerns the re-summoned Servants. Those that were killed in the Singularity."

Ainz blinked. At first he had decided that it was necessary to sacrifice them, then reproached himself for the useless sacrifices, then he found out that they weren't concerned by death anyway, and now again... One day this will bring him to the brink of madness.

"What's the matter?" Ainz looked at the man. "Are there problems with them?"

"No, no," Roman shook his head. "At least not yet..."

"Roman!" Olga-Marie barked loudly, forcing the man to flinch, "Get to the point!"

"Yes, chief, for sure," the man sighed. "The fact is that they recalled all the events of the Singularity regularly, but... The fact is that during the summoning of the dead Servants I noticed one small detail - slight disorientation, muscle cramps, involuntary tics... And I did a little research on those Servants who were killed and was summoned again."

"Roman…" - Olga-Marie called out ominously, forcing the man to flinch again.

"In general, their magic core is damaged," Roman blurted out quickly.

"In what sense is it damaged?" Ainz looked at Roman.

"Slightly, very slightly," Roman sighed "The fact is that the FATE system, the system that creates the pseudo-"Throne of Heroes" in Chaldea, is an experimental system, most likely even a fluke of a success. Before we and Mashu managed to find the missing catalyst, it was actually a non-working project. We simply did not have the opportunity to test it robustly earlier and before that no one had managed to create a stable pseudo-"Throne of Heroes" successfully to determine how the souls of a killed Servant would behave after they were resummoned. We in this regard are the same ignoramuses as all other magis - and we only learn the rules as we go."

"Roman…" - this time Olga-Marie called the man almost affectionately, so that, not feeling a dirty trick, he turned to the girl, after which he instantly got a fist on his forehead, - "Get to the point!"

"Sure, chief!" Roman grabbed his forehead and then tried to crawl a little away from the girl, fidgeted on the armchair, and turned in the direction of Ainz, "In general, apparently, the system cannot absolutely accurately reproduce the deceased Servant."

"Reproduce?" Ainz looked at Roman carefully. Reproduce didn't sound like "revive".

"Um," Roman looked at Olga-Marie, looking around his boss appraisingly, "This is a question for the future. In general, the fact is that the system did restore the dead Servants, but after that they remained somehow damaged. Minorly, I will say right away! Based on the results of a week-long observation of them, I can assure you that none of them, apparently, has lost anything substantial - they retain their full memory, full strength, no changes in personality or body. However, this damage, apparently, is permanent. It is insignificant - I would say that this is just a scratch that does not even affect their strength, however…"

"No one can say for sure what would happen if they die again," Ainz continued the thought himself, after which he started thinking.

Apparently, the revival of the Servants was still not completely safe.

In Yggdrasil, almost all types of rebirth demanded a certain fee - often they removed levels from reborn players, except for some special specialized high-level abilities and spells. For the revival of the NPCs that they personally created, the players had to pay a certain amount of gold, sometimes a really big amount, so it could not be said that revival was really ideal in Yggdrasil. Having looked at the revival system of the Servant Ainz decided that this system did not have any side effects, however, apparently, he was wrong.

"Is it possible to somehow fix these injuries?" Ainz looked at Roman.

"I don't know," Roman sighed, after which he looked at Da Vinci.

She, noticing the guy's look, took a sip of tea, and then looked at Ainz, "Theoretically? Yes. In these conditions? No."

"In what sense?" Ainz looked at the girl.

"The restoration of the damaged magic core of the Servant is not something that many scientific works have been devoted to," Da Vinci sipped again, "Theoretically, this is possible, even more so, I think that it would not be that hard to solve if I have the necessary resources and some time. Unfortunately, under the current conditions, we have neither the first nor the second."

"What kind of resources are needed?" Ainz looked at Da Vinci carefully.

"Those that are suitable for spiritrons," the girl spoke out as briefly and as exasperated as possible, "Magical crystals, catalysts for summoning, a couple of scientific works, and, of course, a lot of reagents and a good laboratory. All this would be somewhat easy to get in the outside world using the power of Chaldea…"

"But now it's impossible to acquire it," Ainz finished the girl's thoughts, making her smile, nod, and a little playfully salute with her mug. "So, it's impossible to fix this defect... At least until humanity is completely returned to this world."

"Yes," Roman said simply.

"In that case," Ainz sighed. "What will happen to the Servants in the future?"

"Now?" Roman rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Nothing. The damaged core is stable and does not progress; it will not become worse. However, if the damage grows... It is impossible to predict the exact result."

"They will die," Ainz looked at Roman. He rubbed his eyes.

"Not really," Roman said stiffly, "At least that's not something that can be said unequivocally. Destruction is likely to be gradual. It is definitely impossible to predict this - but each death will leave its mark on them. It is impossible to predict the outcome of such an action - impaired memory, psyche, changes in the Saint Graph - I do not know what it will be - but I doubt that these changes will turn out to be positive."

Ainz nodded. So, in fact, the revival of the Servant was like a game of roulette - you could not lose anything... And you could get terrifying damage that destroys the foundation of the Servant.

Ainz sighed. Now he was returning to the idea that perhaps he should not have sent his servants to death so easily.

'Okay' - Ainz confessed to himself - 'In the future I will try to avoid this.'

"Roman has dragged out this idea for a long time, but I think that now everything has become clear," the chief sighed, after which she looked at Da Vinci, "However, there is one more point."

Da Vinci, taking the last sip, put the cup next to her, and then jumped down from the windowsill - "Finally, the line came to me."

"So," the girl took a couple of steps to the magician and looked at him, "Ainz, do you have one of the Grails? Like the one that you used... As a catalyst?"

Memories that Ainz spent one of the Grails on the summoning of Cainabel returned to the magician. Damn, after that summon the machine broke down and its repair was now one of Leo's duties...

Ainz felt a little ashamed, because of which he only quietly put his hand in his inventory and pulled out a Grail, the second, which he received from the hands of Gilles de Rais.

Da Vinci, taking the goblet from Ainz's hands, weighed it, after which she looked at it carefully, "As I thought. This is not the Grail."

"More precisely," Da Vinci immediately hastened to correct herself. "It looks like a Grail, it feels like a Grail, it have the texture like that of a Grail and probably weighs as much as the Grail. By all indications, this is the Grail - but it is not the Grail."

Ainz wanted to ask the question "why," but still feeling guilt by the thought that he had broken the summoning machine and caused several temporarily irreparable damage to the Servants, Ainz did not dare to do this, fearing that those present would consider him even more incompetent than before.

"I would call it a pseudo-Grail," Da Vinci sighed, "I feel that there is power in this thing... I would go so far as to even say that it has enough power to make it work like something like a Grail. But in the end, it's just an artifact. An extremely powerful source of mana with certain powers, created as an imitation of the True Grail."

After that, Da Vinci returned Grail to Ainz, and slowly walked to her place on the windowsill.

"So, this is a powerful artifact imitating the Grail," the girl looked at Ainz, "The reason for the existence of the first Singularity and the most important part in the plan of Gilles de Rais. Such items are not sold at discount supermarkets."

Ainz looked at the girl. She nodded to him.

"This is exactly what I am leading to," Da Vinci sighed, "Although the probability that Gilles de Rais found such an artifact lying around in a field is not absolutely zero, it is nevertheless extremely small. It is also unlikely that he could - or even found it necessary - to visit places where such things could be. I don't think he could get to Avalon or Mount Ooe. And yet he found the Grail - the main trigger for his plan, the central, I would even say, detail."

"Do you think that someone made sure that the Grail fell into his hands?" Olga-Marie looked at Da Vinci.

"I'm saying this straightforwardly," Da Vinci shrugged, "Someone found — or worse — created the Grail, after which he somehow delivered it to Gilles, and Gilles, in turn, made a wish, which created a whole Singularity."

"And now he can repeat this trick again," Ainz sighed.

"Once is an accident," Da Vinci quoted an old saying, "Twice is a coincidence, thrice is enemy action. The singularity with which it all began - the zeroth singularity, was also created by the Grail. However, then it was already possible, I would even say, logical - that Singularity was a continuation of the disruption of the Fuyuki Holy Grail War, the Grail itself should have already been there. In France, the Grail was not supposed to appear or exist at all - and yet, it was there too. It is impossible to say with certainty that the next singularity will also be created by the Grail - however, the chances of this are high, so this possibility must also be investigated. As well as finding out who exactly is throwing the pseudo-Grails around and possibly creating these Singularities."

"Any ideas on who this might be?" Ainz asked.

"There was one possibility," Da Vinci admitted, "But this man died in zeroth singularity."

"Lev," Ainz nodded, after which he remembered the chief and looked at her, accidentally reminding her of her deputy and failed killer.

"I'm fine," the girl sighed. Apparently, she was not quite pleased to recall him, but nevertheless she was coping with the thought, - "So, after the death of Lev... There are no more suspects?"

"No," Leo confirmed this, after which she glanced at Ainz, as if asking him.

'Why are you asking me at all?!' Ainz panicked for a second before the suppression of emotions intervened, "No ideas."

"It's a pity," the girl sighed, and then fidgeted on the windowsill, "Well, I have told you everything that I know about it."

"I see," the chief sighed. "In that case, the briefing seems to be over. Now you only need to determine who you will take into the second Singularity."

'Why can't I take everyone?' - Ainz thought for a second, but before asking anything from Olga-Marie, he stopped - 'Or should I understand why I should take only a certain number of Servants? And how much should I take then?'

"I think six Servants is the maximum," Olga-Marie answered the unasked question, "Chaldea can't support anymore than this."

"I had seven in the last Singularity," Ainz noted at least one important fact.

"I know," Olga-Marie sighed, "It's also why we couldn't reach you."

Ainz froze.

"Chaldea was designed for a certain number of Masters and a certain number of Servants subordinate to them," Olga-Marie began to explain, "A magi can have one Servant. Maybe two, for the most exceptional of Magis. Maybe even three, well, if this magi is really outstanding. However, you have twelve of them - and this number will continue to grow further, if I understand everything correctly. Chaldea is simply not designed for this - it was created with the setting "one Servant - one Master". Theoretically, Chaldea is able to support a larger number of Servants - however, this is simply against the system settings themselves. Even the fact that it was possible for Chaldea to tune into several Servants was already a miracle - and, as it turned out, seven - it was simply too much. Chaldea is unable to establish a connection with the Master of the seven Servants at once - most likely, this was precisely the reason why we could not contact you in the Singularity."

What Olga-Maria said was understandable, logical even. A super computer can have all the computing capabilities of the world in order to run any program, but it simply cannot do this if a system is installed on it that does not recognize the program it was supposed to run. It is logically sound, if not for one "problem"...

'This was not the reason you were unable to contact me!' - Ainz in his mind tried to telepathically reach the boss - 'It's all the fault of my defense against espionage!'

However, Ainz froze. He broke the Servant's summoning system, damaged several Servant's magic cores, and has no idea what situation they were in - if he just said that he was also guilty that Olga-Marie couldn't contact him, he would clearly put himself into a completely incompetent light.

'I…' - Ainz thought for a moment 'I will tell them…'

"Roman!" - Olga-Marie, unable to stand it, gave a crack to the guy dozing on the armchair, - "Do not sleep!"

'Later,' Ainz added democratically. He will simply go into the Singularity, allow the girl to cool down a little, and then say that they have a slight misunderstanding - that's all.

Besides, six Servants is not so bad. This means that he could provide a greater number of Servants with rest - this sounded at least not bad from the point of view of the Servants themselves.

"Six, then," Ainz sighed.

Six was not a very large number. This made the choice of the Servants quite difficult. But still…

'Cainabel definitely.'

'Cainabel was a definite choice . Although Leo did not name her among the strongest - if Ainz was confident in anything, it was that Cainabel was one of - if not the strongest in Chaldea. In addition, she was also the one who was most inclined to create problems. Now she was behaving calmly - however, it was impossible to predict exactly how she would behave if she could only remain without Ainz's attention. It was impossible to leave her unattended.

The next candidates were unambiguously the three strongest Servants that Leo mentioned - Arthuria, Jeanne and the Witch. However, Arthuria died in the previous Singularity - and as it turned out now - this was not an insignificant detail, so Ainz would prefer not to choose her for now - at least until Roman makes sure that her injuries did not worsen.

So Cainabel, Jeanne and the Witch. There were three more.

Cainabel was strong, but she was a warrior in totality, with almost no interaction with the rest of the group. The Dragon Witch was made for causing damage - and Jeanne is for support, a paladin-type support. They lacked a good tank and Range-DD...

Ainz did not notice how he switched his language into his usual gaming slang.

So, the party from the leader is Ainz, the wildcard is Cainabel, support is Jeanne, melee-DD - Dragon Witch... There is a need for a range-DD... Archer or Cu Chulainn?

Ainz thought for a moment. Both options could perform in their role of range-DD, but Cu Chulainn was also useful due to the fact that he was a mage. On the other hand, Archer was a sensor - which was also very useful.

The memory of the two guys made Ainz think. Cu Chulainn was quite simple and understandable, while Archer... Archer watched Ainz like a hawk all this time - and even after all this time Ainz could not say that he knew him too well.

Means, Cu Chulainn is probably the better choice.

However then the problem of the tank and the sensor remained.

With the tank, however, choosing was quite easy - Mashu was perfectly suited for this role. Medusa and Mozart could cope with the role of the sensor... However, Medusa was also a rogue-DD, while Mozart was a support - this same niche was already occupied by Jeanne. So, additional DD was more useful in these conditions - that means, Medusa.

Ainz smiled. It's funny, he seemed to be once again making up a raid group in Yggdrasil, to clean up the next boss...

The suppression of emotions soured the mage's joy instantly, causing him to breathe deeply. Sometimes this skill really helped him. Sometimes it prevented him from enjoying the simple joys of human life.

"Cainabel," Ainz began to list, "Medusa, Cu Chulainn, Jeanne, the Dragon Witch, and Mashu."

Those who heard his verdict nodded. Only Da Vinci grinned.

"Gathering yourself a harem?" The girl smiled at the magician.

Ainz blinked a couple of times. For a second he wanted to rush to make excuses, but how his suppression of emotions deprived him of his joy - it also sometimes helped him to maintain his composure.

"They are the most effective team that I can create in this case," Ainя said calmly, "Moreover, among them is Cu Chulainn. I don't think that Cu Chulainn could even think of something like that.

"Little strokes fell great oaks," Da Vinci wisely said, raising her finger pointing upward and smiling, "Don't worry, considering what eyes they look at you with..."

"DA VINCI!" - at that moment Olga-Marie suddenly interrupted the girl's voice.

"Yeah, sure, forgot," the girl cut herself off, "It's not only the Servants..."

"Da Vinci," the girl said deceptively calmly, "You know that if you are thrown into the Chaldea's core, even you won't be able to get out of there."

"I stayed with you too long," Da Vinci sighed immediately, "It seems that the briefing is over and I can go to my office."

"Yes, good luck," Olga-Marie waved at the girl with a hand.

'Throw her in the core of the Chaldea' - Ainz recalled - 'This is what Lev tried to do with her, isn't it?'

However, Olga-Marie rather fell in love with this joke rather than become stressed because of it.

'She seems to be developing a professional black sense of humor,' Ainz sighed. But at least it was better than just giving up. Humor always helped to cope with stress.

"Good," Ainz sighed. "In that case, can I, too, probably go?"

"Yes, of course," Olga-Marie smiled. "Go and get a victory for the glory of Chaldea, special operative."

* * *

Ainz stood in the same chamber as when he was sent to the last singularity. This time, however, his company was somewhat different.

"My lord," Cainabel smiled, kneeling on one knee, "I am glad that you honored this servant with your assignment."

"Bootlicker," the Witch threw it contemptuously.

"Oh, is it only to my ears, or did the girl without her own name speak?" Cainabel turned to the Witch. "I don't understand why my master loves you."

"Loves?" "The Witch stopped for a second, after which she immediately shook her head, "I do not want to hear a single word from your rotten mouth."

"Well, well," - Jeanne tried to intervene in the conversation, trying to smile at both of them, - "Do not quarrel. We are all friends and allies here…"

"The last time you said so, you were burned at the stake," the Witch instantly threw a mockery at Jeanne.

"Because you couldn't read," Cainabel smiled right away, "By the way, I heard that you still don't know how. If I were you, I would hold on to the Master with all my might - who else needs such a brainless Servant?"

Jeanne, hearing this, stepped back a step.

"It will be difficult for them," Cu Chulainn sighed and turned to Medusa, "But I am glad that you are going too."

Medusa instead took a step away from Cu Chulainn.

"Damn it, I already apologized," Cu Chulainn took a step after Medusa, who immediately took a step away again, "I was drunk, it was just an innocent offer! Damn it, Medusa, you're breaking my heart!"

"I can break your something else," Medusa answered calmly, taking one more step away from the mage "If you don't leave me alone."

"Senpai," Mashu caught the attention of Ainz. He turned to the side and smiled at the girl, - "This will be another adventure next to you."

"Yeah," Ainz extended his hand and patted the girl's hair, making her giggle, looking at the conflicting Servants, who continued to squabble with each other, "It's going to be a great adventure."

Ainz did not take into account one thing when compiling a team.

Psychological compatibility.

"Transition to the final stage of reyshifting" - the mechanical voice of the system was heard and Ainz sighed - "Coordinates: 1st century AD, Roman Empire, Rome"

He could already see how simple this Singularity would be.

* * *

**Deicide **\- is a skill denoting a person who has dedicated his life to killing the divine. To get such a skill is not enough just to face the divine or even fight with the gods. Even killing one or two gods will not give one this skill. This skill is given to a person who has killed hundreds, thousands — and in the case of Ainz — millions of divine beings and creatures marked as a God in his life. It doesn't matter what kind of god they were marked with and what exactly was the goal of the owner of this skill - a God-chosen champion, the owner of a great divine artifact, the divine beast or a God himself - this skill, rather than giving new abilities, simply indicates the fact that the owner of this skill in itself is a real nightmare of divine creatures and the instrument of their destruction.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**About a few comments - Ainz's main goal was to talk about the Servant's strength, which he actually did. He wanted to know more but got quite bothered by Da Vinci interrogating him about his friends and left, leaving these questions for later.**

**This fic is not disappeared from this site, but I find out a blunder I made - I ranked this fic as the T at first, while forgetting that a few "fucks" here and there may actually qualify me as the M. But well, that's not bad, since people chose the Cainabel - and well, the moment she would get loose I would probably need to bring it to M anyway.**

**Ainz in his Overlord form will not probably change his emotions. But he may change them willingly by lifting the restrictions on his skill.**

**Yeah, I also know that technically he got a Super-tier slot at the 71st level. Just didn't make an accent on it.**

**Yay, new Singularity! Six Servants this time, though. Anything else to say? Not really... Though I'm really glad that people chose Cainabel. Oh god, I would have a field day with her! Oh, well, I'm actually already doing this, on my Pat reon \rure... Which is now 6 chapters ahead of the main story! Though fret not, for there are now will be more chapters on this site for free too... Though, it's a side-chapters about various people left behind, such as other Ainz's Servant's he didn't bring with himself into the new Singularity, or Roman, for that matter, or people of the Singularity that are actually legitimate characters but I can't concentrate on them and the like.  
****Well, anyway, ahoy! Septem is ahead!  
**

**Also, shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's all.**


	44. Chapter 44

An empty plain, hills and uncultivated green fields stretching around as far as the eye could see is what greeted Ainz in the new Singularity.

For a second after the reyshifting, Ainz simply stood where he was, looking around his surroundings, trying to determine exactly where he and his Servants were — however, it was useless. Almost in all directions, only empty green fields could be seen, sometimes alternating with wildflowers and trees scattered around the empty plains.

"Everything here looks very peaceful" - the skeletal magician did not fail to remark to himself.

"Wow," a second later came the voice of Cu Chulainn, distracting Ainz from his contemplation of the peaceful environment around him, "That thing in the sky from the previous Singularity is also here."

Hearing what Caster said, Ainz looked up at the sky to see exactly what he had seen before in the sky of Orleans. A clear, blue, peaceful sky with rare, slowly passing white clouds in the sky, in the middle of which there's a spot of darkness as if someone had spilled black paint, spilling it into a huge, perfectly round, black spot, which seemed to be able to absorb the sky with its crushing emptiness.

"Hm" - Ainz grunted vaguely - "So that thing is also here... Problem - but on the other hand it proves that the Singularities are interconnected..."

"So that's the thing that you were talking about then," Ainz turned his head to hear the quiet voice of Medusa who is currently lifting her head into the sky, she is watching the strange phenomenon.

"Indeed," Ainz blinked in understanding. "She couldn't see the sky of Orleans before, hmm..."

Seeing Medusa without a mask was somewhat unusual. Now her mask is dangling freely around her neck, like a scarf or a strange necklace, while the girl looked at the world - and the sky - through the glasses that Ainz had given her. And although this should not have been such a significant detail - the girl with glasses now looked completely different than what Ainz used to. On the other hand, if Ainz was to make a comparison, then he would definitely say that the glasses looked pretty good on her.

"So, where are we?" the Witch's voice distracted Ainz from his thoughts and contemplations, "I also wonder what this thing is in the sky - but this can be dealt with later."

Ainz had no idea exactly where they are. He was not strong in geography - just as he was not strong in many other things, so all he could say was that they were somewhere not far from Rome, probably.

"My lord," the remark from Cainabel drew the attention of Ainz, "I'm sorry, but perhaps you would like to know that a battle is happening not so far from here."

"A battle?" Ainz looked at the girl, to which she nodded.

"Yes, my lord," Cainabel smiled at Ainz, bowing, "And a lot of people are participating in this battle... And also two Servants."

"Hm," Ainz grunted thoughtfully. Right off the bat, then? A battle immediately after their entrance into the Singularity - it was even in some sense expected for Ainz - "Are the Servants fighting monsters or people?"

"My lord," Cainabel smiled again, trying to look as kind as possible, "I can't say for sure, but as far as I can judge, there are no monsters participating in this battle — at least I can only feel the blood of people and Servants in this battle. The Servants are... fighting among themselves."

"So that's how?" Ainz looked thoughtfully at the girl.

Until that moment, he did not have to meet with the Servants while they are fighting each other. No, of course, in the Singularity, his allies fought with the Servants of the Witch, but he had never succeeded in stumbling into an occasional battle between the Servants.

'So,' Ainz looked around once more, 'We ended up in an unknown place, in the middle of an empty plains, quite by accident next to a battle and next to two Servants fighting each other.'

Could this be a trap?

Ainz clutched his head at the thought, after which, a second before devoting himself to paranoia, he slowly let go of this line of thought and returned to his previous line of thought.

Yes, this could be a trap. But if again, as in the previous Singularity, he let himself be troubled excessively by this paranoia, then it will again do more harm than good. At least Ainz was sure of that.

In addition, the opportunity to look at a battle between two Servants from the distance was a valuable experience.

"So, we should at least get closer to them," Ainz sighed, then used the spell, "Mass Flight"

A second later, Ainz felt the spell connect to him along with his Servants, giving everyone the opportunity to fly... Except for one exception.

"Jeanne?" Ainz turned to the side of the previously silent Servant. She, looking at the magician, averted her head, embarrassed, to the side.

"Jeanne, I couldn't use the flight spell on you," Ainz said in a blank voice, "Do you know why?"

"That's because of my Magical defense," the girl said quietly, "It is extremely high and therefore almost all spells..."

"Even your strongest trump cards are made in such a way that you have only problems from them," the Witch's voice came out gloating, "How shitty to be you, Jeanne d'Arc."

"The unsuccessful copy of Jeanne d'Arc said," Cainabel intervened in the conversation, not forgetting to prick the Witch, causing her to cast a malicious look at Cainabel who only smiled back in response.

"I apologize," Jeanne, clearly embarrassed by what had happened, looked down, trying to hide her regretful expression, "I... I just…"

"Okay," Ainz sighed. It was difficult to send Jeanne back for a replacement now - and besides, she really was the most suitable of all the Servants in the current conditions - in order to replace Jeanne, Ainz would have to reassemble the whole team again. Therefore, with a sigh, the magician held out his hand forward, after which the darkness of his inventory swallowed his hand to the elbow. After searching for a bit, Ainz found the necessary necklace, after which, just in case, he grabbed something else.

"Here," Ainz took out a small necklace from the instantly disappeared black hole and threw it at the girl. Jeanne caught it, and then looked at the necklace carefully.

In fact, the necklace was a small thin chain of silvery metal, at the end of which was a pendant stylized as a white wing - "This is an amulet of flight. Although my spells do not apply to you... At least for the moment - you should have no problems using the artifacts."

'Or so it would have worked in Yggdrasil,' Ainz added to himself.

Fortunately, immediately after putting on the necklace, the girl smiled, "Yes, it will work."

"Good," Ainz nodded, after which he handed the girl something else, "In that case, here."

Jeanne glanced at the thing in Ainz's fist, then slowly reached out and took... the ring.

"Hah?" The girl looked at the ring in confusion, then at Ainz, "Hah?"

A second later, her face literally ignited - it became so red and bright, as if someone had heated her face like an iron.

"No, no, no, no, no!" The girl immediately waved her hands, "I do not agree! I mean, not now... I mean, you are a good person, ahem... You helped me tremendously, but I can't so easily…"

'Hm?' - Ainz looked at the girl with a blank expression - 'What is she talking about?'

"Senpai", - Mashu's voice drove Ainz out of his thoughts, forcing him to turn to the Shielder. The girl looked at Ainz with a slightly irritated and slightly incomprehensible look, - "What are you doing?"

"That is a teleportation ring," Ainz explained, still not understanding Mashu's indignation, "I just thought that in a case where we would have to teleport and considering that I maybe couldn't just teleport Jeanne like that, I should give her the ring now, in advance."

"Ah?" Jeanne stopped, still a little crimson, after which she laughed awkwardly, "Yes, exactly, a teleportation ring... This is exactly what I thought, haha, of course... After all, that's the only way, haha…"

Ainz looked at the girl not fully understanding her behavior.

"Senpai," - Mashu's voice distracted Ainz from thinking, - "I... I also want a ring."

"That is," Mashu immediately tried to continue her thought so that no one would think that she had any extraneous motives, which of course she didn't have, "Perhaps we will need to split up in the future, or we can be cut off from each other, in which case we will need to use teleportation independently of each other…"

"Yes, perhaps," after a moment's deliberation, Ainz agreed with the thought, "Good. Then I should give it to all the Servants."

"Ha?" Mashu glanced at Ainz, and then immediately frowned, "Yes, of course, that would be logical."

Fortunately, such low-level items were common like dirt in the game, so Ainz had at least a hundred or two of the rings and necklaces without any problems.

Without any fanfare, he managed to give them to the remaining Servants, stopping only before the last two.

"Cainabel, you don't need it," Ainz nodded to the girl, who also nodded in response. Indeed, Cainabel could fly and teleport by using her abilities, without the help of artifacts, - "However, Cu Chulainn…"

"What?" The guy looked at Ainz, then at the outstretched ring, and then sighed, "Master, I warn you right away, I'm straight."

"Hm?" Ainz blinked. 'What is he talking about?'

"It doesn't matter," not finding the best words for the reaction to what was said, Ainz handed him the ring and necklace.

"No, I will repeat it again," Cu Chulainn sighed, "My orientation is so straight you can draw a line using it instead of ruler."

"Good, good," Ainz sighed. "Now put on the ring."

"Just to make it clear," Cu Chulainn explained to the magician, incomprehensibly, "I do this solely to increase my capabilities."

"Suuuure," came Cainabel's voice, to which Cu Chulainn only cast an annoyed look at that, "Now put on the ring before my Master has to kneel down to put it on your finger."

'And why would I get on one knee?' - Ainz was completely lost in the thoughts of the Servants - 'This is probably the problem of all Servants. They think in other categories and are completely unable to behave like people, so they just don't understand how normal people should behave... How difficult it is to communicate with them!'

Sighing, Cu Chulainn still put the ring on his finger, and then looked at Ainz,- "Well, now is that all?"

"Yes, probably," Ainz nodded. "Now we need to get closer to the battlefield."

* * *

The battle was far from its climax. Both warring parties, leaving several fairly distorted groups of corpses on the ground, retreated from each other, looking at their opponents with tired eyes, clutching at the rugged parts of their body.

The only ones who still continued to fight were the two Servants, still fighting, as if without feeling any exhaustion, continuing to fight each other.

Ainz hovered in the sky, a little away from the battle, continuing to survey the fighting Servants.

Judging by the fact that the two flashed over and over again converging in close combat, carving sparks with a clash of swords, it was easy to assume that both combatants were specialists in close combat. However, it was not easy to catch any defining characteristics from a distance.

Thanks to his race and his current existence as that of a Servant, Ainz's vision was much better than that of a normal human, but even so it didn't particularly help him to see the detailed appearance of the combatants. However, he could still see something.

On one side of the battlefield were soldiers. As far as Ainz himself could understand - these were Roman soldiers, perhaps even legionnaires - at least their appearance was similar to Punitto Moe's descriptions, and in this regard Ainz trusted his friend, after all, Punitto Moe was a history otaku. On the other side of the battlefield, the army's appearance was much more mottled.

Unlike the approximately identical looking soldiers of Rome, the soldiers of the other army on the other hand were completely differently dressed. Among them, too, were Roman legionnaires - as well as people dressed in quilts, leather armor, and, it seemed, everything that they could wear as protection. They also held a wide variety of weapons in their hands - unlike the Romans, these soldiers were armed with spears, swords, shields, hammers, strange curved blades and a lot of other kinds of weapons. However, Cainabel was right - there were no monsters on either side of the fight. Of course, perhaps among them there were monsters that could take the form of people - but if Ainz continued in this train of thought, he would again risk slipping into meaningless paranoia.

The two Servants looked more interesting, continuing to converge over and over again in combat.

Both Servants were girls, it was clear for sure. One was wearing a dress completely unsuitable for battle - a huge, red dress, swaying every time she parried another blow with her huge red blade, as if it was out of a fantasy game... Perhaps Ainz even saw such a design in Yggdrasil - the blade looked more like a curved red horn torn from the head of a monster than a sword - however, this did not prevent the girl, a golden-haired and a pretty short-haired one, from attacking with it with inspiring dexterity.

The second one who fought looked more like a warrior - but only in comparison with the first. Ainz could see that she didn't even wear armor - but at least her clothes were more suitable for battle, even if there was a decent neckline on her chest that allowed him to look at her impressive chest. The girl's hair was also cut short enough, but they were red, copper-red in color, unlike her opponent's. Another difference, the girl held a blade in her hands which looked like a very real blade, unlike the girl in red strange sword, and a small buckler shield, using which she occasionally parried her opponent's attacks, not forgetting to respond with her blade.

Ainz froze for several tens of seconds, trying to keep track of the actions of the girls.

"They..." - Ainz wondered. "More powerful melee warriors than me."

On the one hand, that was a good compliment. Ainz was still a hundred-level character with excellent strength and dexterity parameters for his build. On the other hand, this compliment was very humiliating in fact, since Ainz himself is specialized as a hundred-level magician - his melee abilities were his weakest side, even weaker than his stealth ability - and this is even without taking into account his spells that may boost his stats.

The two combatants clashed time after time, crossing blades, however, during that time Ainz, observing for several tens of seconds, did not observe the activation of any skill.

"Strange," the magician muttered thoughtfully to himself. "Are they not taking their fight seriously? So far, it looks like the two warriors are using auto-attack against each other..."

Both fighters continued to fight each other, periodically leaping around the battlefield, because of which it was difficult to figure out which of the Servants fought for which side. Fortunately, some help was provided to Ainz by an unexpected ally.

"Hey!" Cu Chulainn, who had been calmly staring at the battle scene before, grinned, "How could I not notice..."

"Do you know any of them?" Ainz looked at Cu Chulainn.

"I would hardly have recognized her in the form of a Lancer," the mage grunted under his nose, "But as Caster it is not difficult to identify the one that took an oath to the ancient gods of the Celts."

"That," after that, Cu Chulainn pointed to red-haired girl with his hockey-stick-like staff, "That is Boudica."

"Boudica?" Ainz looked at Cu Chulainn. This name did not immediately stood out in his memory when he was a player, but Punnito Moe definitely mentioned her. Ainz jogged his memory, "Is that... The Queen who led a rebellion against Rome?"

"Yup," Cu Chulainn nodded.

'So it's more likely that she is the commander of the gang of hodge podge soldiers' - Ainz looked at a group of soldiers dressed in various armor and holding different weapons - 'Is it possible that she is now leading a rebellion against Rome?'

Ainz was not sure of his conclusion, but the likelihood of such an event was not zero.

"Miserable creatures, aren't they?" Ainz looked at Cainabel, who appeared next to the magician, "Even in battle they're not able to use their skills, such a small fry..."

"Don't underestimate them," Ainz sighed. "Perhaps they are hiding their trump cards while studying the enemy."

"As you say, my lord," however, although the girl agreed with Ainz, he could easily discern that she continued to hold her own opinion.

'So, then we accidentally stumbled upon a battle between two Servants, one of which is Boudica, known for her uprising against Rome' - Ainz looked at the fight - 'What to do next?'

By interfering in the battle Ainz now could easily tip the battle in favor of either side. The question was only for whom he should fight.

On one side was Boudica, who allegedly led the uprising. An uprising could be associated with something heroic, like the revolt of one person against an evil state... And it could also be a trap leading to even more violence, the coming to power of crazy dictators and mass destruction.

The second side, judging by the legionnaires, was Rome - or at the very least the very system against which the rebellion took place. And they, equally, could be both vicious tyrants against whom the people justly rebelled, and disgruntled soldiers trying to save the remnants of the state in order to protect the people from crazy radicals and rebels.

Ainz did not even have an idea about whom he needed to support in such conditions.

And all this, of course, was true only if Ainz himself correctly guessed with whom and why they were fighting. It would be foolish if it turned out that now Boudica defended Rome, and her opponent would be an even more famous destroyer of civilizations.

Ainz sighed, and then looked at the fighting below.

After another exchange of blows, however, the girls retreated - and the wind brought the voices of those fighting to Ainz.

"Let my soldiers go!" the girl in red shouted, "They should not participate in this battle! This is our fight!"

"I don't remember your troops listening to me when I asked the same!" Boudica could hardly resist rushing at her opponent with a blade.

"This is our fight!" The girl in red pointed her monstrous blade at Boudica. "They are not guilty of anything!"

"Every Roman is guilty of something," Boudica answered by putting out her blade, imitating the pose of her opponent, "Each of them is guilty of the existence of this damned empire, and each of them is guilty of it's sins!"

'Everything has become even more complicated…' - Ainz sighed, 'And which one is worth supporting? On the one hand, we have a heroic rebel leader obsessed with revenge. On the other hand - a kind commander protecting her soldiers from death, despite the fact that judging by the cry of Boudica, these soldiers are guilty of some terrible deeds…'

"My lord," Cainabel's voice did not add to Ainz the certainty that her words would bring him an answer to this question, "Maybe we should destroy them both? They don't seem to be too strong."

"Cainabel!" Jeanne was next to the girl, "How can you suggest such a thing?!"

"Why not?" Cainabel shrugged. "Standing in the middle of the battlefield while shouting threats to each other — isn't this a confirmation of their inability as warriors?"

'Just great,' Ainz sighed.

"Cainabel, we won't destroy anyone just like that," Ainz remarked, "Moreover, you are forbidden to attack any Servant in the Singularity except in the case of self-defense."

"As you order, my lord," the girl smiled and bowed, despite the fact that at the moment she was in the air next to Ainz.

However, the situation still did not clarify.

'Punnito clearly would like to support one of the Romans' - Ainz sighed - 'But on the other hand, he was not at all like Ulbert. He wouldn't support the definitely bad guys... How difficult…'

Ainz sighed.

Apparently, he really did not know exactly who he was supposed to support in this clash. In this case, all that remained for him was just to not support anyone.

On the other hand, if he had just left the Servants now, he would obviously have lost the opportunity to learn any valuable information that both combatants probably owned.

It was resolved in his mind.

Ainz turned toward his Servants. Apparently, he would just have to force the combatants to stop the battle until Ainz himself figured out who he should have supported.

"I'll take a closer look at them. Wait a bit," Ainz said calmly, glancing at his Servants, "_Greater Teleportation_."

After a second, the vista in front of his eyes changed. He had just looked at the battle from a bird's eye view - and a moment later his eyes were focused on by the gaze of the girl whom Cu Chulainn recognized as Boudica. The emerald green eyes looked at him with hatred - however, this hatred was not directed at Ainz, and therefore did not bother him at all. Rather, Ainz simply accidentally stood in the way of Boudica's gaze directed at her opponent.

Turning around, Ainz was able to look at her opponent - and froze.

'I thought we left Arthuria in Chaldea' - Ains froze for a second before dismissing this thought. The girl in front of him looked like Arthuria... No, maybe even he would have decided that she was actually Arthuria - if not for her bright green, lime-colored eyes, in which at the moment there was clearly a splash of misunderstanding. However, a second after the misunderstanding was replaced by joy.

"Finally!" The girl announced it loudly, after which she looked at Ainz with a pretense of severe anger, "Where have you been so long?! How can you make your emperor wait?!"

"Fear!" - before Ainz could say something, the girl took a step to the side so that her gaze rested on Boudica, "My reinforcements finally arrived!"

Boudica, listening at this, took a step back.

The man who appeared in front of her did not feel like... In any way, he did not feel like anything, in fact. The instincts of Boudica as a Servant refused to recognize the man in front of her as a Servant... Human... Living creature... Source of mana... For her, what appeared was felt just like a void - as if there was nothing at all on that place.

And yet she could definitely see the person in front of her.

"Assassin?" Boudicca stepped back, thinking, "Caster?"

However, wild guesses will not give her a definite answer. And this meant that Boudica was placed in a losing position.

The battle with Saber was difficult in itself - adding a new opponent to this battle meant a practically guaranteed defeat.

Boudica gritted her teeth.

"We're retreating," she said after a second of silence, casting her last hating glance at Saber.

In other conditions, a retreat would have been impossible - Saber was still able to fight and the arrival of reinforcements meant that she would not have allowed Boudica to retreat and continued the battle. However, not under current conditions.

Saber could not force the fight with Boudica, Rider, forcing herself to leave her soldiers alone and undefended. Most of them were injured - many could not continue the battle or even defend themselves - they would have to be carried back to the camp. And Saber could not leave them just like this, undefended - especially now, knowing that they were easy prey, it was worth the risk attacking them with only one Servant - or even a simple group of soldiers to defeat them completely. In the end, she is forced to send at least one Servant to accompany the troops - and even if she sent a second after Boudica who is retreating to her camp, Boudica would be able to rely on help from her camp to blunt the attack. Saber also knew about this - so she would not dare to risk her soldiers in vain.

"We're leaving," said Boudica, after which, as if in mockery of the girl who had just been fighting, she turned her back away from her, not looking at Saber, while slowly moving away.

'Hah?' - Ainz wondered. 'It was easier than I thought.'

Ainz would not have chased after Boudica in any case - in the end, his goal was simply to stop the battle, so he calmly reacted to Rider moving away, as it seemed completely indifferent to Ainz.

For several tens of seconds, Ainz watched as Boudica slowly left, taking away the remains of his soldiers - those whom Ainz nevertheless correctly identified as her army. A lot of people in a variety of armor and with a variety of weapons moved away, leaving Ainz behind them - although unlike Boudica, almost all of them nevertheless cast a glance at the magician and Saber, not sure that they would not follow after them. However, despite their worry, not one from the enemy's side nevertheless followed them - so Ainz was able to observe in silence the slow retreat of the army, after which he turned to the girl in red, so similar to Arthuria.

She, only noticing Ainz's gaze, smiled, after which she exaggeratedly and even ostentatiously proudly stood in a pose, propping her breasts with her hands, raising her chin.

"Rejoice!" Said the girl with some special pride, "For you have just earned the grace of the emperor ~ umu! Let me congratulate you on behalf of the Roman Empire - for your intervention today saved hundreds of faithful soldiers of Rome and an unfortunate lost soul that decided to fight me - from certain death! Know - that my gratitude as Emperor will not know end ~ umu!"

'Although I generally did not pursue such goals,' Ainz sighed internally.

"I'm not your reinforcements," the magician said eventually.

"Of course I know that," however the girl only smiled, "However, the fact that you came to the aid of your emperor in battle is worthy of praise anyway ~ umu! Now - say your name, stranger!"

"Ainz," Ainz sighed, "And I have not come here alone."

"Really?" Saber raised one eyebrow, "And with whom?"

Ainz touched his connection with the Servants, after which a second later his small army appeared next to him with a slight flash of teleportation.

"These are my Servants," Ainz said, after which he looked at the girl in front, "However, first of all, I need to find out who you are."

"How rude it is to not recognize the Emperor herself!" The girl frowned for a second, making an exaggeratedly surprised and insulted gesture, as if Ainz's unrecognition really hurt her, but a second later she smiled with a wide smile, "Rejoice - for you are now facing the Fifth Emperor of the Roman Empire, the magnificent and incomparable Saber of the Golden Theater ~ umu!"

"Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus!" The girl said on her exhale with a huge smile, "And now, let me welcome you to my Roman Empire!"

'Nero?' Ainz blinked and looked at the girl, who continued to smile. "Nero like... The Roman Emperor?"

Punnito Moe told Ainz something about him and Ainz clearly remembered that Nero was a man...

On the other hand, Ainz remembered that King Arthur was also a man - and then he met with Arthuria.

'Another oddity of this world' - Ainz sighed - 'How many more obscure people with a changed gender await me here?'

Ainz had no idea...

"Well, now that the courtesies are over," Nero clapped her hands, "We need to bring the soldiers back to our camp..."

"Camp?" Ainz looked at Nero.

"Antium," the girl smiled, "A beautiful place not inferior to Rome..."

After mentioning Rome, Nero suddenly turned grim, as if thinking about something, but then shook her head, casting the unpleasant thoughts away from herself - "Well, enough talking. Further communication can be carried out in the presence of the rest - now it is necessary to bring the soldiers to the city."

"The rest?" Ainz looked at the girl.

"Of course, what kind of an emperor would I be without my faithful followers," the girl smiled, "Or rather, three emperors... Perhaps this can be called good luck — that they both were summoned..."

"Okay, I've talked for too long," Nero dismissed her thoughts instantly, and then turned around. "Forward, I can't wait to introduce you to my uncle. I hope that the fatty after such good news will also cease to be angry with me…"

Nero moved away, forcing the soldiers, who were still gazing at Ainz and his Servant, to cautiously move after her.

Ainz went after, looking thoughtfully at Nero.

"Uncle..." - Ainz tried to remember - "Uncle of Nero was... Caligula, right?"

Ainz remembered about Punnito Moe. Once he was annoyed by the history of Ancient Rome that the man continually told him… But as this time proved to him - in the end, it was for the good.

"Who would have thought" - Ainz smiled.

In this Singularity he would probably remember his friend for many times to come...

* * *

**Deicide**: _EX_

In the end, the divine that crossed its paths with the owner of this skill will be destroyed.

So simple.

In the end, the rank EX means that the possessor of this skill is a curse of the divine kind, the one which is impossible to fight.

EX rank means the almost absolute suppression of divine power, in battle or spells. In other words, this skill is rather a mark, signifying the imminent defeat of the divine. Divine intervention in the life of the bearer of this skill will be rejected, just as magic is rejected by protection from magic. It is as if the possessor of this skill itself is a being outside of Divine Authority. One can say that Divine Authority has no effect on the owner of this skill, and the owners of Divinity in their veins automatically lose their parameters, depending on the level of their divinity. Artifacts and skills acquired through communication with the divine are also unlikely to work against the owner of this skill. Nevertheless, one can say that Ainz is an ideal machine for the destruction of the divine.

However, on the other hand, if the creature opposing it is something of a different nature, similar and at the same time different with divinity - a Buddha, a demon, or another creature of another world... The result may be slightly different.

* * *

**Hello there!**

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	45. Chapter 45

Ainz slowly moved along the streets of the city, trying to keep his pace the same with Nero, while looking around.

"Everything around here looks so..." - Ainz thought for a second, picking his word - "Peaceful..."

The situation around him looked completely different than in the previous Singularity.

There, in the camp of the French Army, Ainz could see tired soldiers waiting for their inevitable destiny, trying to laugh at inappropriate jokes, sharpening blades and looking cautiously at the sky, waiting for the arrival of a new monster, while here, in this city, people were simply doing their own thing.

Someone was carrying a heavy load on their shoulders, some merchant was hawking his wares at potential customers, some guy was looking around, looking for the person or thing he needed to find - it just looked so peaceful for Ainz.

"And there is so much vegetation..." - Ainz looked at a row of trees planted along the sides of the road. In his world, Ainz very rarely saw vegetation - maybe a couple of times when he managed to get to an internal farm for wealthy citizens, when he was a salesman...

Some woman shouted at a boy, only five years old, who had been running along the road, after which the boy frowned and walked up to his mother, who took his hand and moved off to the side, minding her own business.

Ainz felt a small smile appear on his face against his will.

"Disgusting," and of course, Cainabel's voice made Ainz instantly frown.

'Why did you need to ruin everything?' - Ainz sighed, asking the girl a question to himself.

"Is that Emperor Nero?" He suddenly heard a voice from one of the passers-by.

After a second, someone answered back, "Yes, yes, that's her for sure!"

Ainz did not even had time to take ten steps before the usual clamors of the townspeople turned into numerous whispers, spreading at the speed of a forest fire. Ainz managed to think for a second of what may have caused such a reaction before his thoughts were interrupted.

"Long live the Emperor!" Came a cry from the crowd, immediately repeated by the rest, "Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

Nero, until then quietly moving through the streets unnoticed, only smiled at it, after which she took a step forward and looked around the townspeople with a wide gesture - "Long live the people of Rome!"

A second after this, the crowd of people of Rome exploded into cries - however, these were cries of support and, Ainz could even say, adoration.

"She is pretty popular among the people," Cu Chulainn's voice conveyed to Ainz the same thought that also had come to himself.

"Strange," came the voice of Mashu in reply, trying to speak quietly, "I heard that he... She was popular - but her days ended in solitude..."

"Glory is not eternal," came the quiet voice of Medusa, passing next to Mashu in a second, making Ainz sigh. Well, glory is not eternal - Ainz himself knew this.

"You are loved among the people," however he nevertheless took a step forward toward Nero. Rather than pursuing a specific meaning with the conversation, he is simply trying to waste some time before arriving to the palace.

"Of course ~ umu!" Nero smiled at these words, as if talking about something obvious, "After all, this is my empire!"

"Then, if you care so much about your people — I'm glad that it was such a person who became Emperor," Ainz said without further hint.

"Yes," however Nero's smile, still as wide as it was before faded for a moment, "Of course... Exactly."

"Oh, we have already arrived at the palace!" The girl instantly changed the subject, pointing at the nearing palace. Ainz looked at the building, after which he nodded, 'Beautiful.'

The palace looked magnificent - numerous relief columns and white staircases, statues of generals and heroes, green gardens and fountains is dotted around - it seemed as if the palace was almost endless in length and breadth, due to which several armed soldiers that immediately pulled themselves at the sight of Nero, is completely lost in the background of its beauty.

"Everything will be alright..." a voice came from somewhere from the interior of the palace at the moment when Ainz approached it, "You can trust your niece just a little bit!"

"Nero..." In response, however, Ainz heard only the name of the Empere... Emperor. It seemed as if it was hard for the person to even utter a word - his voice sounded distorted, as if the speaker was trying to push himself to speak through force, - "Where is... She?!"

"It's all right," the voice sounded again, this time it was a fairly young and energetic, albeit rather deep, voice, "Nero will be here soon... Wait, idiot!"

In the middle of the conversation, Ainz suddenly heard footsteps - and a second later a man appeared at the entrance to the palace.

'Servant,' Ainz realized instantly. The man was tall and muscular - his short blue hair and black-and-yellow armor, it is as if the Servant was specially made to attract attention. However, even they could not distract Ainz from his eyes. Nevertheless, a completely black sclera and two red dots in place of the pupils were as if it was created for the simple purpose of attracting attention to it.

'Pupils like Cainabel,' Ainz said to himself. Although the vampire also had red pupils merging with her red iris, she still had a white sclera - 'Such eyes are as if they were created to signal danger.'

"Uncle!" Nero instantly blurred into a smile and waved her hand.

"Nero..." said the man, after which he immediately rushed forward. After a second, he hugged Nero, who also greeted him with a hug and a wide smile, "Are you... Alright?"

"Of course, uncle!" Nero smiled at the man, pulling herself away from his hug, then took a proud pose, raising her chin, "What can happen to the great Emperor Nero himself ~ umu?!"

"Good..." the man, although his voice sounded as if it was hard for him to speak, pulled away, after which his stern expression changed slightly. Ainz thought for a second before he realized.

'Is he trying to smile with a face like that?!' Ainz carefully looked at the speaker's face. It seemed that his stern face was carved from stone and completely unsuitable for the manifestation of any human emotions, trying to raise the corners of his lips in an imitation of a smile.

'Wait…' - Suddenly Ainz froze - 'Uncle?!'

'That is,' Ainz looked at the man carefully again, 'That is, this stern mountain of muscles with the expression of an executioner is Caligula?!'

According to Punnito's stories, Caligula was very fat, so Ainz logically assumed that the "fatty" Nero was talking about was Caligula. But if Caligula looked like a mountain of muscles, then "fatty" was...

"Hey!" Came another voice and Ainz looked up toward the palace.

'He looks like a pig' - that was Ainz's first thought at the moment when he saw the third Servant.

'No, no!' Ainz immediately tried to correct himself. The man in front of him was definitely overweight... Damn it, fat even - such that it seemed as if his knees would fall apart if he tried to climb even one step, but still he looked decent - for his weight. He did not seem to be a shapeless, spreading mass of fat - and in his eyes one may even read rationality, even more - wisdom and cunningness, because of which he seemed completely undeserving of the insulting title - 'Maybe … Piglet? No, it still doesn't fit…'

Ainz continued to look at the man, trying to come up with a non-derogatory title, because of which his gaze met his eyes when he looked at Ainz for a second, 'Hamster? Yes, the hamster doesn't sound so insulting…'

"He looks like a fat disgusting hog," unlike Ainz Cainabel expressed her though directly.

"Cainabel!" And instantly received an admonishment from Jeanne, "You cannot insult people!"

"Even you can't be so stupid as to not notice how fat he is," this time, it seems, the Witch decided to take Cainabel's side.

"He's just... A little... Overweight," it seemed as if it was hard even for Jeanne to find a nice thing to say for the guy's description without telling a lie.

"Slightly overweight?" Cainabel frowned. "He looks like a swollen three-week drowned man... I'm sure that if you press on him, he'll just burst.

Jeanne, vividly imagining the picture, suddenly turned away, trying to hide her slightly green face. Cainabel, noticing this, grinned, - "Weak stomach, huh? And you know that when a drowned man is inflated, his skin and meat becomes watery, like jelly. If you put your hand and press a little, you can feel how it would spread…"

"Shut up," this time the Witch was the one who interrupted Cainabel, because Jeanne was clearly felt like gagging and could not answer Cainabel's descriptions, "You are just disgusting!"

"I'm trying my best," Cainabel grinned with a smug grin.

"Do you have to quarrel with everyone at all?" Cu Chulainn sighed, taking a step toward the girls.

"Not necessarily," Cainabel suddenly admitted, "But I take great pleasure from it."

"Nero," the fat man finally attracted their attention, after which he looked at Ainz, "I understand prioritizing our family reunion, but can you introduce your fellow travelers to us?"

Ainz was finally able to escape from the distracting view of the outstanding belly of a man and look at him as a whole. The impressive red camisole hiding the man's belly was his main outstanding detail - however, it was impossible not to notice that on his head, next to his short, laced dark brown hair, was a laurel wreath emphasizing his face and light brown eyes, with clear, defined eyebrows and... Very puffy prominent cheeks.

'Damn it, he's fat,' Ainz sighed. All his stories about the great commander from the words of Punnito were trampled.

"Ainz," Ainz took a step forward and bowed. He should admit that before this he had never had any occasion to deal with emperors... In the real world, at least - so he was not quite sure how he should behave now - so he decided to show a little modesty, - "I am glad to meet you face to face."

"Oh," the man smiled, and because of his chubby cheeks, a smile that could well be tense suddenly seemed completely good-natured and sincere, "Recently, I have never received such politeness."

"I'm still the emperor ~ umu!" Nero instantly objected to this, feeling in whose direction the jab was.

"I didn't hope for it anyway," the man sighed, after which he jerked his head abruptly, "Gaius Julius Caesar. And although I sincerely believe that my abilities are wasted in this case, Saber - by the dictates of chance."

"And this is my uncle," Nero immediately pulled away from the austere looking man and pointed at him, introducing him.

"Berserker, Caligula," although the man's words sounded all the same, heavy and strained, it seemed as if it had become easier for him to speak when Nero appeared right next to him, "I am glad to welcome you... Into the Roman Empire."

"I have built a good state," Caesar smiled at this remark, after which he looked at Servants of Ainz.

"These are my Servants," Ainz said calmly, after which he wondered if they should have introduced themselves now. Although this would have been a welcome gesture of courtesy, at the moment Ainz was not sure that he should disclose any information about his Servants until he knew the balance of power. Nevertheless, too much information was still hidden, the names of the Servants for instance - so Ainz settled on that simple descriptor.

"You can't even introduce me?" - however, the Witch took it in her own way.

"What are you saying, you don't even have a name." Cainabel said gloatingly, and then added right there, "It's amazing how Master still loves you despite this..."

'Please stop!' - Ainz despair, when suddenly his mind was forcibly calmed down by his skill. Of course, he told Cainabel that she should go easier on the Servants, but now she sounded like a low-ranking seller, as if trying to sell a company brand called "Ainz" using the company slogan "Master loves you anyway". It sounded just awful!

Looking at this scene, Nero smiled - perhaps she took it as a friendly jabs- but Ainz knew perfectly well that there was a real war between the girls and not even a bit of friendship.

"Okay, it seems," Caesar finally said, glancing at Ainz and his Servants, "We should go inside. Apparently, a big discussion awaits us all."

* * *

What Ainz saw in the palace was a huge, beautiful, light-flooded hall. Although the classical-style columns rose on the sides of the room, supporting a high ceiling a dozen meters above his head, the hall did not look majestic, terrifying and reverent. Rather, it was just a spacious room, in the center of which, on a white marble floor, there was a long table, behind which were several small chairs, covered with pillows or something like that.

However, it was not all that was important, but the fact that the table that Ainz saw was not at all empty and did not at all resemble the working environment that he was attuned to.

'Can this be considered as a sin of gluttony?' Ainz thought for a moment, looking at the table, which was covered with various dishes.

In his life, Ainz mainly ate protein concentrates, food substitutes, or a mixture of both - at least they were somewhat decent tasting - and sometimes, on holidays, he managed to buy some real vegetables or meat using his bonus vacation pay, so he could not even comprehend the scenery in front of his eyes. Numerous bowls filled with unknown products, fruits, assorted dishes - and several amphora probably filled with wine located next to the table.

"And now I am beginning to like this Singularity," Cainabel grunted softly, "I hope their wine will be better than the rubbish that can be found in Chaldea."

"That is Falernian wine," Cu Chulainn answered her. "The best one in the Rome."

"Do they have anything non-alcoholic?" Jeanne tried to ask a question that concerned her, "The Bible is not entirely supportive... Of such things…"

"Then pretend that you are engaged in cannibalism," Cainabel replied to Jeanne, after which, enjoying her indignant look, she explained her words, "Well, or, as you call it, all this "blood of Christ" and "eat my body"... Although I don't think that at this time prosphora was so easy to get... By the way, Christians were also not easy to get at this time. Only if you removed them from the crosses…"

"Your mouth works instead of your ass, right?" The Witch looked at the girl in disgust, "You spit out only shit instead of words."

"Enough," Ainz interrupted the girls' conversation, after which he thought. Punnito really did say that during the time of Rome many Christians were persecuted for their religion... Especially by Nero...

Ainz looked first at Jeanne, then at the Witch, and finally at Nero and Caligula who came after them. Given these circumstances, communication between them can be... Difficult.

However, Ainz sighed and took a step inside anyway. Although he did not plan to really feast at the moment, he did not mind trying something. At least it was something other than protein concentrates.

'Although the cuisine in Chaldea is good,' Ainz said to himself. For an outside observer, however, Chaldea with her limited food supplies could at best seem like a third-rate cafe, for Ainz, who in his life had never tasted anything better than a chicken bought at a discount, such things might seem really good - 'Although I heard that Archer sometimes cooks in the kitchen... What a pity that I was not able to try his cooking.'

"Caesar," Nero's voice distracted Ainz. This time it sounded tired, as if Nero was already tired of fighting Caesar, but nevertheless continued to do so out of strength of habit, "Are you back to your old habits?"

"Nothing bad has ever happened from a small feast," Caesar shrugged.

"Didn't you get stabbed after one?" Nero frowned.

"After, but not during," Caesar answered instructively, raising his finger, and then smiled, "Besides, as far as I know, wine helps any conversation."

'Does he want to get me drunk?' Ainz looked thoughtfully at Caesar, but he, having caught Ainz's gaze, smiled, and his plump cheeks turned his smile into a good-natured and sincere one.

It was seriously difficult to perceive Caesar's emotions clearly because of his fullness and ostentatious good-naturedness, but for some reason, was it either from Punnito's words or speculation by Ainz himself, looking at Caesar Ainz did not want to grin sarcastically because of his weight or chubby cheeks. He looked like one of those ridiculous CEOs of mega-companies that he saw on the news. Clumsy and completely harmless - as well as not having any opponents and pretenders in their place. Because no one of such pretenders or opponents was left.

Ainz took a step, after which he settled in his rightful place, allowing the Servants to sit next to him, and the three emperors - Nero, Caesar and Caligula - to take place opposite to Ainz.

For a couple of minutes, the hall fell silent before, after a relaxed atmosphere, the voice of Cu Chulainn interrupted them.

"Hey, what kind of joke is this?!" he said indignantly, setting aside a goblet filled with wine, "The wine is diluted with water!"

"Of course," Caesar answered calmly, raising one eyebrow, "Is it not barbarism to drink only wine?"

"The joy of the Singularity was short-lived," Cainabel sighed, looking interestedly at Caesar, "Maybe a little blood will correct the situation?"

Ainz looked around thoughtfully, after which he sipped his wine. Certainly, the strength in the drink was lower than usual, but the excellent taste was not at all spoiled, so taking a sip of it Ainz simply shrugged, not quite understanding why Cu Chulainn was so indignant. After a second, the magician's gaze found Mashu sitting on the farthest corner of the table. After a closer look, Ainz could notice that she pulled the second goblet to herself and emptied it at a good speed, trying not to attract attention.

'She's trying to make up for that banquet when they didn't give her alcohol?' - Ainz recalled a small celebration held when Ainz returned from the France Singularity, after which he shook his head - 'Children are growing so fast these days... I hope she knows her measure.'

"So," finally having emptied his goblet, Caesar acquired a good-natured expression and looked at Ainz, "First of all, thank you for interfering and saving our lightheaded Nero."

"Hey!" The girl was immediately indignant, glancing at Caesar, "I am still your emperor! I demand respect - it was an important tactical maneuver ~ umu!"

"Thank you..." Caligula's voice sounded still harsh, but he even tried to bow a little, having heard from Caesar's lips about help, "For the saving of Nero..."

"Uncle!" Not expecting betrayal from Caligula, Nero looked at Caligula with a helpless expression on her face.

Ainz for a second felt a light smile touch his lips - their little skirmishes looked so cozy... As if they were friends from the same guild...

"And yet," Caesar's voice pulled out Ainz before he could develop this idea, "Let me ask you a question... How much do you know about the current situation?"

Ainz froze.

The question was logical and even expected, but at the same time for some reason made Ainz strain. "How much do you know about the current situation" was a strange question. Why not assume that Ainz knew enough about the situation?

"Why are you asking this?" Ainz looked at Caesar directly. He did not want his answer to sound rude, but something in Saber's question did not please the magician.

"Nothing special," Caesar raised his hands in an unarmed gesture, trying to show his peace, "It's just that in the current situation there are so many rumors and conjectures that some of them just need correction."

'But this "correction" does not have to be true' - Ainz could not help himself. Although he was trying to defend himself against meaningless paranoia, for some reason when he was looking at Caesar he did not want to immediately reveal any of his cards, not even looking at his stupid and good-natured appearance ... Perhaps, precisely because of this.

"Perhaps you should start over - and we can say what we heard along the way," Ainz smiled back.

"Of course," Caesar nodded graciously, but afterwards, instead of starting to speak, he looked at Nero, "Nero, you are still the leader of our Alliance, so be so kind."

"Of course ~ umu!" - despite the fact that Caesar appeared to be the leader in the trinity — Nero was glad to answer his request and start speaking, "In general, it started about a month and a half ago..."

'A month and a half?' - Ainz thought for a second, 'This is the time when all the Singularities arose at a time... Does this mean that the time in the Singularities continues when they appeared and not at the moment of our arrival?'

Ainz thought for a second. It would be bad, in that case, if they were too late in the next Singularity and their delay at that time could something terrible would happen there - 'Does this mean that this is a quest with a time limit? And without a final countdown, too... How bad!'

"One and a half months ago," Nero meanwhile continued to speak, "I died."

Ainz froze for a second, a little concerned.

"I was supposed to be alive at this time of history, but for some reason I can remember that I fell asleep alive one day - after which the next morning I already appeared as a Servant summoned to this world," Nero sighed.

"You were summoned without a Master?" Ainz looked at the girl.

"Yes," she nodded firmly. Ainz nodded - before that he had already met with Servants without Masters, for example, Jeanne herself - and all of them somehow sided with Ainz, which sounded in favor of the fact that Nero could be their ally in this Singularity.

"Good," Ainz nodded. "Go on."

"The thing, however, is," Nero continued, "That at the same time as my summoning happened in the middle of Rome a strange column arose."

"A column?" Ainz looked at the girl and she nodded.

"Yes, something like a magical barrier," Nero sighed, "At least my court magi were able to find out that it was a barrier — but they couldn't figure out what was behind it ~ umu."

'Court magi, hmm,' Ainz sighed. He knew that in the Roman Empire there were enough priests and important persons associated with magic, but even so he was sure that there were no "court mag" among the court of the Roman emperors - 'Punnito would clearly say something about this... It's a pity, that he's not with me now.'

'However - is there a huge barrier in the middle of Rome?' - Ainz thought for a moment. Without a need to say it, it sounded so suspicious that it literally indicated - "Now, this place is important! This is where you need to go! Here lies a cool treasure and the last boss!"

"Go on," Ainz nodded and Nero sighed.

"We just started to explore this strange thing, but just a few days later a troubling news came," the girl sighed. "A huge horde of people led by Servants arose very close to Rome. They captured our homeland... Alba Longa - the city from which our family comes and from which the history of Rome itself began!"

"What dishonor and desecration!" The girl seemed to be flaming with anger — she could not control her strength and her goblet it cracked with her applied force, due to which the wine began to pour out through the cracks immediately, falling into Nero's hands. Feeling the moisture falling on her hand, the girl sighed, calming down, then pushed the cracked goblet away from her and extended her hand to a small towel nearby.

"I apologize," the girl sighed again, closing her eyes, after which she opened them and looked at Ainz, "This place is the birthplace of our family and the birthplace of the Divine Ancestor... I cannot forgive them for such a sin."

"Of course," Ainz nodded. If someone captured Nazarick...

The suppression of emotions was activated so quickly that Ainz did not even have time to finish the thought. No. Just no.

"The one that I fought with, Boudica," Nero sighed, "Was one of those who captured the city. I know that at least four more Servants are in the same camp with her. I also know one of them - the greatest gladiator of Thrace…"

"Spartacus," Caesar sighed, "I had so many problems with his rebellion..."

Ainz nodded - he had heard a lot about Spartacus too. In the end, even in Yggdrasil, there was a chain of quests about the uprising of one of the half-human slaves under the name "Thracian" against one of the largest empires of human. Ainz knew that human race players could join in the suppression of the uprising, and half-human players could support the rebellion - however, since Ainz was a representative of heteromorphs, a third set of races, he himself did not participate in this quest - although he repeatedly heard how the players complained that the "Thracian" was simply unbelievably hard to deal with and although it was just an ordinary mob of the hundredth level - in order to simply breach its defence, health and regeneration it was necessary to attack it with at least three damage dealer.

'He can be dangerous…' - Ainz nodded to himself, noting an important detail to himself.

"Therefore, I used the knowledge of my magi and called on allies," the girl sighed and first turned to Saber, then to Berserker, "Caesar and Caligula."

"However, when we were preparing the army for battle, he appeared on the threshold of Rome," Nero sighed, "the Divine Ancestor."

'Divine Ancestor?' Ainz unknowingly glanced at Cainabel. If there was someone like Cainabel among the Servants... Then the situation could become really dangerous. Perhaps in this case he will even have to discard this body and fight at full strength... Although he most likely will not have to resort to his Noble Phantasms.

"Romulus," however Nero answered differently, "The Divine Ancestor of all Rome and the whole Empire. Romulus."

"Romulus?" Ains wondered in surprise. Romulus was the legendary founder of Rome, deified later - according to Punnito. Even more, in Yggdrasil there was one of the gods under the name - Romulusremus, with a name created according to the principle of Cainabel. And unlike Cainabel, who was a very disappointing opponent, Romulusremus was not at all weak and quite worthy of his title of boss and god. Ainz remembered that it took them three attempts with a party of six to defeat him. Moreover, since Romulusremus was a giant golem made from the prismatic ores, they later reforged his body into the base for the staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, Ainz's strongest weapon and symbol of their guild.

Ainz wondered what he could do in order not to fight him before he stopped himself. Last time, Fafnir did not become such a problem, so he will not avoid Romulus so much... But just in case, he will not rush at him just like that either.

"He appeared with a retinue of admirers, with legions loyal to him and people deifying him," Nero sighed and grimaced. Apparently, she did not like to admit that the Divine Ancestor was loved by the people, - "And by the retinue of his Servants. He entered Rome, after which he announced that he was back in order to protect the people of Rome from the threat of invasion... Therefore, we came here."

"Why?" Ainz asked the question, that immediately arose in his mind, "Why didn't you join him?"

"Why?" - it seemed as if Ainz's question made Nero sway in place from a misunderstanding - but this time it was not an exaggerated gesture, "How could I?! My name is Nero, the fifth emperor of the Roman Empire! No one has the right to take my throne!"

'That is, the whole thing…' - Ainz froze - 'About the title? About the position of strength? About ambitions?'

Ainz looked at Nero - however, there was no ordinary frivolity in her eyes. There was only anger in it.

If you think again, Ainz never really wanted to be the leader of Ainz Ooal Gown - and even when he was forced to become the guild leader he was usually just put all the questions or decisions to a general vote. Not because he knew that his guildmates would not support his decision - no, they all would have agreed with him if he had made an unambiguous decision - it is simply because he did not like to make decisions. He generally did not like being a unilateral leader — although he did pretty well with raids as a raid leader. Rather, Ainz simply did not like being a strategist - he was more of a tactician. Therefore, if someone really wanted to become his replacement at the post - someone better suited than him, someone with whom all the players of his guild would agree with - then he would gladly retire from his post.

'Although the replacement would also have to be a magician in order to use the Staff,' Ainz sighed, recalling the details of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. They spent almost a month of real time and tens of thousands of very real credits to collect the materials for the strongest weapon for their guild and its loss would have extremely negative consequences for the guild.

And yet, if someone else demanded Ainz's position, he would have easily conceded. Of course, everything would be different if some members of the guild did not agree with the candidacy of the new leader, but if they all supported the new leader, Ainz would even be happy about his dismissal.

Therefore, such vehement denial from Nero made him look at the situation of the girl with a confusion - however, he still did not interrupt her explanations.

"I refused to accept the leadership of the Ancestor," Nero sighed. "However, I could not fight him. And so we retired here to Antium, along with uncle, Caesar and the people faithful to me. And so, for a month now, we stayed in this position."

"Simply put, we are all stuck," Caesar sighed, summing up the girl's speech, "Romulus controls Rome, but his strength is not enough to definitely destroy the invading barbarians and he does not want to fight with us. Our forces are not enough to fight with the barbarians - and we also do not want to fight with Romulus. At the same time, the barbarians are afraid to fight with us or Romulus, because they understand that even if they managed to defeat one of us, the second camp will kill their remains."

"Hm," Medusa's voice said quietly to herself, "It sounded like something I already heard about before..."

"I see," Ainz sighed, then frowned. The situation they are in was complex, "Is that all or is there something else?"

Caesar sighed - after the story, Nero fell silent, reaching for a new goblet of wine, allowing the man to continue, - "There is some rumors that some of the people claimed that they saw a new island near the shores of Latium... Of course, such an island should not exist - neither during my life, not before, nor after, such a place did not exist. However, none of those who went there could return and talk about what is really happening on that island, if it exists at all."

"I see," Ainz sighed. "In that case... What do you suggest?"

"Join us ~ umu!" Nero immediately extended her hand forward, as if her previous anger and bitterness were simply simulated.

"Hm?" Ainz looked at Nero, waiting for an explanation.

"If you join us, then the six Servants will be a huge help!" The girl smiled. "Together with such power, we can convince the Ancestor and his Servants to retreat or even join us as generals! In this case, the victory over the barbarians will be easy."

"It is possible," Ainz nodded, confirming the girl's words, "However, so what?"

"Barrier," Nero smiled with a broad smile, "I don't know what exactly you need, but I give a 100% guarantee that this is due to the barrier that has appeared in the middle of Rome! After we force the Ancestor to retreat and defeat the barbarians, I am ready to provide you with the complete information that my magi managed to collect, and my full support - as well as the support of all my allies - in your endeavor ~ umu."

"Hey, do not drag me into this matter after the fact," Caesar objected, but rather sluggishly, after which he sighed and looked at Ainz, "But in general... She's right. If we can join forces, then we will not remain in debt. You will help us - and we will help you. Everything is simple."

It really sounded simple. Very simple. Amazingly simple.

Too simple.

In the previous singularity, Ainz avoided open fights in every possible way, and even if it occurred, he tried to reveal only a minimum of his abilities, to avoid even the possibility that his enemy would be able to collect some information about him. In the end, he found out that all this was in vain and he could easily destroy all his enemies with a couple of spells passing through the lands of France with an unstoppable avalanche. And then his barrier to suppressing surveillance was activated.

In this Singularity, it seemed as if everything was telling him how easy and simple it was to finish all the battles. He didn't even have to go himself - just saying "I agree" he could fight once with the Servants - and most likely they would not be too strong for him, after which he would get all the information he needed, deal with the barrier and return to Chaldea literally in a few days.

This could not happen.

Ainz's paranoia might be the one saying this, but it was impossible to put it out with a simple "you are just overthinking it". It was as if the whole Singularity was telling him how easy and simple it was to deal with it in just a couple of days, without encountering any obstacles.

This could not happen.

Ainz felt this with his whole being as a person, as a player and as an employee, that in all this some kind of trick was hidden. A big one.

Yes, it was his paranoia, but if he was ready to keep his paranoia at minimum in the event of a battle, looking at what the Servants were really like in battle, then in the current situation Ainz simply could not calm himself down with words like "not everything in life should be difficult. " He saw a big trap in this situation.

"What about the island?" Ainz asked, not completely sure of his answer.

"If you need it, then after defeating the barbarians, we can also visit this island ~ umu," Nero smiled.

Everything sounded too perfect to be true.

"Good," Ainz sighed, but before Nero could say anything back, he nodded. "I'll think about your proposition."

"Hm?" The girl was surprised, "You will not help your emperor?!"

"I'll think about your words," in the end, Ainz repeated again and drank from the mug of wine, blurred in a smile. Really, it was great, - "But I will not give a definite answer right now."

Nero seemed to be about to say something else, but she was immediately interrupted by Caesar's words. "Well, that's the best that we could hope for."

Nero turned to Caesar indignantly, but he only shook his head a little, causing Nero to pout in some completely childish gesture and sit back, puffing out her cheeks. Although even so, her cheeks were an order of magnitude smaller than Caesar's.

"And you are so-so-ooo-fat, hee-hee," Ainz panicked for a second that he accidentally expressed his thoughts before realizing that what had been said was said in a thin girlish voice.

Turning to the side to the source of the voice, Ainz found Mashu, who at the moment, with a bright blush on her cheeks, continued to look at Caesar. Judging by the fact that five empty goblets were already set aside next to the girl, she managed to get drunk even with the diluted wine.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ainz smiled a polite, apologetic smile. "It seems that wine does not always sit well with young people."

"It's okay," Caesar only smiled at this, as if he himself apologized for his weight, "I'm used to such a reaction."

"And yet - I beg your pardon," Ainz rose from the table. "I think fresh air can help Mashu freshen up her head a little."

After this, Ainz took several steps toward Mashu and help her stand up, slightly raising her shoulder, and then slowly walked away.

"I will go with the Master," the previously silent Medusa rose from the table and also left them, following Ainz.

"By the way," - Cainabel did not fail to use the opportunity, - "Why are you so fat?"

"Hey!" Jeanne called out to the girl, but she was still interested to know.

"Nero is definitely to blame for this," Caesar said calmly.

"Hey!" The girl answered with a frown, "And why are you blaming me ~ umu?!"

"And who else should I blame?" Caesar sighed martyrly, after which he finally held out his hands before eating, "And now that the conversation is over, I want a big peace of liver."

* * *

**Deicide**: _EX (Case)_

About five hundred.

Is the number of gods killed by Ainz Ooal Gown. Not as a guild, but Ainz himself.

About five hundred creatures that were classified as gods, with unique names, abilities, personalities, stories and a place in the world.

If one takes into account not only the Gods, but also their Champions, priests, creatures possessing divine blood and even users of divine powers and artifacts, then this number will grow to several tens of thousands, maybe up to one hundred thousand.

But still - even so, a hundred thousand is too little. One hundred thousand are the number of unique enemies killed by Ainz. However, in the game, especially in MMO-RPG, there is such a thing as a grind. Endless killings of the same enemy, reborn over and over again, with the aim of getting yourself a rare drop with a negligible chance of dropping. Kills repeated over and over, five times, twenty, one hundred, or even five hundred times, until the player receives the desired drop.

But what was normal in the game does not remain the same in the legend of the creature named Ainz. There is no such thing as a "grind" in the legend. However, the fact of endless, repetitive destruction of the same gods remains unchanged.

In the end, everyone is the hero of his story. In Yggdrasil, this phrase acquired some special meaning. After all, there are thousands of timelines in which the _**World Eater**_ was defeated by a thousand different heroes... Why can't there be thousands of worldlines in which there was only Ainz, destroying the same gods in different timelines with the goal of just moving to the next - and destroying them there?

It is important that this skill in any other conditions would become part of another, different skill, however, due to certain conditions, it was highlighted separately. The name for these special conditions is Supertier Magic.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**About a few comments - Solomon is... Theme for the future. Long, long future...**

**To Temsen - I like that somebody got this right. Servants just too humane for Ainz. But that doesn't mean, that they are really "humane". At least, not all of them.**

**About Deicide skill and Ea and similar powers... Well, I would not answer this question outright. I better say that Ainz is the pretty much definition of overkill for... Well, anything, really. There are way too many powers for him (well, in this fanfic at least) to not be bothered by pretty much anything.**

**About Cu Chulainn straightness - I know that "real" Cu Chulainn is not exactly "straight as a line". But his Caster-version surely is. Lancer? Not so much. But still heavily on the "straight" side.**

**And yeah, I'm now updating more often. But the next chapter is the "Chaldea and Staff" - as I decided to name it - or the chapter about characters that are currently not present in the main story. Hope you would like it.**

**Also - ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	46. Chapter 46

Serenity moved through the corridors, trying to occupy as little space as possible in the space available to her. Of course, she was not shy - but it would be problematic if she accidentally left a little sweat on the wall and some unfortunate person - or even a Servant, as if the distinction changes something - would lean on it would die in terrible agony a couple of days later.

"That's it for the 'official wife'", - Serenity also tried not to think about Kiyohime moving beside her.

Serenity silently continued to move forward, pampering herself with the thought that the girl chasing her could get lost at the next corner and finally stop bothering Assassin.

"Why do you think he did not take you into the Singularity?" Kiyohime covered her face with her fan, and then looked away, as if she had not looked at Serenity's reaction at all. However, she didn't plan to lag behind Assassin, so her feigned thoughtfulness on the issue only made Serenity sigh, "Maybe because he doesn't really like you that much?"

Serenity did not like to cause conflict for no reason. In the end, if someone really was her enemy - she would rather finish it off quickly, by poison or dagger, doesn't matter - than wasting time and energy on meaningless conversations. However, due to the fact that Kiyohime was a Servant of her Master, and therefore could not simply be killed while she slept - and because she also was not lagging behind Assassin, she was forced to reply - "Because of my death in the Singularity, Master preferred not to expose me to the excessive risks."

"Oh, is that all?" Kiyohime grinned at her open fan. "I have heard such a boring answer a hundred times already — and for a hundred times my faith in such an answer has not grown. Do you really think so - or do you still can't understand that it was a ruse?"

Serenity only stopped her movement at this, then sighed - shortly, but still a tired sigh - and turned to Kiyohime, who, catching Serenity's eyes, smiled into her open fan, hiding the satisfied expression on her face.

"You also remained in Chaldea, despite the fact that you did not die in the previous Singularity," Serenity looked at the girl intently, "Unlike me, you don't even have an excuse for why you stayed here."

"Hmm," it seems that this topic nevertheless also bothered Kiyohime, because of which her smile faded a little - but after a second returned to its previous state, "Unlike you, Anchin and I share the eternal love that has existed for hundreds of years. Such a trifle is not able to interfere with our love."

"Really?" Serenity glanced uninterestedly at Kiyohime. "You declare this — but I still have not seen the evidence. Master did not even talk with you after your summoning."

"Like you," Kiyohime parried back, but this answer did not have the ridicule that she now held on her face.

"You did not answer the first part of my question," Serenity calmly pointed out this fact, "I feel your reluctance to answer it. Can't even say why?"

"It's not something that someone like you will understand," Kiyohime blurted out a grin, but that grin lacked any real smugness and sense of superiority. Rather, Kiyohime attempted to display a smirk as if she truly spoke with confidence - "Our connection with Anchin does not need such petty confirmation."

"Do you really think so - or do you still can't understand that it was a ruse?" Serenity, with a slight sense of satisfaction, replied back using the words of Kiyohime, after which she saw how slowly the smile slid from Berserker's face.

"You speak too confidently for someone who is not ready to know the anger of a dragon," Kiyohime answered calmly, but her usual smile was not on her face. Even more than that, the girl closed her fan, after which she looked into Assassin's eyes.

"You speak too confidently for someone who is not ready to die from poison," retorted Serenity, responding to the calm threat of Kiyohime with her own calm threat.

In the end, both girls were alike. They were similar in their desires, similar in their actions and even in their current situation. However, Serenity remained an Assassin - one for whom control of her own emotions was necessary for survival - while Kiyohime was a Berserker, for whom control of emotions when it came to her subject of adoration was unthinkable.

"Perhaps you want to be eaten?" Kiyohime raised her head again in mock thoughtfulness.

"Be careful in your eating habits," Serenity replied calmly, "Who knows, maybe you'll come across something poisonous."

Kiyohime returned her gaze to Serenity, but this time her voice, albeit calm, contained a bit of anger - there was, rather, annoyance at how someone daring enough to call herself the "legal wife" of her Anchina refused to back down from her errors even in front of her, - "My patience is not endless, girl."

"Likewise mine is the same," this time Serenity also let a little annoyance slip through her voice.

Two girls stood opposite each other, eye to eye, seeing enemies in each other - and even worse. Rivals.

"Oh, oh, oh!" A third voice sounded, distracting both girls, forcing them to turn on the third man who just appeared, "Keep calm, keep calm, we are all friends here, do not fight..."

"Romani, hmm," the voice of Kiyohime expressed the obvious. A man in his mid-twenties appeared from around the next corner with a perfectly clean, smooth-shaven face and apricot hair tied in a high tail - the person known as the right hand of the Chief of Chaldea, the chief technician, in the current conditions, and the chief doctor - always - of Chaldea.

"I'm not sure I understand what's causing the conflict here," the man smiled, trying to smooth out the quarrel, "But I'm quite sure that it can be resolved without resorting to such extreme measures."

For a second, Serenity and Kiyohime froze, pondering what was just said. None of them wanted to continue the fight - however, none of them wanted to admit defeat either, which is why the appearance of Roman was positively received by both of them.

"I think I'll find things more interesting to do than chatting with this annoying little thing," despite the fact that Kiyohime was the first to start the fight, she pretended that it was Serenity that had bothered the Berserker, after which she turned around and opened her fan, fanning herself, then slowly walked away.

"Hm," was the only reaction of Serenity, who immediately turned away and slowly wandered on.

"Oh, it was easier than I expected," Roman smiled immediately, after which he turned towards Serenity, "Oh, Serenity. Not busy?"

The Assassin pondered what was said for several moments, trying to determine the purpose of the question, "No."

"Good," Roman smiled immediately, after which he yawned out as if he had just woken up. No, Serenity took a closer look - judging by the fact that his hair was still not combed and there was a small mark on his cheek from a pillow - he really just woke up not so long ago, - "then, can you keep me company?"

"Hm?" Serenity looked around at the man "Is there some kind of activity I should take part in?"

"No, no, not anything like that," Roman shook his head several times in the negative, after which he looked at Assassin, "It just that something really rare and unusual happened today — the chief didn't need me for something today. And since the last time I got something like a vacation was - well, never — this morning I found myself in a somewhat unusual position, completely without any idea of what I should do in my free time. So I thought that if you weren't busy right now, then we could keep each other company."

"Hm," Serenity looked at Roman once more, carefully examining the man from head to toe. His white coat also lay on his shoulders, covering his white shirt and trousers - however, nothing on the man looked suspicious, so Serenity, who also did not know what she should be doing at the moment, nodded, "Okay."

"Excellent," Romani smiled, after which he nodded toward the passage from which he appeared from, "Then let's go, it's not far from my office."

Serenity nodded in response and followed after Roman.

Apparently, the chief really recently made Roman carry out many of her instructions... Unlike the Assassin's Master himself.

This line of thinking did not greatly cause any particular emotion in the heart of Serenity. But still the thought bothered Serenity a bit.

The distance to Roman's office was short - therefore, after only a couple of turns, the man reached for the door of the medical office combined with his modest dwelling and opened the door, entering inside. Serenity came in then started to examine the room.

Although it is in fact a medical office, so it is no surprise that it also contained all the necessary things a doctor would need, like the usual table used for checking the acuity of a patient's eyesight and several cabinets full of medicines, the patient's couch was converted into the doctor's sleeping cot, currently empty, and at the table instead of medical documents, a laptop was resting, invitingly flashing a large banner window. Looking at the window, the girl was able to see that this notification was talking about a new video of a certain virtual idol.

"Oops!" - immediately seeing the same thing as the girl, the man rushed to the computer and instantly clicked the close button using the mouse, closing the pop-up banner, then turned to Serenity, trying to maintain an awkward smile, "Haha, it was awkward... Serenity, you won't close the door?"

"No," Serenity answered unequivocally.

Roman froze for a second, pondering the answer, trying to determine if for some reason the Assassin was angered before she slowly raised her hand and waved it in the air, making Roman remember, "Yeah, that..."

Roman sighed, after which he took a few steps and closed the door, glancing at Serenity for a second. If she couldn't even close the door without risking possibly poisoning anyone...

"My room is marked with a warning," Serenity calmly answered an unspoken question, "So that no one would go inside and touch anything by mistake."

"Ha-ha," Roman forcefully tried to squeeze out a laugh, not sure how he should react to what was just said, and then looked at his bed. Of course, he planned to tell the girl something like "sit down," but in the current conditions...

"I will stand," Serenity answered calmly to the unspoken question, saving Roman from another awkward moment, after which she added something else just in case, "I'm also wearing shoes, so there are no poisonous residue on the floor."

"Haha, you've thought everything over, right?" Roman smiled, squeezing an awkward compliment, "Why not use gloves?"

"I have one, but I did not take it with me," Serenity answered, "I didn't expect to go somewhere."

"Ahem." Romani froze. Did not plan to go somewhere? And what, then, did Serenity plan to do all this time?

"Wandering around Chaldea, watching people," the girl answered the unspoken question question.

"Everything is written on my face, right?" Roman asked with a sigh, glancing at Serenity.

"You are easy to read," Assassin replied, looking at Romani carefully, "Besides, I'm used to these questions."

"Hm, are you used to it?" Roman looked at the girl, after which he sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head. "From what I saw, you cannot really be called as someone who is very sociable."

"I'm indeed quite used to being alone," Serenity confirmed the man's words, "But this list of questions comes from my previous life."

"Ah," Roman sighed, after which he made his way to the chair behind the desk and sat on it, twisting his body slightly to look in Assassin's direction.

An awkward silence reigned in the room for a second.

"You know, I do have a spare mug, so I can give you one to use," sighed Romani, "And you need to eat the pastry with your hand anyway, so you don't need to put them back on the plate... So, you don't really have a reason to refuse a little tea time with me will you?"

Serenity examined Roman for a few seconds before she sighed. "I guess not."

"Excellent!" The man clapped his hands in joy, after which he got up, "Then I will put the kettle on and bring the croissants. I swear I never tried anything tastier than Archer's cooking!"

Serenity did not respond to these words, allowing the man to rise from his seat and go about his business.

She would like to get tea with Ainz.

She would not have had to stand, he would not have been opposed to having her sit next to her. Although, perhaps he would still be worried about his other Servants - her Master was extremely kind and courteous to the Servants - so she would have to sit where her poisonous footprint was not at all terrible.

Perhaps on the lap of the Master?

Serenity froze at the thought. For some reason, she had a vivid picture of herself, while sitting on Ainz's lap, Serenity suddenly swayed awkwardly, but before falling Ainz grabbed her... With his own hands. Touching her. Not at all afraid of her poison. Then he hugged her - just so that she would not fall...

Of course, Serenity would not be able to use the cutlery either - but her Master was not at all afraid of her poison. Perhaps Ainz would have agreed... To feed her himself?

Serenity peered at this imagined picture and smiled. A kind of warm feeling spread in her chest from the imaginary picture.

"That's all," Serenity was pulled out from her fantasies by Roman's voice . The girl looked toward the source of the voice to find several croissants lying on a plate, and a cup of tea set aside for Serenity. In addition, she had to stand. Not at all like in the picture in her head.

The girl sighed. For some reason, from these thoughts, her warm feeling in her chest gave way to a nagging feeling of loneliness.

Serenity sighed and brought the tea to her lips, taking a sip. Hot, but not scorching. Tolerant.

After that, the girl picked up a croissant and bit off a small piece. Suddenly, the croissants turned out to be very good ... Very, very... Even delicious...

The girl once again bit off a piece and looked at the croissant with a slight bit of surprise. Strange, the simple piece of pastry was really delicious ...

"I knew that Archer's cooking will help you unwind," the Doctor smiled, after which he took another croissant and bit off a bite, smiling, "I don't know where he learned how to cook like that - but I'm definitely grateful to him for that."

For a couple of minutes, silence reigned in the office, interrupted only by the sound of two people eating breakfast, before Romani set aside an empty cup and sighed, calmly, "Well, that's better. After food, any conversation is easier."

"A conversation?" Serenity, finally having finished her tea, set the mug to the farthest edge of the table so that the doctor could not confuse it with his , "So you still found me for a reason."

"Oops, haha," Roman smiled a little regretful smile, "I was caught..."

"Hm," Serenity looked at the man. "Did something happen?"

"No, nothing like that," the man answered with a shake of his head in denial, "I just wanted to talk. You know, it's pretty hard to catch you in Chaldea."

"I suppose it has something to do with my class," Assassin answered calmly.

"Yes, perhaps," Romani nodded, and then sighed, gathering his thoughts, "I just wanted to find out what is worrying you."

"Nothing," Serenity answered calmly and looked at Roman.

"Erm, yes, exactly," the man sighed, "I completely forgot... It's just that you are very distant from other people."

"This is usually what happens after becoming an Assassin," Serenity replied calmly.

"Yes, but you are even more distant than Hassan," Roman sighed. "And some people in Chaldea still don't even know that he was summoned again. He has a strange habit of using his invisibility everytime…"

Serenity looked at Roman with a particular gaze, because of which he was not able to finish his line of thought, "Yes, for sure. Comes with being an Assassin, huh?"

The attempt at a joke did not provoke any reaction from Serenity, because of which Roman sighed again, - "In general, all the Servants are distant from each other and from normal people, but this is different. Archer has taken over the kitchen and is now constantly cooking there... Arthuria... People are afraid to approach her - but she often appears in the kitchen, especially now, when Archer began to cook there. Mozart is easy to find in the relaxation room - if he does not play the piano installed there, then at least he tries to beat someone in the fighting game on the console. Kiyohime disappears all day in the place that used to be a beauty salon...

"Why is there a beauty salon in Chaldea?" Serenity glanced at Roman, raising one eyebrow.

"Don't ask," Roman sighed. He still remembered how Olga-Marie a year ago forced Lev to find all the necessary equipment to open it, only when the salon was ready - to completely forget about it forever - "Hassan was sometimes seen in the library - or on the outskirts of Chaldea, examining the barrier or the ventilation holes... In general, all the Servants of Ainz can be found doing something in Chaldea, one way or another."

"Besides me," Serenity finished the logical chain.

"Besides you," Romani confirmed. It sounded somehow accusatory and Roman did not want it to sound that way - but he had little choice in this regard. In fact, Serenity was really not to blame for anything - just for her, interacting with any people or Servants was fraught with additional difficulties.

"I think I've already explained the reason for this," Serenity once again expressively raised her hand and waved it in the air.

Romani was silent. She really did explained.

Of course, Roman is not educated as a psychologist - but even if he were a certified specialist, he would hardly be able to answer such a conundrum. In the end, it was not a psychological problem that could be solved by conversation - but a limitation of the physical body, which the man could not change.

"Is it hard for you?" But he couldn't just keep silent as well, without even trying to help, so he asked a question, looking directly at Serenity.

Serenity was silent for a few seconds before she could give out her answer. "It is indeed inconvenient and it limits my usefulness..."

After these words, Serenity was silent. Indeed, limited usefulness. Ainz clearly noticed this.

"No, I'm talking about something else," Romani, not sure what the girl was thinking about, tried to clarify, "I mean, not its effect on your abilities as a Servant, but... More, psychologically? Forgive me if I go into your own personal business - I'm actually not certified as a psychologist."

"It's all right," Serenity, distracted from her thought, looked at Roman, "I understand."

After that, Serenity was silent, thinking that she was supposed to answer Roman's question.

She did not love her poisonous body. Really, she did not. Everything that touched her would inevitably die, people, animals, even plants. What is it like to live seeing the beauty of life in front of you - and be afraid to touch it, knowing that it will die?

But still…

"No," Serenity finally said, after which a slight smile appeared on her face, "Not when I'm next to Master."

In the end, she found something that even her damned touch was not able to kill.

However, now her Master was not here.

Serenity frowned instantly, feeling her smile fade. Indeed, now, without her Master, there was no one else who could touch her. There was no one whom she could touch.

Serenity sighed.

'This is the same problem as with Medusa, right?' Roman looked at Serenity, thoughtfully, 'However, in the end, Ainz solved the problem of Medusa with one wave of his hand... I wonder if he can also solve Serenity's problem just as easily?'

This question was very complicated - perhaps some ancient ritual could cleanse Serenity of her poison - but at the same time - what would happen to the Servant, Hassan of Serenity, the one for which her poison was part of her essence?

'On the other hand…' - Roman sighed. 'We are talking about Ainz here.'

"Ainz is an amazing person, though," Roman smiled. Yes, they knew only little about Ainz... No, perhaps, they knew quite a lot from Cainabel - and what they knew did not speak so positively about the magician himself - however, at the same time, his actions very eloquently spoke about his true nature. If any of the information they acquired was true - it was impossible to truly know.

"Yes," at that moment, for the first time in a long time, Serenity smiled a full smile, "He is indeed amazing."

For a second both people were silent. Serenity is thinking about her Master. Roman also is also thinking about Ainz - but he is also thinking about Serenity.

In general, he could not do anything. Serenity did not have any kind of psychological problem that was bothering her, which he could help solve by talking. Roman also could not cure her physical source of sadness.

But, in the end, there was still some small matter he could do to help, by doing what he was already doing which he could help Serenity a little.

"You smiled for the first time in the whole conversation," Roman smiled back, "When it came to Ainz. You know, you can say that I have some regret when this happens to beautiful girls and the cause was not me."

Serenity looked at Roman seriously, - "My heart belongs to Ainz."

"Oh, oh!" Roman immediately started waving his hands when he realized that his innocent half-joke was perceived by the girl in the wrong way, "I'm not talking about that at all! Believe me, I don't want to fight for the Ainz's spot at all!"

"I hope so," Serenity glanced carefully at Roman once again, "I wouldn't want to kill you because you are getting into my business."

"Gulp," Roman swallowed suddenly, when Serenity touched on the topic of murder, "You know, it's not very nice when someone talks about your murder so calmly..."

Serenity did not react to this, only looking at Roman without emotion.

"Eh, it's hard to talk to you," Roman sighed, after which he thought, scratching his head. So, for sure, he wanted to help Serenity, - "But you know, Ainz is really an amazing person."

"Yes," Serenity confirmed it calmly, as if speaking of something that was natural, "Cainabel talked about this. I think all those who should have heard about it have already heard about it."

"Cainabel, yeah," Romani sighed. That girl sent a herd of goosebumps on his back by simply mentioning her name. Romani had seen really strong, terrifying and monstrously strong creatures in his life... Perhaps the strongest Servant that Roman knew of was Da Vinci. Of course, there was another exception, but... Romani did not want to think about it. Da Vinci was the strongest Servant in Chaldea - and it would not be an exaggeration to say that she was one of the strongest Servants... of all? Probably. If Roman needed to determine the level of power of all the Servants he knew about, Da Vinci would take a high place... One of the highest.

Roman was even convinced that the King of Heroes could not have so easily defeated Da Vinci. Perhaps she was still a little weaker - but not by much. However, thinking about Cainabel - Romani shuddered. Da Vinci was one of the strongest Servants that Romani knew, but... He was sure that in the event of a battle, Cainabel would have turned her into a bloody mess. Not immediately, not without resistance, but Cainabel, even if, on the orders of Ainz, concealed her strength, seemed to Roman as a monster. Not a monster in the sense of a "creature", but in the sense of power.

'I'm not sure that even this guy could destroy her…' - Romani shuddered, 'Although he has the greatest chances of all I know…'

"And Ainz was able to defeat such a creature," Romani sighed, then grunted. "You know, I heard from the chief that he called the battle with her "disappointing". Something like that she "was not as strong as I expected."

"This is expected, in the light of what Cainabel told us," Serenity glanced at Roman, "He is a godslayer."

"I already understood that," Romani scratched the back of his head with a sigh. As soon as they came to the conclusion that Ainz was not dangerous, Cainabel came and destroyed their harmonious theory to hell. Judging by her stories, Ainz should have been, if not the cause, then at least a participant in something like the destruction of humanity in the past - and yet he is currently helping with the resolution of a similar problem. Perhaps this could have been done just to alleviate all suspicions from himself - but Roman did not think so. Perhaps, in the end, he was just a gullible idiot - but this time he was ready to trust Ainz, - "And yet, in understanding who he really is, we have not progressed in any way."

"Although," after that, finally, Roman felt like he reached the desired topic, "Perhaps Da Vinci and I managed to find something about Ainz..."

Serenity did not change the expression in her face - however, Romani noticed how her gaze became focused on him.

"You know, not so long ago Ainz was in the library," Romani nodded, "After which Medusa managed to read one of Ainz's books..."

"So what?" Serenity tilted her head slightly. It was a minor reaction - however, Serenity usually refrained from showing any reaction, so Romani could congratulated himself on the fact that he had a subject that interested the girl, - "And what did she find out?"

"Not so much," Romani sighed. "However, it was a book about deization."

"Oh, deization is…"- Romani immediately tried to explain to girl.

"The process of becoming a god," Serenity nodded, after which she looked expectantly at Roman. "Do you think he is trying to become a god?"

"No, no," Roman shook his head, "We don't have much evidence of this, but Da Vinci believes that he is already a Divine Spirit... Or something like that."

"That's how it is," Serenity looked at the man, "And why, then, does he need a book about deization? Especially now?"

This was the first time that Serenity had asked two questions in a row in all the conversation - so Romani could say that she really was interested in the answer, - "Oh, this is the most interesting part. Da Vinci thought about this before, but there is one more point that interested her - and me a little later."

"Do you know about data crystals?" Romani asked a somewhat non-sequitur question and receiving an affirmative nod from Serenity, continued, "Da Vinci tried to create a data crystal with her own hands - and although I and she were ready to call it a success - in the end both Cainabel and Ainz confirmed that she, in fact, did not succeed. Although from the point of view of Da Vinci herself, she followed the required steps perfectly - the result in the end was similar to a data crystal, but not exactly the same."

"Medusa, in turn, spoke about what she read in the book," Roman grimaced at the reminder. He didn't catch much from the words spoken then, unlike Da Vinci, - "And then Da Vinci locked herself in her laboratory for a day. Honestly, Medusa did not give any rules or equations and did not show any graphs, but Da Vinci still tried to recreate... Some of those steps."

"Honestly, she sometimes scares me," after these words Serenity tried to imagine a frightening Da Vinci, however, even in her imagination, Da Vinci only raised her arms bombastically, saying "This is natural for a natural-born genius like me!"

"I can't imagine it," Serenity expressed her thoughts.

"Oh, don't underestimate Da Vinci," Roman sighed. "She... She knows how to be dangerous when it is necessary."

"But in any case," Romani interrupted the thought, "Da Vinci tried to deduce something from Medusa's story, and she even got a certain formula written down. But still - it was an unfinished formula, even for a genius if she didn't have enough basic facts to draw up a complete picture she could not come to the right conclusion."

"However," Romani continued the thought, "Before he entered Singularity, Ainz gave Da Vinci the opportunity to look at the Grail... The pseudo-Grail ... It doesn't matter. And she found several similarities between the data crystals and from the Grail…"

"Dr. Roman," Serenity interrupted the man's tirade, looking at him carefully, "I don't understand where you are going with this conversation and how it relates to Master."

"Ah, um, I'm sorry," Roman sighed, trying to hide his gaze from Serenity, "I digress... So, what I'm talking about is that what if... These things are connected?"

"Which ones?" Serenity looked at Roman carefully.

"All of it," the man answered shortly, "It's just that it's so strange... All these Singularities - we still can't thoroughly answer why they arose, but we can more or less determine that they are connected with these pseudo- Grails. We can also determine that these pseudo-Grails are associated with data crystals. And the book that Ainz read... I can't vouch for her, but Da Vinci said that what was described in the book could also be related to this."

"What comes of this?" Serenity looked at the man, waiting for him to summarize his story.

"What I'm saying is that Ainz is trying to find some information about why these Singularities arose," Roman sighed, "No, even, rather, he knows something about the reason for their occurrence and their connection with the pseudo-Grails... And with what was written in the book?"

"Do you think that someone created the Singularities in order to undergo deization?" Serenity looked at Roman, asking the most logical question.

"In a sense," Roman sighed and finished his thought, "And apparently Ainz knows something about this. And he gave us information about this through Medusa."

"Really?" For the first time, Serenity looked really surprised at Roman's words.

"Well, you are not thinking that Ainz by chance entered the library, the only place where you can find Medusa, the only person who may be interested in which book he reads and the only one who can remember this information and deems it necessary to tell someone about it," Roman smiled, "After which, quite by accident, for some reason decided to open a random book on a random page that accidentally described information that correlated with what is currently a mystery to us now, after which he accidentally helped Da Vinci pointed out a completely random resemblance, and quite by accident gave her a completely coincidentally similar object that accidentally helped solve an equation for a process that Da Vinci deduced quite by accident…"

Somewhere far in the Singularity, Ainz sneezed.

"I understand what you're leading to," Serenity smiled. Did Ainz really by accident, by the simple chance that it would lead into a series of unbelievable consequences that he did not foresee? - "This is absolutely impossible."

Ainz sneezed again.

"Here I am talking about the same thing," Romani smiled, and then returned to his usual expression, "In general... Da Vinci and I believe that Ainz specifically gave us some kind of clue about what is happening in the Singularities. And that he obviously knows something about it."

"So how?" Serenity thought, "But in that case... Why not say it openly?"

Romani frowned. "I would also like to know about this. But the chain of random coincidences is too large to still be considered to be just a "chain of random coincidences". No one can create such a sequence of factors coinciding together to turn a group of random events into such a coherent theory."

Ainz sneezed again, after which he thought for a second about whether a Servant or even the undead could catch a cold.

"I thought about it," Romani sighed, "And I came to the conclusion... What if he himself wants us to come to this answer?"

"So that's how?" Serenity looked at Romani with a question.

"Yes," Roman nodded. "I know that it may sound strange, but what if Ainz wants to give us a task that we must solve for ourselves?"

"You think that he acts as a teacher?" Serenity looked at Roman.

"I have no other ideas," Roman shrugged. However, another fact appeared in his mind, - "However... Do you know that Ainz spoke of a Third World War?"

"Third World War?" Serenity looked at Roman. The Third World War has so far remained one of the most famous ideas of the so-called "doomsday" prediction, an idea extremely popular in popular culture and, unfortunately, in the minds of many analysts.

"Yes," Roman nodded. He didn't hear the conversation with Ainz, only from Olga-Marie's retelling - but nevertheless this fact was enough for him - "And I thought... What if all this is interconnected. The summoning of Ainz, the Third World War, his clues - all this is connected with each other?"

Serenity was silent for a second.

The chain of random coincidences was so great that it could hardly be called "random" even in the mind. The theory sounded so harmonious that it was more like the truth than a theory.

Ainz, an unknown creature that knows about a possible Third World War, has unknown but enormous powers, has been engaged in unimaginable things for so long that any person could just use the word "forever", on a scale beyond imagination, tried to help people with the resolution of their crisis, the destruction of mankind, at the same time giving them a hint about how they themselves could come to a solution to the issue that has arisen... So as to prevent the destruction of the world in the future, in the flame of the Third World War.

The theory was so harmonious that Serenity thought for a second how she might not have noticed all this before.

"So you think Ainz came here to help humanity?" Serenity smiled.

"Well, he already helps it with dealing with the Singularities," Roman shrugged, "So it's not so hard to imagine that he wants to help us with anything else..."

Serenity was silent for a few seconds.

And so she, all this time, was thinking that Ainz found her so useless that he left her in Chaldea. While he himself fought for the sake of humanity. Even more - at the forefront of the conflict - even when he was not here, he still managed to help humanity as a whole with only a couple of "accidents", in which only the blind could not discern a subtle plan...

Somewhere far away, Ainz sneezed loudly, after which he blinked a couple of times, thinking about the possibility of an allergy for a Servant.

"He's really a wonderful person," Serenity smiled with a kind, warm smile.

"Well, apparently - yes," Roman shrugged.

"Roman, fuck you, Akkiman," came the voice of the speakers. Apparently, the chief said this - however, instead of the usual hatred, the voice from the speakers sounded rather tired - "If you don't go up to the central point of contact right now and make this damn device, which, by your assurances, should start working in this Singularity, work, then I'll throw you into the core of Chaldea. Or even worse, I'll throw out your damn collection of idol discs."

"Not my idols!" Romani sighed in horror, jumping from his seat, after which he looked at Serenity with an apology in his eyes, "I apologize, but apparently, Chief really needs me."

"Yes, I already understood that," Serenity sighed, and then looked at Roman, "But still... Thank you."

"Not at all," Roman shrugged and turned away. "I'm still the chief psychologist of Chaldea... For the lack of other candidates."

After that, Romani made a small smile.

In the end, he could still do a little good thing. And that in itself was wonderful. Why else would Romani live?

* * *

**Name**: Hassan of Serenity (Serenity)

**Race**: Human

**Title**: Poisonous Flower of Serenity

**Occupation**: Ainz's Servant \ Ainz's Official Wife (self-nominated)

**Residence**: Chaldea, Serenity Room in the residential wing

**Karma**: -100 (Neutral-Evil)

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

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	47. Chapter 47

Ainz took a few more steps before he was able to step out of the shadows cast by a huge column and looked into the night sky. Apparently, their journey and conversation took longer than Ainz originally thought. The first stars have already begun to appear in the evening sky, still faded under the rays of the evening sun.

"Senpai," - Mashu who is lying in the arms of Ainz tried to pull herself together, to stand on her feet, but after one unstable step she still allowed herself to lean again against Ainz, - "Where-hic are we?"

"Outside," the magician answered briefly, after which he looked at Mashu. Apparently, she really did not know her own limitations with alcohol.

'When was the last time I had to babysit drunk colleagues?' - Ainz sighed. He rarely went to parties, even when his boss decided to arrange something like a corporate party, Ainz usually just apologized and disappeared from work, trying to return to Yggdrasil. And yet, maybe several times in his life he had to deal with people who got into alcohol, and then seriously overestimated their abilities in this regard - 'It brings back memories…'

"Senpai," Mashu blinked a couple of times before focusing her already slightly wobbly gaze on the man. Strange, the wine was watered down, so Ainz was sure that the alcohol content was low - and yet Mashu managed to get drunk even in this way. It seems that she really was a lightweight drinker, - "Why are we-hic outside?"

"Just to get a little fresh air," Ainz smiled at Mashu, after which he took a couple more steps, stepping on the threshold of the palace. Fortunately, the guard was absent this time around - whether they had a change of guards or the guards simply realized that in the current situation they were practically useless - Ainz was not worried. On the other hand, Ainz was worried that there wasn't any decent bench or other place where Ainz could sit down with Mashu.

"Senpai…" - as if Mashu had just understood an important detail, - "You... You-hic are... hug... hug-hic-ging me?"

Ainz really just supported Mashu at the moment with one hand, allowing the drunk girl to lean on the magician.

"I'm supporting you so that you don't fall," Ainz tried to explain to the girl, but apparently his words didn't reach into the girl's ears.

"Sen-hic-pai…" - however, Mashu was not angry with such a turn of events. On the contrary, noticing this detail, the girl threw her hand in an awkward gesture into Ainz's shoulder, clutching at that. Although it might seem that the girl tried to hug the magician herself in response, this was done more likely to stay on her feet.

"Every-hic-thing is good ..." - the girl's face immediately broke into a smile, a blush began to appear on Mashu's cheeks - although this was not from the romance of the situation, but rather from the alcohol she drank earlier.

'Do not give Mashu alcohol' - Ainz said to himself this important detail, after which he took a few more steps, reaching the huge staircase that connected the city streets to the palace and, for lack of a more decent options, sat down on the top step, forcing Mashu to sit next to him, legs dangling to the bottom step. After that, Ainz tried to remove his hand, which was no longer necessary to keep the girl in a straight position - but he could not do this, as soon as Mashu felt the magician's intentions, she, having wrung her unhappy face, grabbed the magician's hand with her other hand and pulled it back with force. Moreover, Ainz was quite sure that Mashu had put in a little more power for this than was necessary. Simply put, Ainz was quite sure that if he himself were not a Servant, then Mashu could well have broken his arm - well, or at least dislocated it from his shoulder.

'Servants and their strength' - Ainz sighed to himself, after which he looked at Mashu, who, having achieved her goal, only blurred into a drunken smile, after which she looked away from the magician, staring off into the distance.

Ainz, reflecting on the situation for a couple of seconds, was forced to admit that apparently he couldn't leave Mashu alone, so he looked away from the girl and looked at the city below.

The sun flickered its last rays, after which the light finally faded, allowing the stars to slowly appear in the sky, and to shine in full force.

Ainz looked up at the sky.

It's funny...

Slowly, as if from the abyss of the night itself, an ocean of shining stars appeared in front of him, and all Ainz could do was look at how the gradually small lights light up in the blackness of the night sky.

Really funny...

In the world of Ainz, seeing stars were a truly unattainable dream.

The space program was shut down many years ago, in preference of much more important things, things that are much closer than the faraway space - however, this was not what Ainz was referring to.

In a distant, future world, after the third world war, the skies were always covered in gray smoke, hiding the skies from wandering observers who took the time to look into the night sky. Dark, low clouds of ash from huge factories and from the evaporation of liquids that could no longer be called water flowing in rivers poisoned by industry. Indeed, it was a miracle if he managed to go outside without a metal umbrella, designed to protect against acid rain on the day when weather forecasters promised rainfall.

Just imagine, he really never saw the stars. Not those in the game - real stars.

Ainz looked at the stars, smiling softly.

'Blue Planet' - Ainz remembered his guildmate - 'You would have definitely like this…'

In the past Singularity, he never managed to be relaxed enough to simply stare at the sky, however, here, in this place, Ainz felt calm.

Maybe even too calm.

Ainz indulged his paranoia for a second, who persistently whispered to him that this place was specially created to trap Ainz in an illusion of safety, after which he spent a few more seconds ruminating about this thought and nevertheless with a sigh to ignore it. He spent a few more seconds observing the star filled sky, after which he looked back at Mashu.

Mashu, however, continued to stare at the night sky. In her eyes, Ainz saw surprise and something that Ainz could see in himself. Admiration.

"This is the first time that I could see the stars," the girl smiled, looking at the night sky, not taking her eyes off it even for a second, after which she blinked, "I never thought that something in this world could be so beauti-hic-ful…"

Although Mashu did well, in the end she still could not resist and hiccuped, making Ainz smile. Mashu, recognizing that Ainz was clearly smiling due to her small mistake, immediately pouted and turned away from the magician, nevertheless, without letting go of his hand - or her own for that matter.

Ainz thought for a second before he remembered, "Yes, Mashu..."

The girl immediately turned to the magician, as if her past resentment was just a farce. However, that was exactly what it was, "Senpai?"

"You know, I was thinking about something before," Even without counting this time, Mashu also participated in the previous Singularity, - "Tell me... What do you want?"

"Hic?" The girl hiccuped with a questioning expression, however she might have done it.

"There is supposed to be a reward for every work, isn't it?" Ainz looked at the girl softly. Whether it's a job with a salary or a quest with a bounty - in the end, a reward was supposed to be given for doing a job - "Tell me... Mashu, what do you want?"

Mashu frowned, trying to understand the question with her already pretty fuzzed out mind, and then broke into a smile, "Senpai ... really, really kind…"

"Hm," Ainz smiled. This was not the answer that would line up with his question - besides "kind"? This was not the word that Ainz would describe himself with.

"I see stars, sen-hic-pai," the girl smiled an awkward smile, after which she looked from Ainz to the stars, "Can I ask for anything-hic?"

"Hm," Ainz looked at the stars. The night sky really looked for him as a beautiful precious piece of art, - "And?"

Mashu thought for a second before her clouded mind came up with the idea, - "Then that."

Ainz looked at the girl and she slowly raised a staggering finger to the sky, pointing to a distant star - "Give me that."

Ainz looked up at the sky again, glancing at the star that Mashu was pointing at. It was not the brightest and most notable of stars, just one of many.

In the end, it was the request of a child, asking for a star from the sky.

The stars were really huge fireballs, so even the smallest of them was just a bunch of plasma millions of times larger than the Earth. Of course, it was impossible to pack such a gift and give it to someone. It was simply impossible. It was a request that no adult would ask.

It was the request of a simple child who did not see a huge ball of fire millions of light years away, but a small star in the night sky.

And yet, looking at the sky, Ainz saw the same thing. Many shining diamonds scattered in the night sky.

There was no way to fulfill this request. In the end, it was impossible from the point of view of any normal, sane person.

However, Ainz looked at the sky and said quietly, "Perhaps one day..."

Turning to the side, he saw Mashu, whose eyes were no longer visible her eyelids closing under its own weight.

"Hee-hee," - nevertheless, before finally falling asleep, Mashu quietly said, "Then... It's a promise-hic, hee-hee..."

After a second, Mashu finally closed her eyes fully and fell asleep on Ainz's shoulder, letting her hand slip down.

Only then did Ainz notice a third person close to them.

"Rider," - Ainz turned to the girl. Although he knew her name, he still did not trust the Three Emperors enough to use it openly.

"Master," Medusa stepped out from behind a column, after which she glanced at the magician.

For a second, Medusa gave Ainz a half smile before looking at Mashu, who had fallen asleep on the shoulder of the magician and covered her eyes with a sigh. After that, Medusa opened her eyes and looked at the magician again.

The girl took a few more steps, and then stopped a few meters away from the magician, leaning in on one of the statues in the stairs.

Ainz continued to stare at Medusa for a few more seconds before turning back.

The city below, despite the onset of darkness continued to be lively. Somewhere in the city lamps and candles are lit, somewhere else, a torch. People continued to roam the streets - soldiers marched, sometimes meeting with the passers-by who went over to the guards, drunkenly smiling to guards, or with girls invitingly showing off their bodies to the same drunken gaiters.

For several tens of seconds, Ainz watched the city, living its measured life, before looking again at the sky.

"The stars are beautiful," the girl finally said, "I... I haven't seen them for a long time."

"Me too," Ainz admitted. It's funny, but now, given Mashu, three people who hardly remember or even know what the stars looked like in the night sky, have come together.

Silence reigned for a second.

"Thank you," came the voice of Medusa in the end.

Ainz blinked. "For what?"

To this, Medusa only smiled before her gaze tripped over Mashu, dozing on Ainz's shoulder.

'What did you expect?' - as if a mocking voice resounded in her head - 'Do not know hope - and you will not know sorrow, huh…'

"Rider," finally Ainz returned to the question, "Did you want something?"

"No," the girl shook her head, "I just ran away from Cainabel. She knows how to play on the nerves of people."

"Yes, perhaps." Ainz sighed. Maybe she slowed down her trampling of others a little after talking with the magician, but another problem was added to this. "The master still loves you," huh...

"All the same..." - Medusa thought for a second, not sure if she should raise this topic now, "Who exactly is she?"

"Someone I knew in the past," Ainz sighed.

"I figured that much," the girl sighed, "But still... How strong is she?"

Ainz thought about the answer.

"I once fought her," smiled Ainz. This was not clear evidence in favor of her strength, but Medusa nodded anyway.

"I understand," the girl sighed, "Although... I still don't understand how she could be summoned as a Servant. The system... could not have summoned something so powerful into Chaldea."

"The circumstance of her summoning were not the most normal in any case," Ainz sighed, after which he thought about the knowledge that came from the depths of his mind, "Although she must obviously be weaker than the original as a Servant..."

"Can't you tell clearly?" The girl looked at Ainz, "Even knowing her parameters?"

'Knowing her parameters?' - Ainz thought about what was just said. Ainz did not know her parameters, how could he even find it?

"Not that her parameters could be correlated with her past abilities," Ainz smiled.

"Really?" Medusa blinked. "So... She was so strong that even with complete information about her as a Servant, it is impossible to determine how much she had changed?"

'Full information?' - Ainz looked at the girl, thoughtfully - 'What is she talking about?'

"It's just hard to relate to what I knew about her," Ainz smiled, trying to hide his misunderstanding with a bluff, "That's all."

"Hmm, strange," Medusa thought for a moment, after which she shook her head after a second, "However, it's not as if she was normal from the very beginning."

"Really," Ainz smiled, feeling an imaginary sweat protrude from his forehead.

Information about a Servant's strength? How can he acquire something like that?

Ainz measured the strength of the Servants through observation and similar methods this whole time. He was sure that in his mind that there was no other way to acquire knowledge of the abilities of his Servants. He even used the information that was provided to him about the current Singularity - however, after several attempts, he was absolutely sure that despite the fact that his level or skills should have allowed him to at least understand the magic of this world, he could not use magecraft, which means that, obviously, he could not use any magecraft to find out information about the Servants.

'No,' Ainz suddenly stopped. 'Wait a minute…'

Ainz suddenly looked at his right hand. The hand on which three symbols rested.

In this world there was one kind of magic that was not of Yggdrasil and yet was available to him. Just once, long ago, he found this information unimportant and left it gathering dust among many other unimportant things.

'Command spells' - Ainz looked at his hand, which rested three red symbols and sighed - 'So that's how it is…'

Medusa, having waited another second, sighed and smiled, - "Perhaps, I should go."

"Yes, of course," Ainz nodded his head automatically. He considered the command spells an ability not worth his time and therefore did not know what kind of ability it could give him. Therefore, it was quite natural that he could not evaluate the parameters of the Servants, the observation of which required the use of Command Spells. Not as an Absolute Order, however, but as a connection.

A second later, when Medusa nevertheless moved away from the magician and Mashu continued to sleep quietly on Ainz's shoulder, Ainz touched his hand.

After a second, information seemed to appear before his eyes.

For a second, Ainz was silent.

"And what?" The magician finally said calmly and quietly, after activating the suppression of emotions, "So could it be?"

Ainz looked at the parameters of the Servants. This time, information about Medusa was revealed to him.

For a few seconds, the magician studied the information on Medusa before closing his eyes.

The next second, Ainz tried to reach out to the information concerning himself, but could not do it.

"So," Ainz nodded to himself, "You can only find out information about other Servants, and not about yourself..."

After that, Ainz looked at Mashu, who continued to doze on Ainz's shoulder and quietly touched the girl's head. She, having felt how she was lifted from a comfortable pillow, grimaced, but a second later, when Ainz put the girl on his lap, relaxedly smile again and sniffed.

For several minutes, Ainz continued to silently study the characteristics of the Servants revealed to him. And yet, this was of not much use for Ainz. Of course, he understood that an A rank in something was clearly a high rank, higher than D, but that was all. This was all the information that he could acquire. All further information that he could ascertain was only assumptions that Ainz could only base on the knowledge obtained through observing the Servants. And yet, at least comparatively, more information was not bad in itself.

The situation was a little better with the skills of the Servants. Although many descriptions were blurry, Ainz could get a little more information about them than with the characteristics. And Noble Phantasms...

Some of them sounded dangerous. Some... Not quite.

Ainz looked thoughtfully at the revealed characteristics of the Servants. Often it seemed to him that the characteristics or skills were assigned completely randomly - he already already witnessed Servants showcasing abilities not revealed in their characteristics and vice versa, that they did not demonstrate the skills that they supposedly possessed.

"In the end, it was still not very useful," Ainz sighed. However, just in case, nevertheless, Cainabel's abilities were looked over. Medusa raised this topic with him - so at least he should check it.

From the very first second, Ainz understood that the differences between his other Servants and Cainabel were enormous... Even this word could not show the whole gap between what Ainz could see from Cainabel's info with the rest of the Servants.

Characteristics... Perhaps these were the highest characteristics that Ainz could manage to see among all the Servants. Skills...

Although the skill powers were still blurred - Ainz saw three skills on Cainabel's stat page, looking at which Ainz could only say something like "hey, this is simply cheating!"

"Although she's still a boss," Ainz sighed. "Although weak, you could expect something like that from her."

And Noble Phantasms.

Ainz had a chance to see that the Servants had one or two Phantasms, but Cainabel had three.

Ainz looked thoughtfully at the first.

Although this ability was strong in terms of direct damage or power, it was one of Cainabel's abilities from Ygdrassil that Ainz already knew about. In the end - this ability will not be able to affect Ainz, but against the rest of the Servants...

Ainz frowned at the second phantasm. Cainabel also had this power in the game - although now, being out of the game... The ability appeared much more dangerous than what Ainz remembered it to be.

"But it, too, could not affect me" - Ainz nodded - "The third one..."

For a minute Ainz froze.

For another minute he tried to make out what was written in the description.

For another minute he was trying to ascertain whether he could understand what was written correctly. Of course, the game has something like this ability... No, more precisely, if someone put together several features when battling Cainabel, it would be somewhat similar to the effect of this ability ... In the end, it was an amount of force comparable to Supertier magic... However, now, reading about it, Ainz felt his suppression of emotions activate. Then a second time. Then the third.

Ainz was silent for several minutes before exhaling and uttering just one word.

"Heck"

* * *

Cainabel did not like the wine, did not like the company and did not like the atmosphere... But Ainz's orders were orders.

The wine was diluted with water. Not that she was bothered about it - the wine did not lose any of its quality, it is still the lowest quality wine that she ever drank - but the very fact that she was served diluted wine almost made her frown.

The atmosphere around her was too... relaxed. Not the kind of atmosphere that Cainabel wanted. Of course, she was not a true lover of battles, but she definitely liked the periodic opportunity to smear someone's head on the ground.

And the company around her...

Cainabel sighed, glancing at those around her.

Jeanne d'Arc, Saint of Orleans. Brains like a chicken - even less uses.

Witch, destroyer of France. Strength of a worm - conceit like a lion.

Cu Chulainn, the sage of the Celts. You can get a barbarian out of his stink - but you can't get the stink out of a barbarian.

Medusa, the monster of Greece. She would gladly have thrown this "monster" to one of her minions and watched how they cut her to pieces.

Mashu, the nameless shield. She saw cardboard boxes stronger than her shield.

After that, Cainabel turned her gaze to the other side of the table.

Caligula, the mad emperor. Although he was supposed to get stronger after losing his mind — Cainabel couldn't tell the difference between a weak and a strong ant — not that she even tried to do even that.

Nero, the Golden Swordswoman. Her idiotic verbal tic got on her nerves like an emery cloth ~ umu.

And Caesar, the first emperor. Pig.

Cainabel smiled when Caesar smiled at her. His eyes, however, no matter how hard the man tried to appear relaxed before her, were wary.

Interesting pig.

"I don't think you told my master why Nero even fought in the first place," Cainabel looked pointedly at the fat man.

In the end, it seemed as if his belly would now completely stretch his camisole and tear it, firing a button at Jeanne sitting opposite. It was a really funny image.

But Cainabel did not laugh.

"Oh, isn't it obvious?" Caesar smiled, trying to show a self-confident smile, which caused his thick cheeks to mesh into two lumps of fat, so taking his self-confident pose seriously was almost impossible. Almost, - "Although we really cannot go on a full-scale offensive - it is natural that small skirmishes around our territory are still ongoing. I thought it is quite obvious even for someone like you?"

'Self-confident pig' - Cainabel scoffed to herself. However, the eyes of this funny fat man were cold.

In only an hour of acquaintance, Caesar could determine that Cainabel was smart - Cainabel did not refuse this compliment - and that she had great conceit - Cainabel did not consider this a vice and thereforeignored any mention of it. To provoke her into conflict in order to reduce her desire to question the Triumvirate further, to be satisfied with half-truths. Perhaps it would even work if she had not been summoned by Ainz, damn it, Ooal Gown.

'But I admit - it might be even more interesting this way,' Cainabel grinned when she drank her next goblet of wine.

"Oh, I didn't think that your Divine Ancestor," Cainabel grimaced at using that title when referring to someone else. She was the Divine Ancestor, not someone else - "Is so loved by the people."

"Hm?" Nero glanced at the girl, paying attention to the change of subject, to that of the Divine Ancestor and a mention of his popularity.

"Well then," Cainabel allowed herself to grin, "He is so popular that so few people have gathered behind the banner of three emperors that the leader of such an alliance is forced to go on a regular patrol..."

Caesar smiled, but his eyes only got colder.

'This game can also be played by two people- Cainabel smiled at the fat man. Now Nero was forced to talk about the real reason for their actions to prove that she was not sent to a simple patrol to prove that the people around her loved her and not all of them are supporting Romulus. Cainabel also managed to study her new acquaintances a little more.

"Well, why so rude," Caesar managed to reply ahead of Nero, supporting his silly grin he used a joking tone, casting off his provocative way of speaking after he discovered that it did not affect Cainabel , "Nero knows how to make people love her. Ah, it reminds me of the days of my life…"

"Caesar!" Nero puffed out her cheeks, looking at the man.

'Not bad,' Cainabel reached for the next goblet, allowing a servant from among the rabble to replace one of the jugs, 'Calm Nero and capture her attention knowing her airheaded nature. But there is still a miscalculation - that means Nero was doing something important, something you don't want to tell me about... Besides…'

"And, as I can see, there are servants around," Cainabel noticed how the boy disappeared into the inside of the palace with the empty jug, "Who are not at all surprised or bothered when we kept referring to you as Caesar, nor when you introduce yourself as Caesar..."

Caesar laughed, because of which his huge belly almost rippled. What a pitiful look, what an effective tactic - "It was not difficult. Magecraft, after all, is now not as secret as it might become thousands of years in the future. It is enough to only say that we are the spirits of dead Emperors who came to the aid of our descendants, and this should not be talked about with outsiders. Moreover, this is the truth, after all."

"Is that so," Cainabel smiled. Even though he was a worm - he was a very interesting worm, - "How to effectively rule a rabble so uneducated, superstitious and duped that they are ready to swallow any tales without proof. I really admire your efforts to build a state populated by such mindless idiots."

Emperors loved their people. One of them would respond to such an insult. Cainabel simply did her job, shaking their emotions in order to acquire information from any reaction - if not in conversation, then in the heat of a quarrel. One way or another, her job was to concentrate all the negativity on herself. And shouldn't she enjoys her work?

"How dare you say that!?" Nero instantly jumped out of her seat, clenching her fists. Caesar was much more restrained, clearly catching the intent of Cainabel. But Nero did not have Caesar's temperament, - "They are my people! They are my empire! Take your words back!"

Cainabel wanted to grin at how easy it was. - "Your people? I'm not surprised that…"

'Cainabel,' resounded a voice in the girl's head, and she instantly bowed her head.

'My Lord' - although he could not see her supplication, Cainabel bowed anyway, and if she is not sitting right now, would have kneeled down. It was never possible to know unambiguously what Ainz could see and what he could not, 'How can I serve?'

'I checked the characteristics of the Servants' - Ainz's voice sounded calm, but it didn't matter. Ainz always sounded calm - even so, Cainabel felt a chill roll through her body.

'Is there something that displeases you, my lord?' Cainabel froze. Don't say that he just noticed how weak she was! This will be a death sentence!

'No, everything is in order' - Cainabel froze for a second. It was good, very good... 'I'm talking about your third Phantasm…'

Cainabel paused for a second to think about which of her phantasms was the third before she sighed. It was her strongest one. The one thanks to which she could at least temporarily bring herself closer to her true form, to her true strength...

'I forbid you to use it' - Ainz's voice sounded clear.

Cainabel sighed. She already understood that. After all, what's the point of playing a game if at the end she could just burn the game itself? It really would have been too easy.

'I forbid you to use it before meeting an enemy stronger than you,' Ainz warned and Cainabel sighed. Stronger than her? For this, you still have to try - 'And after the meeting, too.'

'I forbid you to use it even in case of mortal danger, even if necessary, in the case of my or someone else's protection.' - Ainz sounded firm and calm. Cainabel was a little surprised by such a clear prohibition, but the Higher Being probably had his own plan on such an occasion, which she could only guess about - 'I forbid you to use it, until I directly and unequivocally say the phrase "use the third phantasm." That is all.'

'Of course, my lord,' Cainabel answered seriously, after which the connection with Ainz was cut.

Nero, who did not hear the exchange of information between Cainabel and Ainz, saw only that after her emotional outburst, Cainabel suddenly bowed her head in apology.

"Oh ~ umu," the girl looked at Cainabel. During the time that they talked, she came to the conclusion that Cainabel was not one who could just apologize.

"I beg your pardon," Cainabel did not dissuade her. Let this pig think about this unexpected change of behavior. "I really crossed the line."

"So your head still bends at such an angle," Cainabel got the Witch's mockery at the moment when she straightened up, "I was worried that you had to lick Ainz's ass without bending."

"Me?" Cainabel grinned. "You know, I heard that witches get their powers after kissing the Devil's ass. So I defer on your expertise onass licking - you obviously have more experience with this."

"Stop-stop-stop!" Jeanne tried to intervene, looking almost imploringly alternately at the Witch, then at Cainabel, "Please, why can't you just stop these fights?!"

"Did you also tell this to your enemies?" Cainabel grinned in response, "Oh, no, wait, you grind them with horses' hooves and put the soldiers on swords. I completely forgot, because this is the way to holiness, huh?"

Jeanne, having heard this, only settled back down on her chair, causing Cainabel to grin at the easy victory.

"I feel sick of you," Cainabel thought for a second that the Witch decided to continue throwing insults, but it was surprising that instead the Witch turned to Jeanne. "You will continue to interfere with your "do not fight" every time, and then, after receiving a simple retort, run away and cry? What a pitiful and useless fuck you are then!"

Jeanne could not answer anything, only to dig herself into her chair, turning into a puddle, barely supporting the shape of a person.

'Really?' - Cainabel grinned. 'Are my eyes failing me, or our evil, unwavering Witch is trying... to somehow help someone? Oh, it's a cold day in hell!'

"Enough, enough insults and quarrels for today!" This time Nero intervened in the conversation, glancing at all those present, not even forgetting Caesar, who was continuing to eat peacefully another piece of steak.

'A pig is a pig' - Cainabel grimaced.

"It was a hard day for all of us," Nero sighed, then looked back. "Come on, I'll better show you the guest rooms."

"If you are so kind," it was hard not to notice the sarcasm in Cainabel's voice, but Nero managed to do it.

"Of course ~ umu!" - instantly, as if forgetting the previous conflict, Nero rose from her chair, "You are all still guests of the Emperor of Rome herself! You can expect the most cordial of welcome ~ umu!"

Cainabel sighed. Apparently, she really could not achieve anything more today, so she got up from the table.

"Thank you for the banquet," Cainabel smirked for the last time, casting a glance at Caesar, "Although the next time I would prefer real wine, rather than diluted leftovers from the farmer's water."

"I see?" Caesar only smiled a charmingly good-natured smile, "Then I will do everything in my power for you, my lady. And I will find something for Jeanne d'Arc too."

In the end, Cainabel also made a mistake in her conversation.

* * *

**Higher Being**

Life and death. Strength and powerlessness. A Miracle and gray reality. Nothing is significant before the Higher Being.

Some might call it divinity, but in the end they are wrong. How can one compare man and God? How can one compare God and a Higher Being?

In the world there are those who fell under the domain of the gods - humans. In the world there are those who have touched the domain of the gods - magi. In the world there are those who entered the domain of the gods - heroes. In the world there are those who created the domain of the gods - the gods themselves. In the world there are those who surpassed the gods - magicians. Moreover, nothing else exists in this world.

But in a distant time that cannot be touched even by True Magic or the Root... In a distant world that cannot be imagined even by the Moon Cell... There exist others.

Those who abandoned the gods. Those who walked next to the gods. Those who looked at the gods not as a source of strength, not as parents, not as rivals, not as reflections. Those who saw them all - gods, demons, magicians, **World Enemies** \- as just entertainment. Only an endless game created for their pleasure.

In the end, they were right.

And maybe not.

Those who are beyond divinity as it is mortality.

Higher Beings.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Before we start anything - Merry Christmas, guys and girls! You all are breathtaking! Consider this as a gift.**

**And now, to comments - ah, the power-levels conundrum, or as it usually is, Gilgamesh vs the World. Okay, I'll be honest. I love the Fate series. That's kind of a reason I even started to write the Fate fic. And yeah, I can't actually judge my own level of writing, but I sincerely always thought that I'm writing things more or less okay for the Fate side of the fic (which is about 95~99% of this fic), give Servants their screentime and moments to show off, allow them to shine and make a point that their abilities are great and their NP's sometimes are very intriguing and impressive.  
But Ainz is the MC of this story for a reason - and let's just end it here. Anymore pointless scabbles over these things will not be the best way to spend your free time or something. **

**And well, I can only wait for the TV Tropes page. Or be grateful enough that people are just reading me, that's good too.**

**Also, ****MasterOfDragonsGod - you are something else. I actually thought that you were some kind of a bot (sorry) since all your comment's usually just straight-up praise (Nice chapter!), which, of course, is likable, but bothering me sometimes. But the first time I ever thought about it you dispelled my worries by writing the reaction for the death of Serenity. And now I got my worries up again... And you dispelled it yet again. Bravo, you are especially breathtaking.**

**Also - ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	48. Chapter 48

After the guests of the three emperors entered the room given to them Nero's smile became a little less bright, after which she placed her hands between her head, as if trying to squeeze something pulsating inside.

"Nero?.." Caligula's voice made the girl turn towards the mad Emperor, "Is everything all... Right?.."

"Just a headache," the girl said, trying to show off her eternal smile, although it appeared somewhat strained, "It's nothing, not something that should be paying attention to."

"Nero, if it's hard for you..." - although Caligula's voice sounded menacing because of his hoarse tone and the stretch with which he uttered the words, but he was trying to convey concern — and perhaps even anxiety — at least to the extent possible for the Berserker.

"It's all right ~ umu!" - Nero immediately dismissed the concern of Caligula, bluffing her way through with a smile, "Come on, that fatty has obviously been waiting for us!"

Caligula only nodded in response, taking a step back.

Now Nero was in the guest wing, where she led all the unexpected visitors who came to Antium on her urging, standing in one of the huge corridors that naturally belonged to a palace according to the architect's plan. The reason she volunteered to lead the visitors? Of course, to show off the hospitality of the Emperor of Rome herself!

'Although…' - a lonely thought overshadowed the girl's happiness- 'Can I still call myself the Emperor of Rome after all that have happened?'

The girl refrained from grimacing and, glancing at Caligula then followed him.

The second reason was simple. Caesar needed time to analyze all the facts revealed to him during the brief conversation with the Servants of Ainz. And at this time for Nero at this time it best to do two things: to not bother Caesar during his rumination and to make sure that the Servants, like Ainz himself, quietly went into their rooms, and not wander around the palace.

'Although,' Nero frowned a little, keeping her wide smile on her face, 'If one of them is an Assassin, then the situation may get complicated.'

Caesar was smart enough to make an accurate, almost complete psychological portrait of a person within ten minutes of a dialogue. Nero was far from being so confident in her ability to do this.

'But I am the Emperor of Rome!' - the girl immediately swept away this thought from herself, dismissing the thought that she, Nero herself, could not do something - 'Even in the case that something like that happened…'

After a couple of minutes, Nero and Caligula made the short trip back to the dining room, where Caesar was now, to find him continuing to calmly eat the huge steak laid out in front of him on a plate.

"Caesar," the girl sighed, "I don't remember that this steak was present during the banquet."

"Banquet, pf!" - the man after barely swallowing a piece of steak, almost patronizingly grinned at the absurdity of the word used by Nero, "A small aperitif before dinner is all that is!"

Nero sighed. Fighting Caesar's gluttony was futile.

'However,' the girl sighed. 'This does not tarnish all his other merits.'

Caligula walked silently behind Nero, sitting in the same seat that he did before, after which Nero sighed and then sat across from Caesar.

"So," the girl looked at Caesar, who continued to enjoy his next dish, "What did you find out about Ainz's Servants?"

"Can't this wait until I finish my meal?" Caesar glanced reproachfully at Nero, continuing to cut into the last piece of meat.

"We don't have that much time," the girl broke into a smile, highlighting the word "that much," "By the time you finish your dinner, it'll already the time to go into a "midnight snack" ~ umu!

"You definitely need to learn to appreciate the little things in life more," Caesar sighed, then moved the empty plate away from himself, looking at the girl, "But okay, okay, so be it..."

Caesar sighed after that. He liked being the "funny fat man" and looking at beautiful women and enjoying the delicacies. He was not very fond of discussing serious topics - but this time, apparently, he would have to make an exception once again.

"One Servant's identity was easy to identify," Caesar sighed. It was not really 'that' easy, but even if Cainabel refrained from her abusive jokes - Caesar would probably have found a couple of leads from her appearance alone - "Jeanne d'Arc, Saint of Orleans."

Nero nodded knowingly at this, - "Good combat abilities, Noble Phantasms capable of supporting the other Servants and…"

For a second, Nero froze at the premonition piercing her mind.

"Exactly," Caesar sighed, "Divine Resolution and True Name Discernment."

Divine Resolution. A Ruler's right to intervene in the ongoing Holy Grail War using the power of a war overseer. The right to use the Absolute Order on any Servant participating in the War.

"Divine Resolution can be a problem," Caesar frowned. There was a way to disobey the Divine Resolution - a Servant without a Master could refrain from executing such an order and, as it should be, even an Absolute Order if it is too strongly opposed by the personality of the Servant it could not force a Servant to do anything, - "Nero, you were summoned without a Master and therefore, you are not susceptible to the effect of the Absolute Order. However, Caligula and I…"

"Ah?" Nero suddenly looked up and realizing what was said, she suddenly laughed, "I completely forgot that I am without a Master and therefore invulnerable. How stupid of the Fifth Emperor ~ umu! I can't believe that I let it slip my mind ~ umu!"

Caesar frowned at this display, but did not let his focus waver, - "However, True Name Discernment... That is something from which we cannot defend ourselves."

True Name Discernment. Contrary to the specificity of the name, this skill not only allowed the possessor to determine the identity of any Servant that the Ruler encountered - in this case, Jeanne d'Arc - but also their parameters, skills and Noble Phantasms. It was more than simply 'dangerous'.

Although anyone who knew Caesar's name could have guessed some of his abilities — given that he was summoned as a Saber — not the most useful class for summoning Caesar, in his opinion — his Phantasm and Parameters remained a trump card up his sleeve.

"She will not be able to determine my parameters and abilities," Nero suddenly said confidently, after which, looking at the uncomprehending Caesar, she smirked, "I'm still the Emperor ~ umu! I took care of that!"

"Good," Caesar sighed, "But that may not help us much."

"The second Servant I could identify is similar to Jeanne d'Arc as two drops of water," Caesar sighed, "Even if they are different, like day and night. My guess that she is Jeanne d'Arc Alter, summoned as an Avenger or Berserker. Although for a Berserker, she retains too much control of her mind. No offence, Caligula."

Berserker just shook his head, - "None… Taken..."

Nero frowned. "Something else?"

"The guy in the fur cape," Caesar sighed, "I couldn't say for sure, but I can always sniff out the smell of a Gaul. He is not a Gallic hero in himself - I am absolutely sure of that - I have seen a lot of them in my lifetime - however, he is a druid with Celtic roots."

Caesar remembered the other Celtic heroine in the opposing camp and frowned. The Celts had a nasty habit of gathering in a single tribe with "their own kind", so it is another reason for concern. However, even though his identity is unknown for now, Caster, as Caesar might have guessed, clearly did not want to join forces with Boudica, and this was already good enough. Apparently, this one will follow his Master's lead.

"About the girl, Mashu," Caesar shook his head, "I can't say anything definite. She has the armor of a knight and a huge shield, but nothing more can be determined by me. Girl with glasses - no ideas."

"And this one," Nero grimaced. "The girl with white hair? Cainabel?"

For the first time in an entire evening, Caesar's face shifted from a little frown to alarm.

"The name sounds fictitious, but if not, it still doesn't give us anything any more information about her," Caesar looked at Nero seriously, "Besides what we already understood."

"She is... bad news..." even Caligula, whose mind was clouded, said this — which only confirmed Caesar's thoughts.

"Incredibly dangerous," Caesar frowned. "I don't have the ability to determine the strength of a Servants by simple dialogue, but even I can understand how dangerous she is. I do not know how much stronger she is than the leader of the barbarians... But she is stronger. Even I can admit it."

"Stronger?!" Nero's gaze suddenly widened. "Are you sure ?!"

"Yes," Caesar nodded grimly, "However, she... is loyal to her Master. Perhaps even - too loyal. She is ready to act in his interests and without an order. Plus, she's smart. Very smart. She could communicate with me on an equal footing and if not for her incontinence in relation to her colleagues... She could completely negate my attempts to collect information."

"I apologize for my actions," at this moment, Nero, remembering her outburst of anger, bowed, "I... I could not restrain myself."

"Oh, come on," Caesar only waved and sighed, "I did not expect any other reaction from you... However, what she could have determined from that is extremely bad in itself."

Memories of how Cainabel was able to use the tactics of Caesar himself were not particularly pleasant for the man. Yes, he was not the strongest of Servants, but what he could not do with bare force, he compensated with his mind. Having met someone who could see through his plans and at the same time was much stronger than he was... Was an extremely unpleasant experience. An experience which he did not want to repeat. And at the same time...

"Ainz, the Master of the Servants," Caesar frowned, after which, catching the eye of Caligula and Nero, he shook his head, "No ideas."

"Umu?" Nero glanced at Caesar uncomprehendingly.

"He was wary, but anyone in his place would also have been wary," Caesar sighed, "And he did not look at me with the usual gaze of someone who was confident in his abilities. Although judging by how faithful Cainabel is, he definitely is not powerless. He is very wary and careful. That is all that I could find out."

"Another unknown," Nero frowned, and then reached for her head. Caesar sighed - he knew what it was like to live with constantly tormenting migraines.

"I'm not sure that we can easily pull them to our side," Caesar sighed, and then looked at Nero, "Besides, they started asking not the most convenient of questions... About your mission."

Nero only sighed at this, - "If they become our allies, then we will tell them about Corfinius. If not…"

"They will have to join us if they want to open the barrier," Caesar sighed, then looked again at Nero. She was in serious thought, and therefore Caesar sighed again, got up a little from his seat, leaned over the table, after which he patted the girl a little on the cheek, - "Hey, come on with these serious thoughts of yours. Your serious face just doesn't suit you."

"Umu!" The girl looked at Caesar, slightly offended, but her frown was smoothed out.

"Caesar..." Caligula's voice sounded hostile this time, "Don't touch... My niece."

"Caligula, don't be such a joykiller," Caesar smiled after exhaling after the discussion. "I am already married. Besides - she is like a granddaughter to me."

"You are a... Skirtchaser," Caligula glanced at Caesar, "Your wife did not stop you... From everyone."

"What a bore," Caesar only returned to his place, after which he flopped all the weight onto the bench, making it creak, "And now, Nero, bring me another steak!"

"Why me?" The girl looked at the man angrily, instantly forgetting about her worries.

"And who else?" Caesar looked at the girl in bewilderment.

"I am the Emperor of Rome!" The girl immediately pulled away, looking at the man.

"Me too," he countered calmly.

"I am the real Emperor of Rome ~ umu!" The girl crossed her arms over her chest.

"And I was the first," Caesar grinned. "Show respect to your elders!"

Nero puffed at this remark for a few seconds, and then broke into a smile, glancing triumphantly at Caesar, "Of course... Grandpa."

"Hey!" Caesar's voice was indignant, but only a little. Nevertheless, he really preferred the cheerful Nero over the troubled one.

* * *

Despite the fact that Ainz himself did not consider the invasion of a girl's room a worthy endeavour, this time he decided to ignore the gentleman's code and, after giving out a warning, used teleportation to get close to Jeanne.

'Strange, the palace is not protected against teleportation' - Ainz mentally shook a finger in the face of the Three Emperors - 'What negligence.'

"Master," however, Jeanne, near whom Ainz appeared a second later, clearly did not hear his thoughts and therefore, as soon as the magician was there, she rose from her seat and bowed, "What can I do?"

The rooms offered to the Servants were of the same design, so the sight of the opulent room did not bother him as much as the first time. The huge room, with an area of

more than three of Ainz's apartment rooms from his past life was not so over-decorated so that it could be called tasteless, however according to Ainz himself, the gold candlesticks were still a little too luxurious for a room considered to be guest rooms. On the other hand, a balcony overlooking the sunset side, from which a beautiful view of the night sky could be seen, won a couple of extra points from Ainz's point of view.

"Jeanne," Ainz greeted the girl with a nod. After Cainabel told him that Caesar had managed to gain some information about his Servants, Ainz realized that it was no longer necessary to hide Ruler's name - "Sit down. I would like to talk about something."

Jeanne, hearing these words, only nodded, and then took a seat on her bed. Ainz, observing closely on the girl, first he compared her current appearance to when she was summoned.

Now, Jeanne, finding herself in a conditionally friendly territory, and, moreover, in her own room where she could relax, the girl took off her armor that had covered her body before, choosing to instead wear a one white piece dress, which ended much higher than her knees, turning it into something like a mantle, with a coat-like dress descending almost to the floor. Her weapons - both her banner and her blade - both Noble Phantasms - were also not visible nearby, most likely the girl dematerialized them for a while, remaining completely defenseless at first sight. Although, as Ainz himself understood, it didn't take much time for her to call her weapons back, should a need arise.

As a result, looking at the girl right now, and because Ainz could not see either her weapons or her armor. To his eyes, the blue-eyed girl, whose braid descended to her hips, looked unexpectedly for the magician... Peaceful? Maybe even defenseless.

'Although she has very high parameters,' Ainz reminded himself of what he saw among the parameters of his Servants, 'And a very interesting set of skills.'

It is because of one specific skill that he saw in that list that he decided to visit Jeanne.

However, at the same time, instead of inquiring about the necessary information from the girl, Ainz paused for a second. Although he was not a professional in interpersonal relationships, he didn't fail to notice how the girl looked a little sadly away from the magician, as soon as she sat down on the bed she simply stared at the floor, also the lowered corners of her mouth and her slightly hunched pose made him think.

"Did something happen?" In fact, it was not required of Ainz to find out from the girl what is bothering her after coming to Singularity, but looking at the atmosphere surrounding Jeanne and remembering the situation that had already happened with Mashu, Ainz sighed and shrugged. At least he could afford a few minutes of conversation.

"No, nothing," however Jeanne, instantly having heard the question, immediately shook her head in denial.

"My observation tells me the opposite," Ainz sighed at the response, and then looked up at Jeanne. "What happened?"

Jeanne clearly wanted to continue to deny the obvious, however, faced with the gaze of the magician, the girl realized that it was pointless, and then hung her head.

"Am I... Useless?" The girl asked suddenly, quietly, without raising her eyes. If Ainz did expect some answer, then clearly not this one.

"Why such a question?" Ainz looked at Jeanne carefully.

"I... Since arriving in the Singularity," the girl said without looking up, "You cannot even use friendly magic on me, so you had to give me some artifacts. Several times I have not been able to stop the fights... Cainabel and my… the Witch - I do not know how to control them."

"Well, I gave out artifacts to everyone, so you're not unique in this regard," Ainz sighed. Solving existential issues and comforting the suffering person was not his forte - "Regarding Cainabel and the Witch... It's difficult to deal with them - you should not blame yourself for something that many people did not manage to do."

"Besides, speaking of usefulness," Ainz felt the right moment to touch on the topic he was to discuss in the first place, "You are just as useful with the others. However, I would like to know what you were able to find out about the Three Emperors with the help of your skills."

Although Ainz initially chose Jeanne to bring into the Singularity without knowledge of her few unique abilities, since he could not see the parameters of the Servants before - but now his choice of Jeanne seemed to him not just logical, it was the only right one.

'Although Cainabel can also do something similar…' - Ainz remembered the skills of another Servant and grimaced - 'True, but it would also be in a way that few would take positively…'

"This..." Jeanne was silent for a second, after which she looked at Ainz, "I... I could see some information about Caesar and Caligula, but... Nero was hidden from True Name Discernment."

"Hm," Ainx thought, "Is that so? Do you think that she has an anti-detection skills?"

"I'm not sure," Jeanne shook her head, "But this is unlikely. Most likely it is hidden by some kind of magic, I already saw it…"

After that, suddenly realizing that Jeanne seemed to have given out some secret information, the girl suddenly clammed up.

"Did you see something like it before already?" Ainz naturally became interested in this information - as well as the fact that after mentioning it, Jeanne suddenly became silent, "Where?"

Jeanne, however, only looked away after these words. For a second, Ainz thought for a moment and try to figure out what kind of magician that was protected by the spells imposed against espionage she was referring to.

"Have you tried to determine my abilities?" Ainz looked at the girl, to which she only looked away more strongly, trying to turn her back on Ainz.

"Hm," Ainz thought for a second. Of course, the attempt to spy on her ally and Master was not such a friendly decision, but in the end the girl did not learn anything about Ainz, and even thanks to this step she was able to determine the reason why Nero was protected from observation, so in the end Ainz could say "all for the better," - "It's okay. I'm not mad at you."

Jeanne looked up at the magician and he smiled. "In the end, you were just trying to find information about your new bo... Master. I do not think this is considered bad per se."

Jeanne was silent for a few seconds, after which she bowed again, this time still looking up at Ainz, "Thank you and... I apologize."

"It's okay," Ainz smiled, after which another thought pierced him, "But Cainabel..."

"I could not get information about her either," Jeanne sighed and frowned again. Ainz, remembering the skills that Cainabel possessed, only shrugged.

"No wonder," Ainz simply sighed. "She is still not quite a Servant... In any case, it doesn't matter."

"What did you find out about Caesar and Caligula," Ainz looked at the girl carefully. Jeanne, eventually exhaling, looked back at Ainz.

"They are not very strong in direct combat," the girl sighed, "Although they are not weak in it either. Caesar's skills are mainly focused on commanding, tactics and leadership... However, he has a low rank of divinity. Most likely, this is due to the myth that his ancestor was Aeneas, and through them that his ancestor was Venus."

'_Venus_…' - Ainz thought, 'Yes, I remember... One of the goddesses. Nothing special - her charm did not affect the undead, so there were no problems with completing that quest. However, Aeneas... I don't remember them.'

"His Noble Phantasm..." Jeanne sighed. "It is a melee ability. A very strong one. Fighting him on close quarters can be a bad idea."

Ainz nodded. "And Caligula?"

"He..." the girl thought, "Mad. Mad Enhancement, with a very high rank. In addition, he has the skills to further strengthen him in battle if he feels the need to destroy something... or protect something valuable to him. Thanks to his Imperial Privilege, he can also acquire any skills that he will need... If this skill is associated with combat and not related to magic."

"Hm," Ainz frowned. Saber and Berserker with the ability to adapt and strengthen themselves if necessary... A priority target for elimination. If they become opponents, then Ainz will need to get rid of them first, regardless of his plans... Perhaps for this, it will be best to use Cainabel, as the one that has the greatest advantage in power against any Servant.

"Noble Phantasm?" Ainz looked at the girl.

"Madness," Jeanne frowned. "Mass madness."

Ainz sighed. Madness was good, given the immunity of the undead - Ainz and Cainabel to be precise - to this ability.

"Good," Ainz nodded, glancing at Jeanne, after which he smiled, "Thank you. You really helped me."

Jeanne looked silently at Ainz for several seconds, after which she nevertheless smiled back and looked away, "Thank you."

Once again, Ainz was not sure why he was told "thank you", but with a shrug he simply accepted the reply.

"Yes, by the way, Jeanne," rising from his seat, Ainz looked at the girl thoughtfully, "I thought about something here... Tell me, what is your attitude towards Nero?"

Jeanne, who had been smiling before, suddenly frowned. "I knew that someone would touch on this subject..."

Ainz patiently remained silent for another ten seconds before Jeanne was able to gather her thoughts.

"I..." Jeanne cut short, "I... I don't hate them."

"This is already good," Ainz remarked, after which he looked at the girl, "But "I don't hate them" does not mean "I like them"."

Jeanne only nodded at it slowly, - "I... I can not blame them for their deeds in life. But I cannot approve of their actions either. Even if everyone deserves forgiveness…"

"Yeah, I get it" Ainz smiled at the girl, "I get it. In other words, would you not want to become their ally?"

"What?" The girl glanced at Ainz with incomprehension. "The mission is above my personal desires!"

"Perhaps," Ainz did not argue, "But so far we have not acquired information on several variables — for example, the other camps. So your opinion is also necessary."

For a few seconds, Jeanne was silent before breathing out and looking at Ainz. This time, for the first time in the conversation, the sadness disappeared from her face and she smiled at the magician, "Thank you."

"Nothing special," Ainz sighed, uncomprehending. These women and their strange habits...

A second later, Ainz smiled, after which he teleported again.

* * *

The room in which he appeared turned out to be the room allocated to him this time, however, in essence, it is completely similar to the room of both Jeanne and all the other Servants. A huge spacious room, near one of the walls of which there was a huge bed, tucked in with a red-gold blanket and near several cabinets, empty this time. At the end of the room was an exit to the huge balcony, from which a beautiful view of the slopes, on which olive trees grew, and of the sky, where night stars sparkled in all their splendor, could be seen. However, the beauty of the city were of little interest to the magician.

Reaching for the connection with Chaldea, Ainz waited a second, and then said - "Ainz in touch."

"Oh, finally!" - a second later Olga-Marie's voice rang out and made Ainz sigh - "Roman, explain only one thing to me? Why does this machine under your control work like a piece of trash?!"

"Chief" - Roman's voice this time sounded practically empty - "I really don't know..."

"Yes, yes, I've heard it many times already!" - Olga-Marie's voice was cold and it seemed as though the girl herself was a little tired of the constant hang ups - "Tell me something new!"

"Chief" - this time, nevertheless, having collected his thoughts a little, Ainz decided - "Roman is not to blame. It's most likely that the equipment is not working correctly due to my anti-espionage shield."

For a second, silence reigned around. In the center of Chaldea, which Ainz contacted, too.

For a few seconds, silence reigned in the conversation, before it was broken by Olga-Marie - "Here... How..."

"Yes," Ainz sighed, "Roman is not to blame for the inability to communicate."

For a few seconds, silence continued to sound before Olga-Marie uttered something.

"Roman" - Olga Marie's voice sounded... A little confused, as if the speaker was not sure of what she was saying - "I... I must apologize to you..."

"It's okay, chief" - Ainz could almost see how Roman is rubbing his scruff in embarrassment.

"However!" - the chief immediately broke all the dreams and hopes of the technician - "How could you not understand this possibility for all the time you worked on this machine!?"

"My God, chief, you are a fiend!" - Ainz was ready to swear that he was even glad that he did not see the despair on Roman's face now.

'Forgive me, Roman, but I did everything I could' - Ainz sighed and then returned to the conversation - "Chief, I would like to tell you something about the situation in the Singularity."

"Ah?" - the chief was distracted by Ainz again, after which, having decided that she would always have time to get to Roman, she returned to Ainz - "Yes, what is the situation in the Singularity?"

"It really turned out to be the Roman Empire, Latium, as it was previously established" - Ainz nodded to himself - "Apparently, some kind of force intervened in the history of mankind and in response to this the Servants were called... We saw several of them - and now we are among the three summoned Emperors. Nero, Caesar and Caligula. "

"Nero?" Olga-Maria's voice sounded inquiring.

"Yes, she turned out to be a girl," Ainz sighed. In that case, should he be indignant that the summoned servants changed their gender - or maybe be thankful for the fact that this did not happen with all the Servants?

"I see" - after a couple of seconds Olga-Maria was able to answer - "Any other information that goes against the generally accepted historical one?"

"Caligula has more muscle than the other two people put together" - Ainz said this calmly - "And Caesar's stomach can be considered a Noble Phantasm because of its sheer size."

"There goes my history lessons," Olga-Marie sighed on the other side of the line, "However, even if they had changed so much... They still had to have some of their abilities from life."

"Yes, thanks to Jeanne, I was already able to learn some of their capabilities" - Ainz nodded - "However, Caesar said that his summoning as a Saber is erroneous."

"I already understood this" - with a sigh, Olga-Marie nodded at the other end of the connection - "Caesar is... Extremely strong. Being summoned correctly, he would become one of the strongest Servants... But not as Saber. As a Lancer or Rider, he would be much stronger."

"Lancer?" Ainz thought for a moment.

"Long story" - Olga-Marie sidestepped the question, after which she was silent for a few seconds.

"Chief?" - Ainz said, after which he thought for a second, continued - "Olga?"

"I'm talking about your protection," the girl suddenly said, "If because of it we couldn't contact you... Can you try to lower it now?"

Ainz froze.

He did not want to do this. By all means he did not want to lower the protection. Information in Yggdrasil was the key to victory and the most valuable treasure. Each smallest ability concealed from the enemy was an additional advantage in a fight.

All of the smallest ability that Ainz managed to hide was worth its weight in gold. Information was the most important part of any battle. The one who was left without information was left without a plan. The one who was left without a plan was left without a victory. That was just fact. Punnito Moe told Ainz about this many times - he once wrote it in the very first, introductory chapter of his monumental work "PK for Dummies". And Ainz followed this rule with all his strength, in the whole game - or, one might say, life.

In the last Singularity, someone tried to spy on him - and the protective barrier was activated when an unknown enemy used the spell. In this singularity this did not happen, however... Everything around him looked peaceful. Too peaceful. Ainz cannot stop his paranoia, whispering to him how suspicious the situation in the Singularity was.

"No, Olga," Ainz sighed, "I don't think i can."

"Why?" Followed the question from the chief. The most logical question.

A second later, Ainz heard the sound of broken glass.

It was not that the sound was really loud or made someone pay attention to itself, but Ainz instantly shut up, focusing on an image that was understandable only to him.

A crack hung in the air, not so far, a few meters from Ainz. It was an ordinary, whitish crack, as if it is indeed a crack in a glass hanging in the air. However, Ainz knew the reason for the appearance of such a crack.

"The defense barrier has just activated," he said, after which he fell silent, "That's why."

After a second, the crack disappeared, as if it had not existed at all, after which silence reigned in the room for a second.

After another second, the distant, muffled sound of a pop came to Ainz.

"The counter-spell has activated" - Ainz instantly determined the cause of the sound, and then froze. The counter-spell of his barrier against espionage was supposed to attack the target that used the spell on him for espionage. If he heard the activation of the counterspell it meant that the one who tried to find out information about him was not far away.

"Can you determine where the mana surge just happened?" - Ainz asked a question.

"Without direct contact with the Singularity, this will be problematic" - Olga-Marie's voice sounded a little detached - "Roman!"

"Now, now" - the man's voice sounded tired, but after a while he brightened up - "It seems there is a result... it's in Rome."

"Rome?" - Ainz asked a question.

"Yes" - Roman confirmed this confidently - "I can't indicate the exact location, but it is clearly in Rome."

After a second there was a knock. Someone is knocking on Ainz's door.

"I get it," the magician replied, "In that case, I'll contact you the next time the situation becomes clearer."

With these words, Ainz broke the connection, and then turned to at the unknown visitor, - "Enter."

A second later, when the door opened, Nero appeared on the threshold of Ainz's room.

"Ainz," the girl looked somewhat alarmed, "My people told me that an explosion just happened in the center of Rome."

"In Rome?" Ainz thoughtfully pretended to have no idea about what actually happened, "Where exactly?"

Nero looked at him somewhat alarmed, - "Behind the barrier."

* * *

**Higher Being**: _EX_

This is not to say that this skill does or does not do something specific. Like Divinity, this skill in itself is not a special quality that gives the possessor any abilities or skills, but simply reflects the very essence and identity of the Servant. Although this skill can be used to somewhat determine other skills or abilities, this skill is not Divine in the full sense of the word, and therefore the interactions of these skills is very selective, if any. By and large, this skill only reflects the nature of the Servant as a Higher Being and the fact that as a Higher Being this Servant has reached the maximum level of strength, power and development. In other words, the Servant is a Higher Being even among the other Higher Beings. Although this was not a unique ability in Yggdrasil - in another world, this detail may have slightly different... Consequences.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Before we start anything - sorry guys, Xmas and staff... So I got carried away. Don't worry, the missed chapters will be compensated given some time.**

**And now, to comments - Cainabel 3 NP can be considered as akin to Shalltear's Blood Frenzy - but it would sell it way too short. **

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	49. Chapter 49

Of all the things in the world, Archer didn't really like that much. Weapons, swords mainly, of course. Girls - this was understandable, given that his orientation was quite straight. And then lastly, cooking.

The Chaldea's cooks survived the explosion that took place a month and a half ago, but this did not stop Archer from invading the kitchen after one trial breakfast and making it practically his property, taking the place of all of Chaldea's cooks at once. It's not that the cooks themselves were so bad - it's just because Archer's standards on food were much higher than many people. Plus, he really enjoyed cooking.

Archer took a step toward one of the huge pots, which is currently on a large stove, and then poured the chopped vegetables. He, of course, had never before cooked in such volumes and for so many people at once, but the quality of his cooking was clearly not affected at all according to the testimonies of numerous people who now praised Archer's food every day. Some of the Chaldea's people were even glad that Archer did not go to Singularity with Ainz, as this would obviously mean several weeks without Archer's food.

Archer slightly reduced the fire on the stove, and then looked at the frying pan next to it. The pan's size was smaller than the pot, much smaller, but it still contained enough food for a whole family's daily ration. But Archer knew that this was not even enough for the one to whom Archer was preparing food for.

As if to affirm his thoughts, a second later, there was a loud knock at the kitchen door - although it was not quite right to even call it a knock. Rather, someone just punched the door, causing it to bang and rang across half of Chaldea.

"She is here," Archer sighed, after which he shouted, without a pause from slicing vegetables, "Come in!"

A second later, the door to the kitchen opened, after which a black spot appeared in the small snow-white room, a spot that had no place in this kitchen... Yes, and, perhaps, in Chaldea at all.

"Arthuria," Archer greeted the girl with a nod of his head, distracted for a few seconds, "Come on in. Your portion is not ready yet, but it will be soon."

To this, Arthuria, a girl and the black spot, only silently took a step inside, after which, looking around, she sat in the nearest empty chair, forcing her armor to make a mournful creak.

'I still don't understand why she won't take off her armor,' Archer sighed. Of course, he himself was in his "combat" uniform, a red cloak lay on his shoulders - however, these were still not the kind of armor that would interfere with movement and normal everyday activity. The clothes that the rest of the Servants remaining in Chaldea wore were also not armor - and from what he saw, the only girl who usually wear armor during her stay in Chaldea, Mashu, replaced it with a casual T-shirt, pants and a big hoodie draped over her shoulders. In this regard, Arthuria stood out among the rest of the Servants.

'Among many other things,' Archer glanced at the girl again.

"Do you need something?" Noticing Archer's gaze, the girl only cast a cold glance at him.

"No, nothing," Archer sighed, and then turned back to the stove.

Arthuria. Or, as Archer once knew her, in a distant life, which might seem like a dream... Artoria Pendragon Alter.

In the end, not all the stories about heroes end in victory. "Happily Ever After" is a very loose concept. For the hero of a story about adventure spanning a week or two long, "ever after" can only mean a couple of months. For the hero of a story about their battle with a great evil, waiting in the wings, about their loss of those who were near and their dear ones, about suffering and endless pain "happily ever after" can only mean the absence of these features. In the end, the story of how a hero loses everything in his life and sinks to the bottom of their life is what remains beyond the "happy ending". No one wants to know that their beloved hero, having conquered the heart of the beautiful princess, would in the end finally saw the princess die before her lover and how their hero would be left with nothing. But such is life.

"Fou!" The sound pulled Archer from his deep thoughts, forcing him to look at it's source.

The white-lilac lump of fur was no larger than a cat in size, but it was definitely not a cat, if Archer even understood anything in biology. The closest analogue that Archer himself could make with the creature was a fox, a dog or a squirrel, mixed into a single creature, which acquired large ears protruding above the muzzle and its white-lilac voluminous fur. Archer was not sure what the creature was, but the world kept many secrets and mysteries, and this was only one of many that he touched on.

"Four," Archer nodded to the creature. Of course, he was against allowing any animals to be in the kitchen, especially during the cooking process itself, but during the time that Archer spent in Chaldea the small mysterious animal proved to be more than reasonable - for an animal anyway. He didn't go near the food cooking station, calmly waited for his turn when trying to get food, and lastly didn't jump up to the dining table or the nightstands. So he earned something like a form of trust from Archer that now fed the animal when he came to the kitchen - which always happened every time Archer cooked in the kitchen. Of course, this could be a coincidence, but he doesn't personally believe that it's the case - "Your food is not ready yet. Just wait a couple of minutes more."

Archer was ready to swear that the beast understood his words, and then slowly and imposingly, as far as was possible for a short-legged lump of fur with long ears, he walked past Archer.

"What kind of creature is this?", For the first time in a long time, Archer heard the voice from Arthuria.

"Four, a local inhabitant," Archer said, without turning, continuing to stir the soup, periodically stirring the meat in a frying pan next to him.

"I haven't seen him before," Arthuria's voice sounded cold and almost disinterested, but Archer decided to answer the question.

"Yes, Four... Doesn't really appear near Ainz," Archer thought for a second. Most likely, Four was some kind of magical creature, most likely a chimera or a small spirit, so he could feel something from Ainz - in such a case it was not surprising that he preferred not to cross paths with the necromancer.

"Is that so?" the girl's voice sounded disinterested as always, literally conveying how much the girl didn't give a damn about the answer.

'Saber…' - Archer stopped the thought - 'Artoria... really has changed.'

Of course, for him it was all a dream. He lived, fought, then made a pact with the world and died. The end of the story.

For him, his life was but an old dream. Distant and already half-forgotten, like all dreams that are forgotten after waking up. Just a few scattered memories through which it was no longer possible to draw a single thread of reasoning making up a single chain of events. But still, some distant dreams are sometimes remembered by people, forever remaining in their memory.

A dream of a big fire. A dream about a stupid boy who wanted to save everyone. A dream of a forgotten war between seven magis, hidden from the mundane people. A dream of Saber carrying a golden blade shining brighter than stars.

In the end, for him it was all a dream.

Archer again reduced the fire on the stove, after which he heard a sound.

It was the sound of metal striking metal. A sound he was intimately familiar with.

Archer turned toward Arthuria.

Her black metal glove lay on one of the iron tables in the kitchen, and Arthuria's hand rested on Four's neck.

Slowly, the girl, while looking at the beast, ran her hand in the direction of the fur of the creature, making him squint a little in pleasure, after which she raised her hand and repeated the action. Then again and again.

In the eyes of the girl there was no sympathy, tenderness or joy. They were empty cold eyes, looking into which many would shudder; it seemed as if there was nothing human in the girl, only cold steel.

Arthuria raised her hand again and ran it over the beast, stroking him.

Her steel glove, which she had never removed before, rested on the table, while the girl with her free hand continued stroking the beast, making him squint with pleasure.

"Fou," the beast snorted, for lack of a better word, after which he rubbed his head on the girl's hand when she already stopped stroking him.

Not even a spark of sympathy or joy was reflected in the girl's eyes... But still, Arthuria raised her hand and stroked the beast again.

'Maybe…' Archer thought for a second, looking at the girl. 'Still... She still hasn't changed that much.'

Arthuria, finally ceasing to stroke Four, gently pushed him from her lap, after which she looked at Archer, "Archer. Does staring at me somehow increase the speed of your cooking?"

Archer sighed at that. "No."

"Then stop doing that and keep cooking." Arthuria gazed at him coldly, and then turned away, not interested in Archer's answer.

Archer turned away for a second, glancing at the pan, after which he stir the soup again.

"In fact, I think the food is ready," he said, after which he finally turned off the burners and removed the pan from the stove.

"Then give it to me," despite the fact that Arthuria's tone remained still cold and detached, she extended her hand, the one still clad in a plate glove, forward.

Archer sighed. That Saber that he knew demanded at least a decent sense of decorum, while this Arthuria was quite pleased to eat from the cooking pan.

"Here it is," Archer sighed, putting the pan full of food in front of Saber, and then handed her the cutlery. Archer doubted that even in her hunger, Arthuria would have eaten with her bare hands, but he still did not want to check his theory.

The girl, having received her food, removed the second glove from her hand, and then turned away from Archer, ceasing to pay attention to him.

After a second, Arthuria began to eat.

Although the pan in front of her was filled with the amount of food that would have been enough for a small party, Archer had no doubt that Arthuria could deal with it alone. Even more so, Archer was afraid that this amount for Arthuria might not be enough.

"Itadakimasu," Archer prayed for the girl, but she didn't even react to it. Not that Archer was hoping for any kind of reaction.

The kitchen then was plunged into silence, barely interrupted by the periodically continuing to gurgle pots. Archer, left standing, waited a few seconds before deciding to take up less free space, leaned against the wall. Arthuria did not pay attention to this, continuing to calmly engage in her... what probably count as dinner.

Archer turned his gaze to the clock on the wall, showing a time well past midnight. Most of the denizen of Chaldea were already asleep, with the Servants continued to be in their own rooms - or go about their business, like Archer himself, who had gone out into the kitchen in order to prepare food for tomorrow.

Archer did not know, thoroughly, how would time pass in the Singularity as compared to Chaldea, but judging from his experience with the past Singularity he would guess that Ainz is also experiencing a night time in the Singularity. His Servants must have already gone to bed and dream...

"Arthuria," Archer turned to the girl, making her become distracted for a second from her occupation, casting an uninterested look at Archer, "Tell me... Do you still dreams?"

Arthuria was silent for a second, after which she looked at Archer again, this time with some kind of barely noticeable emotion in her gaze - a grin - "I do not approve of flirting while eating."

Archer sighed at this, trying to stop his face from acquiring any redness. Servant or not, even the Throne of Heroes could not teach him the ways to communicate with girls correctly - "I'm not talking about that. I mean... Ainz dreams. Not about him, but, well…"

Arthuria glanced at Archer, "Do you mean those dreams that are connected with our link?"

Archer just nodded at that.

The connection between the Servant and their Master was... In a sense, very personal. The Servant and the Master were bound by a contract, yes, but still... There was something more.

Archer did not know if this was the expected result or an accidental side effect, however the Servant and the Master had a very special connection. Something that united them more than the simple relationship of the Summoner and the summoned.

The Servant and the Master sometimes could see each other's memories in their dreams. It does not happen frequently, but still happen often enough. Dreams about the past or future, about hopes and desires, about fears and events. One saw the essence of the other through the prism of their own perception.

Whether this was a strange coincidence or a necessary part of the ritual - few couldn't answer it with confidence. Archer could not.

However, the dreams of Servants and Masters could be both dangerous for each other... Just as much as it is very useful too.

Even if in the end they remained just dreams.

"No," Arthuria answered simply, "I have not seen any of the Master's memories."

Archer also did not see anything, as the rest of the Servants whom he asked about it.

In the end this was not at all surprising, since such things happened spontaneously, the likelihood that this had just not happened yet was not zero. But given the total number of Ainz's Servants and the desire of many Servants to see Ainz's memories, to know more about his past, this was still somewhat strange.

"No one saw anything," Archer said next. Nobody whom he asked about it saw Ainz's dreams, - "Why do you think that is?"

"I don't know," Arthuria answered shortly, after which, having considered the conversation finished, she returned to her meal.

Archer, looking at this, only continued to ponder.

Servants did not need to sleep unlike humans. They could function without it - however, this did not mean that they should. The Servants could still take advantage of the rest, either to get rid of emotional or physical shocks this way or from the fatigue of their minds, so few Servants refused such a pastime. However, Ainz, whoever he was, was similar enough to be a Servant, so was it possible that he simply did not sleep? Archer had never seen his Master asleep, so he probably just did not find it necessary.

However, if Ainz did not sleep, this should not have prevented the rest of the Servants from seeing part of his past or at least learn something about him. Was it then possible that Ainz is specifically concealing a part of his life from the perception of the Servants? It was possible, Archer did not see any other option but this. But why?

Most likely, Ainz did not want to give the Servants the opportunity to look into his past. Was he then keeping his dirty secrets in a closet or was it something personal? Cainabel's retelling spoke more likely of the first idea and Archer was close to believing it. But still, while looking at Ainz, it was hard to imagine that he kept in his memory some terrible secrets related to his necromancy or strength. Perhaps that is why he preferred to keep them secret?

Archer blinked, after which he turned his gaze to Arthuria, who had already finished with half of her food and sighed. He may really have to cook a new batch.

Archer got up from the wall, after which he took a step towards the hanging cabinets, opening them to look at the things available to him and grimaced. It seems that the spices are almost completely out.

"I'll go get some more spices," Archer told Arthuria that, if she heard Archer's voice, she didn't give any peculiar reaction, then left the kitchen, allowing Four to jump out ahead of him before the door close behind him.

Arthuria was left alone.

For the next few minutes she only continued to eat silently, not paying attention to the silence that had come in the kitchen. The food in front of her was decreasing at a catastrophic rate, so that after only a few minutes the girl was able to exhale with satisfaction, setting aside a completely empty frying pan.

Satisfied, the girl sighed, but because of her cold tone, such an exhalation turned out to be more like a mocking caricature of a sigh. However, Arthuria did not want such an effect, rather, it just turned out like on its own.

The girl glanced at the pair of plate gloves lying nearby, then to the place where Archer had recently been sitting, and then to the pots on the stove.

"Ainz, hmm..." - the girl said to herself.

Ainz Ooal Gown. A mysterious man. If, of course, he was indeed a man - what was easy enough to disguise such a thing.

Would Arthuria be lying if she said that she didn't want to see Ainz's memories , not wanting to know something about him, to cut the web of rumors and deception gathered around him? Maybe. However, if none of the other Servants saw Ainz's dreams and he never really slept, then this most likely meant that Ainz himself could not see the memories of his own Servants. Arthuria was glad of that.

After all, not all stories end with a happily ever after.

Somewhere there, in a distant forgotten dream, there was a girl.

Artoria Pendragon.

The girl, whom one silver-haired magician tricked into a simple task.

Grab the blade and remove it from the stone.

What happened after became a legend.

The legend of the brave knights, of good kings, of powerful heroes and wise wizards. About a worthy mission to seek the Holy Grail.

There was another story. The story of a mad knight, an unfaithful wife, a split among faithful followers, a bloody rebellion and a distant hill strewn with the bodies of people.

It was a legend. Legends are never true or false. Each legend has its own versions and its storytellers, its authors and perhaps even a life of its own, the legend changing on the go. In one legend there was no rebellion, in another it destroyed the kingdom. In one legend, the most faithful comrade-in-arms of the brave king went mad and attacked his two friends, in another he faithfully served until the very end. In one legend, the Holy Grail was returned to heaven; in another, the king died without ever reaching his goal.

After all, a legend has no truth or lies, only a different version.

And therefore, the legend of Artoria Pendragon had its own version.

The version in which magis fought with each other for the right to touch the Holy Grail. The version in which the brave king returned to this world to acquire the promised Grail. The version in which the first of the knights of the round table met with an idealist who dreams of peace on earth. A version in which the king returned time after time after each failure. The version in which Artoria Pendragon answered the call of a stupid boy that did not even know what he was getting into.

In which there were enemies, there were friends. There were victories.

And there was a defeat.

And Artoria Pendragon fell in battle.

It was not the hill of Camlann. It was not from a rebellion of Mordred. It was not in distant Britain.

It was a defeat. This was what destroyed Artoria Pendragon. What remained after was only Artoria Pendragon Alter.

The one who answered the summon was Arthuria.

In the end, the legend has no truth and fiction. There are only different versions.

The legend of the soulless black tyrant. The legend of the damned king of the knights who betrayed her humanity. The cursed version of King Arthur.

But this version did not have anyone who have heard of it.

After all, it was not even a proper legend. Just one of the versions of Artoria. Not the edge of her personality and not even a part of her. Just a random blot in the history of the King of Knights.

Where did Arthuria Pendragon come from?

That was the question.

But where was the answer?

In Fuyuki? On Camlan hill? At the round table?

Or did everything already happened at the moment when the girl was deceived and pulled the blade out of stone?

Arthuria did not know. Probably no one knew.

But in the end, Arthuria Pendragon was not supposed to exist. Just an unsuccessful retelling of the legend of the brave King of the Knights, just a coincidence.

But she was.

She took the first step in Chaldea. She went to the Singularity. She fought with Lancelot. She defeated Fafnir.

She lost again.

She died.

Then she came back again.

This could be attributed to a mistake. Perhaps this was a fluke. Just an accident that happened at the whim of chance and random event. Accidentally arising - accidentally disappearing as quietly as it had arisen.

But she came back again. After she died, she returned again.

Arthuria's fingers twitched a little and she put her other hand on the palm of her hand, stopping the movement. Just a shallow spasm.

Perhaps her existence was a mistake. But, as the Master showed her, as Chaldea showed, as her resummoning showed - a very persistent and constant mistake.

In the end, Arthuria did not know who her Master really is or was. Arthuria did not even know who she was.

And she didn't want to know that.

Perhaps that's why it was worth staying this way. The unknown memories of the Servants and Ainz should not crossed at all. Perhaps because Ainz kept his secrets not intended for the minds of the Servants. Perhaps because the Servants kept their precious memories that they did not want to reveal to their Master.

Perhaps because they all kept secrets not only from each other, but also from themselves.

After all, Artoria Pendragon Alter was just a random, annoying mistake, created at the whim of a crazy black evil creature.

Arthuria Pendragon existed as a Servant.

The door opened again, after which first a large box of spices appeared in the kitchen, after which only Archer took a step inside.

"Already finished with your food?", Glancing at the girl, Archer shook his head. "I'll cook something else."

"Not worth it," Arthuria got up from the table, after which she glanced at Archer, "I'm full."

"Hm?" Archer glanced at the girl, clearly not expecting such an answer, and then nodded. "Good."

"I'll go," Arthuria answered as coldly as before, after which she took a step towards Archer, allowing him to go around her. The girl took a step toward the door, stopping next to the aisle.

"And Archer," the girl looked at the guy who had just put the box of spices on an iron table, "Thank you."

After this, Arthuria Pendragon left the kitchen.

* * *

**Name**: Arthuria Pendragon (Artoria Pendragon Alter)

**Race**: Heteromorphic

**Title**: Black Tyrant

**Occupation**: Servant of Ainz

**Residence**: Chaldea, Arthuria's room in the residential wing

**Karma**: -50 (Neutral ~ Neutral Evil)

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**And comments - though there are not much to answer this time around. So I will answer short - harem yes, lemons - only mentioned offhand. No explicit lemons.**

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	50. Chapter 50

Jeanne d'Arc Alter, or as she was now called among the other servants, the Dragon Witch, didn't really like to fight — oh no, she liked fighting enough, she enjoyed the shedding of blood and liked killing her, or more recently her master's, enemies, but sometimes... just for a while, of course, but sometimes... She liked to enjoy her surroundings in a more peaceful setting.

Moreover, she was now not currently stuck in the fields of France, which she once wanted to destroy, but in distant Italy, which she never knew of, so she could afford to say that... She liked the quiet atmosphere.

But only when in between battles, do not confuse her intentions!

At least that was what the Witch told herself.

Flying above the countryside of Italy with a speed that which the Witch herself, unwillingly admit, could hardly develop nevermind do, she leisurely looked at the plains below and the broken bends of the roads, enjoying the calm atmosphere.

"So, someone used some kind of spell against Ainz" - she sighed - "And now we are urgently going to Rome."

As soon as the Witch was woken up, Ainz announced that they urgently needed to go to Rome to look for the aftermath of the magi's counter-spell that rebounded on the possible enemy. On the one hand - the Witch was somewhat annoyed by the urgent departure from the city of the three Emperors - she have not even tried the local breakfast fare yet! On the other hand, she was in a really good mood recently. Partly - due to the absence of the local beauties. But basically from the fact that she managed... To sleep?

It was a little strange, but over the past week the Witch could not get used to this new circumstance. It turns out she could sleep.

No, of course she understood that sleeping was a basic human ability - and more succinctly, a basic human need of any person really. However, a quiet sleep without dreams was an unexpected luxury for the Witch.

She has not remembered the events of her Singularity particularly well - however, some of the memories of the other Jeanne Alter were available to her. Specifically, her dreams.

Nightmares, rather.

Every night she was tormented by a specific nightmare. Each time the other Jeanne slept the same nightmare would be what awaited her.

She would be back in that narrow prison cell. She would again be tortured by the silent assistant of the cardinal, to force out of her a false confession. Two men in black hoods whose faces she cannot see or recognize would then come to her cell. Then finally she would be led to her execution.

An execution where she would be burned alive.

It is unlikely that anyone could call a death from immolation a mild death, but the death that the Witch would dreamt of was much worse. It was as if time itself was manipulated in order to prolong her torment forcing her to survive the burning just that much longer.

Again and again she would scream.

Every now and again she would pray.

She endured. Then she screamed. Then she prayed. And then she would scream again.

And when her screams was finally enough to wake her out of her sleep and break the silence of the night, the nightmare would end and the Witch would have woken up in a cold, sticky puddle of sweat on her swept bed, desperately trying to heal wounds that hurt even through her nightmare.

However, after Ainz summoned her, the dreams... Stopped. Just gone.

Nothing tormented her sleep anymore. When she fell asleep for the first time after her summoning - she was afraid that her nightmare would visit her again, but now... It was just a normal dream.

The new experience was strange, but it turns out that not much is needed for her happiness. Just to sleep without dreams, without pain, without waking up in sweat, and without the overwhelming desire to never fall asleep again.

Perhaps that is why the Witch was in such high spirits. After all, if everything that comes next turns out to be just as quiet, calm, and peaceful... She will no longer see those dreams.

"Enjoying the view?" Cainabel's grating voice pulled the Witch out of her thoughts, causing her to frown. The goddess, the vampire, or who-the-hell-she-is seemed to know how to determine when any of the Servants are feeling at least minimal pleasure from life and intervened in order to ruin their mood again.

"Go fuck yourself"- the Witch answered calmly. Despite the fact that both Servants were currently moving through the air at the speed of a modern jet fighter - their voice was not distorted and drowned out by the sheer speed of the wind - which was probably caused by Cainabel and her magical contraption, "so that this minor problem would not interfere with our conversation "- damn it. Cainabel already managed to spoil Mashu's mood, having thrashed her for her supposed "alcoholism and her bleak future as a lonely drunkard, only the Master would be so magnanimous to have pity on you," or to laugh at Medusa - "I knew that snakes were deaf, but if you weren't so lucky, without the Master you would have lived without sight too," and now, it seems that, her attention have reached the Witch.

"With joy, but for this I would need a certain kind of equipment. Wouldn't you mind if I used you for it then?" Cainabel grinned, her remark causing the Witch to almost spit take in her direction. This bitch always had something to answer back with.

"I'm not in the mood to talk with you," the Witch glared at the vampire for a second, "If you don't want me to put you on a spit and fry it, you better shut your mouth."

"I never thought that you want me to be just like you so much," Cainabel even turned her threat back at the Witch, who is continuing to fly backward with her gaze locked with the vampire. The Witch jerked her face - not only from the mockery that wounded the Witch much more painfully than she would like to admit, but also from the fact that Cainabel easily controlled the flight magic. The Witch herself needed to concentrate in order to move in the right direction, especially at their current speed, while Cainabel could do it calmly and lazily, as if bored. Although the Witch would not admit it calmly nor easily - but Cainabel was still a goddess.

"I will make you a new asshole in your head if you do not leave me alone right now," the Witch turned away from Cainabel.

"Oh, really?" Cainabel grinned, feeling her complete superiority to the Witch. "Well, watching what the Grail did to you, I tend to believe that you are not new to such matters."

The Witch jerked her face again. Each time she tried to insult Cainabel, she answered with something just as insulting, moreover, with a hint of the Witch's own past experiences, which wounded the Witch much more painfully. If the Witch herself knew something about Cainabel's past, perhaps she herself could have managed to come up with a decent insult, but the fact that she did not know anything about Cainabel stymied her efforts. Neither Da Vinci, Jeanne, nor Ainz gave her any information about the vampiric Servant, and although Cainabel probably could have told her something, the Witch doubted that there would be a man or woman so stupid and desperate as to even try to talk to Cainabel by their own volition.

"Go and die somewhere under a bush," the Witch is not able to continue to exchange mockery, so she turned to simple rudeness.

"Two points out of a hundred for the insult," Cainabel twisted her hand in the air with a disappointed expression on her face, "One for being a true Heroic Spirit and the second for being loved by the people during your life. Oh wait…"

The Witch clenched her fists. She wanted to attack the girl, she wanted to thrust her blade straight into Cainabel's eye, but she understood that no matter how much she wanted to do it, it was still just wishful thinking. Even if the Witch was that confident in her own strength, she could tell that she could hardly hold out against Cainabel for even ten seconds, if she fight seriously. Although in a battle between them, Cainabel would hardly stopped playing with her and pepper her with ridicule even for a second, which only infuriated the Witch even more.

"Not even a spirit, a hero, or even a warrior," Cainabel grimaced in contempt. "It is unlikely that there will be anyone other than the Master who will accept you..."

"Eat shit and die," the Witch answered not very eloquently, after which she tried to speed up. Cainabel did not even flinch, as if anticipating the actions of the Witch even before she performed them.

"Oh, oh, running away with your tail tucked in?" - Cainabel sighed, "Didn't you reprimand Jeanne for this recently? What a hypocrisy! I did not expect this from the heroine of France! Oh, wait, again, I was mistaken…"

The Witch could not hold her hate back anymore, grabbing her blade, - "You are already fucking dead."

"If it weren't for my Master, I would have drained all the blood out of you a long time ago," Cainabel grinned, "But the Master protects you even when you are unable to see it. Appreciate it."

The Witch grabbed her blade so tightly her fist was trembling, looking straight at Cainabel. It doesn't matter if she loses! It doesn't matter if she breaks her Master's order! Fuck everything - she just wanted to stuff Cainabel's mouth with iron and burn her remains - just so that she would finally shut up!

"Enough," the voice sounded next to the Witch, forcing her to turn. For a second, it almost seemed to her that Ainz had ordered them to calm down, at least, he was the only one who could order Cainabel around - but the Witch was surprised to find that the one whose voice interfered with the possible fight was from Jeanne.

'Well, why did you suddenly decided to interfere?' - The Witch jerked her cheek - 'Now you will simply be mocked straight to your face and then run away to cry to the side.'

"Oh, and here's the real Jeanne!" - Cainabel feignedly rejoiced, putting great emphasis to the word "real" in order to throw one more mockery at the Witch, - "What is it? Did the heaven on earth, where your saints were regularly tormented and excecuted gave you some kind of strength?"

Jeanne swayed from a mockery as if she was struck, but with a sigh, the girl looked at Cainabel confidently - "Enough with the mockeries."

Cainabel, no matter how she tried to hide it was a little surprised, to the pleasure of the Witch - "Wow, it looks like the blood of your martyrs did gave you a spine! So that means now, you probably have some kind of vampirism. At least that would explain why you had such a bloodbath with your opponents."

Jeanne swayed once more - her confident facade cracked, but once more with a deep breath, she was still able to raise her eyes back at Cainabel, "Please stop. Stop this pointless fight."

"Seriously?" Cainabel grimaced. "Experiencing your stellar intellect, I'm sure that you could have been released from captivity easily. One could just dress a pig up in a dress and hardly anyone would even notice the difference."

Jeanne swayed again - the Witch could swear that behind the whole facade of strength that she was trying to present, she almost broke down, running away to cry again. Cainabel felt this too, so, smiling, prepared to deliver the last blow.

The Witch would not allow this. Not for Jeanne's sake, of course not... but for the sake of depriving Cainabel of another victory.

"How do you think Ainz would react if I tell him of your antics?" The Witch disliked appealing to Ainz as a threat, but this was the only way that she could come up with to shut Cainabel up, for the time available to her anyway.

And suddenly... It worked.

Cainabel suddenly froze, after which she looked at the Witch with a contemptuous look, "Are you running to your daddy to protect and save you? Hmmph, any further argument with you is simply beneath me."

After that, Cainabel just looked at Jeanne, after which she easily turned in the air and went to her next target, apparently this time it was Cu Chulainn's turn.

The Witch exhaled. Perhaps this would not count as her victory - and even so... damn it, Cainabel left with the last word! But still, this was not a complete loss, so the Witch could congratulate herself on this.

"Thank you," - suddenly came the voice of Jeanne. The Witch thought for a second, trying to come up with a reason why she would be thanking her, and then wrinkled her brow.

"That has nothing to do with you," the Witch looked at Cainabel, who had already entered into a conversation with Cu Chulainn, "I just wanted to shut up the little fuck."

"Even so," Jeanne smiled suddenly, looking at the Witch, "Thank you."

The Witch suddenly looked at Jeanne.

Didn't she even understand who she was smiling at? The Witch was her nemesis, her antithesis, the destroyer of France, the Dragon Witch!

Jeanne was not so stupid as not to see it. But still she smiled at the Witch and thanked her.

The Witch suddenly felt something strange.

"Shut up," the Witch quickly turned away from Jeanne, trying to hide the smile on her face.

* * *

"Have we arrived yet?" Nero's voice made Ainz sigh.

"No," he replied, as he had done many times before.

Silence reigned for a couple of seconds. But only for a couple of seconds.

"And now?" Nero asked painfully.

"No," Ainz answered with a stoic face.

Ainz's flight should hardly have taken half an hour, but barely ten minutes into the journey Nero began to pester him with inane questions. And she continued to do this for the last fifteen minutes.

"And now?" Nero asked Ainz plaintively, despite the fact that she could see for herself the vista of fields and plains that opened before her and not the cityscape of Rome. She could, if she was not staring at Ainz all the time, without moving her face back forward.

"Yes!" Ainz suddenly replied.

"Umu?!" the girl spun around, trying to see Rome, the approach of which she managed to miss.

"Oh, sorry, we are not," Ainz answered calmly, hiding a small grin.

"Umu!" Nero said accusingly, after which she puffed up her face and turned away from the magician.

"Just like a child," Ainz concluded, looking at the pouting Emperor.

"You are the Empre... Emperor," Ainz sighed, "And you volunteered to be a guide. Shouldn't you know better when we would arrive?"

Nero pouted for a couple of seconds, and then turned to Ainz, "I had never had a chance to fly before. I thought it would be faster!"

Ainz sighed - he was moving to the speed limit of _Flight_. Of course, he could use "_Greater Flight_", whose speed was hardly limited at all, as well as teleportation, which would allow him to arrive in Rome in just an instant, but due to the fact that he did not give his Servants a necklace with "_Greater Flight_" means that they would , obviously, instantly lagged behind him and possibly get lost. Not to mention the fact that he actually doesn't know the area, especially where Rome specifically, using teleportation he could easily have missed Rome by a couple tens of kilometers.

"We are moving at supersonic speed," Ainz sighed, then thought for a moment. "Do you understand what supersonic speed is?"

"Of course!" Nero immediately glanced at him, "I myself am the Fifth Emperor of Rome! There are no such things that I do not know of! In addition, I have the knowledge from my summoning as a Servant…"

"Is that so?" Ainz nodded. Strange, all of the Servants whom he had met with had an understanding of the local world at a very good level. Whether it was Nero, who somehow, know what "supersonic speed" means, or Cainabel, who had learned to fish out facts about the other Servants after her summoning. While Ainz himself, even if he indeed received some basic information about the world around him — magical circuits, the Mages Association, and so on — for some reason also did not have access to some information... Like the fact that he could view the parameters of his Servants, for example. That was weird.

Nevertheless, it's not something that is causing Ainz any worry at the moment. At the moment, he was somewhat concerned about another thing.

'Behind the barrier, then…' - Ainz thought for a moment. The fact that his defensive barrier was activated was a very common occurrence - many magicians wielded at least some kind of spells for collecting information, of course including Ainz himself, not to mention magicians specialized in information warfare. It was strange that someone inside the barrier could survive the counter-spell.

Considering that Ainz was not a specialized magician in this regard, the rank of magic that he could use for a retaliatory attack was very limited. Even so, his standard counter-spell was the _Greater Fire Wave_, a sixth-rank spell. It was strange for him that he even considered this, but for a Servant without Magical Defense, this would be enough to destroy even a Servant with an Endurance of rank C and below. Given that the spellcaster was clearly a mage, and considering that mages were usually much weaker physically in battle than the warriors. Even some of his Servants with magical abilities, whom he defined as "almost-warriors" by his accounting of their build, had Endurance of this rank and below - it was strange for him to imagine that the magician who cast the spell could survive his counter-spell. Of course, if the enemy possessed Magical Defense, then the situation could be different, Ainz suspected that Magical Defense of rank A and higher could completely neutralize his counter-spell. However, as strange as it may seem, magicians in this world usually did not possess specialized protection from magic, which was contrary to Ainz's ideas of balance. That is, the warriors fought with their body, which means they had to be protected from physical damage. Mages fought with their spells, which means they had to be protected from magical damage.

On the other hand, Ainz also did not see protection from physical damage among the Servants so far, except for Cainabel and the knowledge that he had about himself. This was probably the problem of this whole world.

"We almost arrived ~ umu!" - Nero's voice caught Ainz's attention.

Looking closely, he was able to see the city, stretching into the distance and in breadth. It seemed as if the whole horizon was overtaken by the city. Some information from Punitto Moe that ancient cities were large due to the inability of its houses to accommodate a lot of people and the lack of multi-story buildings penetrated Ainz's mind, but he waved it off.

"Get down ~ umu!" Nero smirked, and then immediately rushed down.

Ainz, hesitating for a second, nevertheless agreed that an unexpected entrance into the city from the sky would hardly have been received positively, passed on his instruction to the Servants and went down after Nero, arriving next to her in a couple of seconds.

"Ah, Rome!" The girl smiled, ceasing to look at the city from a bird's point of view and walked forward, "It has been such a long time that I have visited, that it is as if from a past life!"

"Well, yes, they seem to have kicked you out of it," Cainabel's voice came from nearby, full of mockery.

Nero clearly wanted to reply angrily at the mocking remark, but when she faced Cainabel's mocking look, she sighed and became saddened instead, "I suppose you're right..."

"Cainabel," Ainz sighed, forcing Cainabel to immediately fall on one knee, "Enough. Follow the rules of decency - we are still at someone else's home."

"As my Master commands," Cainabel smiled a soft and meek smile, instantly changing her persona from the usual angry and sarcastic one.

"See, Cainabel," Jeanne's voice came from not far away, so that Ainz could turn and see the smile on the girl's lips, "You do know how to be polite!"

"This is probably somehow connected with the fact that a couple of uneducated peasants did not give birth to me," Cainabel, without changing her meek smile, threw a mockery at Jeanne.

"Cainabel," Ainz sighed. It was difficult to manage her even if you had complete control over her, no matter how strange it may sound - "Refrain also from insulting your allies. In order not to give out information to any possible eavesdropper."

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel bowed respectfully.

"Amazing ~ umu!" Nero made an exaggeratedly shocked expression on her face. "How do you manage to control the girl like that?!"

"Some experience from…" - Ainz thought about the term, - "A previous life, I suppose."

"You obviously had an interesting life then ~ umu," Nero smiled at Ainz.

"Yes, probably," he smiled lightly in response.

"By the way, Nero," Ainz thought, looking at the approaching gates of Rome this time, who is unlike France, is populated with cheerful merchants on their carts and soldiers lazily inspecting the visitors, "Are you sure that you will not have problems going here? Even if you are the Emperor of Rome, in fact, you represent the other side in the war…"

"Umu?" The girl looked at Ainz, then smiled, "Your worry while welcome, is somewhat misplaced. Perhaps we are indeed in a disagreement with Romulus... But we are not enemies. We are just allies that ended up in different camps... Even if we do not agree with him in our views - we respect each other ~ umu."

"Good." Ainz smiled. For example, Akemi, the younger sister of Yamaiko one of his guildmates, she was not a member of the guild and not even a heteromorph, so technically she was an enemy- but they still often talked, meet and then even invited her inside to Nazarick.

So, even for those who would normally be considered to be sworn enemies, there was a path of peaceful coexistence. It was nice to know.

Ainz went through the gate before he was stopped by a hail.

"Halt!" Came a voice, after which, because of the shadows cast by the columns - Ainz was surprised by how many people could be placed at the gate — a man suddenly appeared, "Who are you?!"

"Just a traveler," Ainz smiled at the man who wore the armor of the legionnaire — well, at least what he imagined a legionnaire would wear.

"Are you planning to enter Rome through my post?" The man remarked, frowning. "I see by your attire that you are not even a citizen of Rome! You shall not pass!"

After which the man's gaze suddenly stumbled upon Nero, who before the conflict simply stood silently nearby.

"Oh, My Emperor!" The man instantly retreated, embarrassed, after which he lowered his head somewhat fearfully, "Please forgive me, I did not notice your presence!"

"All is well, Prefect Lansel," the girl smiled, after which she pointed at Ainz and his Servants, "They are my guests. They are allowed the privilege to enter Rome."

"Such is the Emperor's word - such is the word of Rome," the man smiled and stepped back, after which he again embarrassedly hung his head, "I apologize... After all, the new Emperor of Rome is..."

"It's all right," the girl smiled a little strainedly, "You may call me your Emperor. This title belongs to me rightfully."

"Of course," the man nodded right away, after which he looked at Nero, "Do you need an escort? If so, I will send one of the slaves."

"No need to bother," Nero waved the legionnaire off, after which she took a step forward, "We will be able to manage ~ umu."

Ainz, without showing any reaction to the conversation, simply followed after Nero, but he managed to take only a few steps into Rome before a voice reached his ears.

"Slavery…" - Mashu's voice joylessly remarked. On one hand, she probably already knew about this facet of their current location and civilization - but to simply know and to see with her own eyes were very different things.

"I can somewhat understand the point of view of the one who swore to the Celtic gods, especially about revenge against the Romans," Cu Chulainn, moving next to her, made Mashu raise her head to the man, "And this city is full of those."

Although Cu Chulainn kept his usual tone, Ainz could see that he did not particularly like this topic.

That was understandable, his civilization did suffer the predation of the Romans. Ainz did not even have to turn around to know the expression on the face of Jeanne or the Witch, however...

"I see the irritation on your face," the voice of Medusa reminded Ainz of her presence. After last night she didn't talk with anyone else anyway — however, her current tone and behavior was somehow very different from her usual behavior — "Are you really against slavery?"

"I am against human slaves," Cainabel's voice sounded dismissive, "It's better to kill people on sight. Even their slavery still needs to be earned."

Nero, either not having heard the conversation between the Servants or having decided to ignore it, only continued to move forward, periodically waving a hand to passers-by who recognized her.

The inside of Rome was not very remarkable for Ainz, that is of course before he could see what he came to Rome for.

"Hm" - Ainz thought for a moment, looking at the pinkish-purple column rising into the sky - "A magical barrier..."

Despite the fact that judging by its size on the distance, the column itself was of a very decent size - the barrier's color was completely lost against the boundless sky above the city, so it actually did not attract much attention. Looking at it, Ainz continued on. First of all, he should still meet with the local rulers.

The group managed to walk several streets before Ainz could see the palace of Rome. On the one hand, the palace clearly looked majestic, on the other hand, it was not that much superior to the palace of Antium, therefore it did not attract too much attention from Ainz.

On the other hand, another event attracted the group's attention.

"You motherfucker!" The whip sounded loudly, "Bitch's son! Fucker!"

"I apologize!" The man, although rather the boy, who was hardly twenty years old, stubbornly protected himself from the whip, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do it!"

"Of course, I would have fuckin killed you if you did it on purpose!" The overweight man wrapped in a toga, however, did not plan to heed the boy's pleading, "Do you have any idea how much it costs?!"

'Teaching his slaves' - Ainz looked at the scene carefully - 'Or punishing him.'

Ainz remembered from the stories from Punitto Moe that the position of slaves in Rome was clearly not the best possible one... Perhaps even worse than working on some black branch of a Megacorporation...

Looking at this, Ainz did not feel any sympathy for the guy, but the scene itself vividly reminded him of his past life.

In the end, he was not a hero and did not want to protect anyone. But he should not have liked watching such a scene. And so he didn't.

"Hey, headless," the most surprising thing was that the first to defend the slave was none other... Than the Witch.

"Headless?" The man turned in the direction of Ainz, after which he instantly found the Witch's glare.

"Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself," the Witch smirked, "What the hell do you think you are you doing here?"

"I'm disciplining my slave!" The man looked at the Witch, then at Ainz, "Hey you! Why are you letting your woman interfere in other people's affairs?!"

"Your woman?" The Witch barked in surprise, staring at Ainz.

'Well, I got involved with it even when I didn't want to' - Ainz sighed. Although it was unpleasant for him to look at the scene of the slave's beating, it didn't mean that he planned to intervene at all in preventing something like that. But, even if he hadn't planned to get involved, he accidentally got into it because of the Witch.

"I'm sorry," Ainz nodded to the man a little, after which he looked around his Servants. It was not too difficult for him to apologize and simply walk past the beaten slave, but looking at the faces of his Servants, Ainz did not find anyone who would agree with his course of action. Mashu and Jeanne looked angry, Medusa and Cu Chulainn looked at the man with wariness, and the Witch was still in shock at the words used by the man and only Cainabel looked joyful. Of course, any reason for her to kill people was a source of joy.

Just in case, Ainz turned to Nero, casting a glance at her, but she retained a complex expression that could not be determined by Ainz.

It seems that if he simply apologizes and leaves, he may not find any support from the Servants in such a decision. Ainz sighed.

"I apologize, but I would like you to stop it," Ainz tried to say it as polite as possible, "I think your slave has already received enough punishment."

"Who cares what you want and what you think?" The man grimaced. "Go about your business... Barbarian."

Most likely, the assumption of barbarism was made because of Ainz's clothes, but he was not offended by this.

"Please stop it," Ainz smiled, trying to maintain a semblance of goodwill.

"Or what?" The man finally completely distracted from the slave, allowing him to rise from the ground.

A second later, a stone pavement broke next to the man. A small cloud of dust arose from the ground, but it could not hide the blade that was stuck into the pavement. What's even stranger is the fact that the blade was still in its sheath.

"Please go away," this time Ainz's request was supported by another voice that he did not expect. Turning around, he managed to see the outstretched arm that had just thrown the blade into the ground. The outstretched arm of Jeanne d'Arc.

"In the name of the Emperor, stop what you are doing and leave now," Nero finally remarked, forcing the man to retreat right there. Seeing the girl, he instantly became more amicable.

"My Emperor," he instantly changed the tone and his expression, "Of course, we will leave now, please forgive me if I interrupted your procession..."

After only a few seconds the man managed to leave the street, leaving only Ainz, and his Servants, who slowly began to cool down, and Nero, who looked after the departing man with an empty look.

"Yes," she finally sighed, "I didn't want to show such a picture of my empire..."

"Next time, hide your dirty laundry better," the comment came from the Witch.

"Yes, I'm sorry," Nero sighed again, "I... I personally did not support slavery, but it is impossible to remove it in Rome. All the greatness of Rome was founded upon it…"

"Fuck this greatness then," the Witch grimaced, and Ainz could see the silent agreement in the eyes of the other Servants. Except for Cainabel, of course, as she was disappointed that she could not start a bloodbath in the middle of the city.

"Wow, we have some advocates of freedom here!" Came a voice from nearby. Ainz did not even notice how the street around him and the others became empty, because of which the male voice sounded quite loud - however, even then the voice remained loud and deep by itself, Ainz would even say that it was a commanding voice.

Turning to the sound, the magician was able to see the source of the voice, it was a man. Although this man was also still quite boyish from Ainz's point of view, he was clearly less than thirty - maybe twenty-five or something years old. However, to call him "just a man" was impossible.

'He's quite brawny,' Ainz said to himself.

The man who appeared opposite of the group was so muscular that even Caligula when compared to him looked at best as an amateur bodybuilder. Literally every muscle, every vein on his body was outlined and hypertrophied, which made the guy seem like one big illustration on the cover of a bodybuilding magazine. This impression was further enhanced by his short red hair, cut so as to create a straight line on his head, with several strands coming down in front of his face. The whole appearance of a man who literally shouted to him "warrior".

'Jeanne?' Ainz turned on his link instantly to determine the identity of the Servant in front of him, but the information was readily supplied by another source.

"Leonidas," Nero greeted the man.

"Nero," he smiled back, "Finally decided to enter Romulus' service? Great. Where, by the way, is Caesar and Caligula?"

"I'm not here for such an occasion," Nero shook her head, after which she nodded toward Ainz, "I am only here as a guide."

"Oh, who is it?" Leonidas smiled, after which he turned toward Ainz and slapped his chest in greeting, "Leonidas I, King of Sparta."

"Ainz," Ainz smiled back. Another king - "Glad to meet you."

"And they are..." Leonidas waved his hand in the direction of the Servants.

"My Servants," Ainz replied calmly.

"Yo!" Leonidas only waved his hand in a greeting not best suited to the legendary king of Sparta, after which he grinned when Ainz failed to introduce his Servants, "And for what reason are you here?"

"For the sake of negotiations," Ainz looked at Leonidas, "About the barrier."

"Ah, about that," - the man waved his hand, - "Then go to the Big one. Well, or to that toothpick man, he deals with such an issue."

'Toothpick man, hmm…' - Ainz thoughtfully looked at Leonidas - 'Compared to him, any person will look like a toothpick…'

"Why don't you lead us to them then?" Ainz replied.

"Hm..." the man thought for a couple of seconds, after which he glanced at Nero, "Well, if Nero is with you, then we have nothing to fear. Come, he is in the palace, sitting on the throne, as usual."

Ainz smiled, after which he cast another glance at the magical barrier.

The city looked peaceful enough for a city filled with heroes from antiquity, a Divine Ancestor, and a huge magical barrier.

Too peaceful for his taste…

* * *

There was no security in the palace, just as there was none of those who would meet with them on the threshold of the palace. On the one hand this might have seemed strange, inside the palace reside Romulus, the Divine Ancestor of Rome. A certain level of respect and at least a group of honor guard should clearly have been present close to him - at least as far as Ainz himself understood the ways of a royal court. But on the other hand, it's unlikely even the best warriors of Rome could compete with even the weakest of the Servants. If one is talking about the Divine Ancestor, then this title clearly implied that even among the rest of the Servants, this Servant had a considerable level of strength.

Ainz remembered Cainabel and grimaced. All that was left was to hope that Romulus was not as strong as Cainabel, otherwise the integrity of his puppet body would be forfeit. Ainz could kill her without having to resort to many of his trump cards... But in the current body and with his current restrictions and limitations - no way.

"I never served as a herald before," came the voice of Leonidas, who led them to the very entrance gate to a place that could be called the throne room, after which the man shrugged, "But oh well. Hey there, welcome to the Big Boss!"

With these words, the man, instead of majestically opening the doors, unexpectedly kicked it in, forcing the doors with a desperate creak, almost flying off the hinges, to open, hitting the inner walls of the palace.

"Indeed, no kings were raised in Sparta..." Mashu's voice came to Ainz and Leonidas's ears, but instead of reacting to this, he only unceremoniously jabbed a finger at the distant huge figure sitting on a stone throne, "That's the guy."

The loud sound that came from the impact of the doors on the walls of the palace could attract the attention of many people inside, if inside the throne room it was populated by throngs of people. However, instead, the huge room turned out to be deserted, except on the huge stone throne on a pedestal in the distance.

There was no hint inside the throne room of the possibility of the presence of other people - no stands and senatorial chairs. It really was the palace of the emperor. Deserted - without carpet paths and even without decorative columns, which, as Ainz feared, were placed everywhere in the architecture of this city. Only a throne and the one sitting on it.

The throne itself was made of stone - carved marble and perhaps even comfortable, but not of gold and not full of excesses. A huge marble throne - on which sat...

'I'm sure he has at least one racial level in giant' - Ainz determined instantly.

The man on the throne was a giant. Ainz in his true form was approaching three meters in height, but this man would tower above him even in this form at least good three heads. He was real titan in terms of size. With dark, bronze skin and muscles... Although it's worth admitting that, in comparison with Leonidas, the man was not so muscular and appeared more like Caligula in this regard, but because of his size, his figure seemed to be the peak of the development of what is possible for the human body.

Huge eyes with black sclera and red pupils opened after with a rumble, after which they gazed first at Ainz, then at Leonidas.

'The eyes are like Caligula's,' Ainz noted another resemblance of the two.

"Leonidas," the man's voice sounded extremely deep, almost stern, "I asked you to be somewhat more restrained in my palace."

"Oops, I forgot," Leonidas said, but his smile showed that he clearly did not show any repentance for his action.

"Technically, this is my palace, and not yours," Nero took a step in front of Ainz, then grimaced at the sight of the man sitting on the throne, but still waved to him, "Hail, Ancestor."

"Nero," the man smiled, and although his enormous features were supposed to make him appear threatening, his smile did not come out frightening at all - rather, even polite, "I have not seen you for a long time, my child."

"This sometimes happens after you take the throne of your child," Nero frowned and sighed.

"I am sorry that this had happened, Nero," Romulus sighed, then rose from his seat and stretched out to his full height, seemingly occupying half of the palace by his presence alone - so overwhelming, and not only because of his great height, but also from his aura of strength it seemed.

'Master' - Jeanne's voice was heard inside his head - 'I can't see his parameters.'

Ainz nodded knowingly, after which he turned to the second person that could determine the parameters of a Servant.

'Cainabel, how strong is he?' - 'Cainabel could not clearly determine the abilities of the enemy, but she could still figure out their level of strength at least.

'Weakling' - Cainabel frowned, but after that she expanded on her opinion a little - 'But, when compared with the other Servants... Maybe a little bit stronger than a worm. I think he could smudge the Witch into a bloody paste with one hand - not that that says a lot.'

Ainz nodded. So Romulus still was not an invincible machine... But he was much stronger than just a normal Servant.

"Greetings, Honorable Ancestor," Ainz took a step forward and bowed his head slightly to Romulus, forcing him to turn his eyes to the man.

"I greet you, child," Romulus smiled, after which he looked at Nero and back, "I think I know why you came to me today. You are somehow connected with the explosion behind the barrier, aren't you?"

"Your intelligence has not failed you," Ainz looked at the man. Even if he had a height of an ordinary person, his presence, posture, glance, and voice would still create pressure on his surroundings, because of which, rather than arguing with him, he only wanted to retreat, bowing his head, and listen.

However, Ainz could not afford it.

"I suppose you would like to discuss the details of this event, but I'm afraid that this is not possible at the moment," Romulus sighed and shook his head a little sadly, after which he looked at Nero.

Ainz thought a little and nodded. Although Nero was somewhat allied with him, there are still things that Romulus could not disclose to her.

Nero, who stood nearby, only swirled around, and then sighed, - "Yes, yes, I understand your intention…"

"Nero, my daughter," Romulus smiled, "Please if you would only join me..."

"Ancestor," Nero looked up, full of cold confidence, "We have discussed this before and I will answer you just as I did before. Rome can have only one Emperor - and this title belongs to me."

"I am sorry to hear this, my child, but it seems that the conflict between us is preordained," Romulus sighed, and if Ainz could trust his instinct, this disappointment was not false.

"Yes, indeed, Ancestor," Nero smiled sadly in response.

"Hey, if it is not my favorite auntie - Nero?!" a boyish voice suddenly came from the corner of the throne room.

"Alexander!" Nero smiled, as soon as she saw the boy who just appeared.

The boy was red-haired - with a color slightly lighter than Leonidas's, short-cropped, but tied in a small braid hanging from his back. The features of his face and body were somewhat androgynous, like for all children, but still he was a boy dressed in something like a sleeveless T-shirt, as far as Ainz himself could call it, and something like a skirt.

'Fustanella, the traditional men's skirt of the people of Greece,' Punnito Moe helpfully supplied him from his memory.

The boy who emerged from one of the side aisles took a couple of steps and hugged the girl, receiving a hug in response.

"Alexander, how many times have I told you not to do this," the man who appeared next deservedly earned the nickname... No, perhaps "toothpick" was too insulting. He was a tall, skinny thin man, on whose shoulders lay a red cloak with a golden line of thread, hanging like a loose scarf. It was also not necessary to wonder whether or not this man was a Servant - under his red cloak was a real office suit, with a jacket, trousers and even polished leather shoes. The man's face also sported a black plastic eyeglass frame.

'I had the same…' - Ainz remembered. When he discovered that his vision was gradually starting to deteriorate, he saved a part of his salaries for a long time in order to buy a prescription glasses... Indeed, this new body, full of youth, was beautiful.

"How strange..." Jeanne's voice sounded interested "He has... Two names?"

Ainz noted this fact about the man who just appeared in front of him.

"How many times do I have to say it, I'm not your auntie!" Nero remarked, after which she frowned feignedly, "Call me your older sister!"

"I was born long before you," Alexander immediately pointed a finger at her accusingly, "Rather, you should call me older brother!"

Nero looked expressively at the growth of the "big brother".

"That's why I call you auntie," Alexander said unequivocally.

Despite the fact that they were enemies, in a sense, they still remained friends among themselves...

A second later, the ringing sound of broken glass made Ainz remember why he had originally came here.

Everyone present looked at the crack in the air, after which Ainz sighed.

"I am sorry to interrupt such a reunion," Ainz heard the muffled sound of the explosion coming not so far from him behind the barrier and frowned, "But it seems to me that we still need to discuss a couple of very important subjects."

* * *

**Higher Being:** _EX (Case)_

A hundreth-level player who completed almost all the quests available in the game, killed all the bosses, completed all the add-ons, visited all the dungeons, studied the entire lore and all game mechanics. Are there a need to explain such a being more?

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**And comments - though there are not much to answer this time around.  
Ainz and getting info - in the NW he got his base of operations with fanatically loyal NPCs and no info about world around, while here he got the info from the "Throne" and people whose opinion he should watch about, so he is indeed quite passive about getting info.  
I repeat many things because you would not believe how many things should be repeated.  
Also, the previous chapter was an info dump because people on my Pat reon decided that it should be written as the throwback chapter about characters out of the loop.  
Ainz being badass - yup, there are such scenes. Not very often though.  
Also - me knowing more about Fate than Overlord? That's an... Odd thing to say about me. I mean I tried to understand Fate as much as I could but the only true Fate product I ever saw is the original VN, while I read the Overlord LN maybe... 4 times? Something the like.**

**Also - ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	51. Chapter 51

Unfortunately, despite Romulus' offer to accommodate her stay, Nero left Rome immediately after it became clear that the unknown attacker did not cease their attempts to break through Ainz's defense from observation even when Ainz is in the presence of Romulus. So it became quite clear that the interloper was not on Romulus' side. Unfortunately - or fortunately at least for Ainz - this time Romulus did not ambush them with another "dinner" as Caesar did. Instead of a festive table ladened with food, he led Ainz into a room located not far from the throne room, which was most likely the room used for negotiations. At least the large round table inside the room implied such a thing, the table at which Ainz, Romulus and everyone else managed to fit themselves in. Though…

'Even when he is not doing anything - I still feel that he is somehow outclassing me…' - Ainz looked at Romulus, sitting opposite him. Unfortunately, because of his immense size, it was simply impossible for Romulus to sit in front of Ainz in one of the normal chairs. So he took a seat on a titanic chair, one with a size capable of shaming some small pitiful human throne, and sit on a chair placed at some distance from the table. This was logical, given that because of his stature his knees would be exactly at eye level to the other Servants. However, because of this, it seemed as if Romulus is continuing to sit on his throne, and Ainz, who is sitting at the table, was simply a peasant delivering a petition to his king - well, or, in this case, to the emperor.

Ainz once again looked closely at the man, after which he looked at the three Servants of Romulus, who had taken a position next to the gigantic Servant, recalling what information Jeanne could convey to him.

"So, everything is exactly as we expected," the man in the suit and glasses straightened his long black hair, which went down to his lower back, after which he puts his hand into his breast pocket, removing a cigarette case.

"Lord El-Melloi," Romulus' voice resounded calmly, "I asked you not to smoke inside my palace."

"Yeah… you did," the man sighed, after which he immediately returned the cigarette case back into his pocket and then stared at Ainz.

Waver Velvet, a Demi-Servant just like Mashu. However, if the identity of the Servant who settled in Mashu could not be determined by Jeanne because of how the Servant himself hid their identity, then in Waver's case there were no such difficulty.

'Zhuge Liang' - Ainz felt a herd of goosebumps run along his spine - 'One of the Great Strategist of the Three Kingdoms. A strategist that was equal to Sun Tzu himself. The owner of a whole bunch of strong skills for commanding armies, a mediocre magician, a weak Servant in terms of parameters and the owner of an incredible Noble Phantasm of the EX rank. How bad it is now to meet him of all people…'

"Waver," the boy next to Zhuge frowned, "Who would have thought that you would start smoking..."

'Alexander III of Macedon' - Ainz looked at the boy - 'More precisely, his younger self. A boy, that would one day will be known as Alexander the Great. Not the worst in a straight battle - not the strongest either. His Noble Phantasm is not that strong and his skills are both not so numerable and not powerful. Apparently, his adult version is much more dangerous…'

"You are both boring," Leonidas sighed, after which he looked around at Ainz and his Servants.

'Leonidas I,' recalled Ainz, 'As a Servant he is not particularly strong, but given his skills, Endurance and his Noble Phantasm, he is more than suitable for the role of keeping the attention of his enemies and tanking their hits, a Tank in short.'

After summing up the abilities of Romulus' Servants , Ainz then turned his gaze back to Romulus. Romulus also simply stared at the Necromancer, causing the meeting room to fall into silence for several seconds.

"I think you know the general situation that has developed around me," Romulus glanced at Ainz, to which simply nodded slowly.

"In general," Ainz answered and smiled with his "salesman smile."

"The appearance of the magical barrier definitely causes concern on my part, especially considering the fact that hordes of barbarians are also present on the threshold of Rome," Romulus gazed at Ainz carefully, "However, there is one problem that interests me more. Until recently, during the course of a month and a half that we spent studying the barrier, nothing inside it showed any activity, at least... Until, by your own admission, a spell of yours created an explosion inside the barrier."

Ainz thought for a few seconds, and then slowly said, "You think... That am I somehow connected with this event? With the appearance of the barrier?"

In a certain sense one could think so, although it would require some very twisted logic. Since the barrier was clearly summoned because of the emergence of the Singularity and Ainz was engaged and responsible for the investigation of the Singularities, it could be said that in a certain sense both the appearance of the barrier and Ainz presence were really connected in some way. It was impossible to deny that a connection existed. But still…

"At least two explosions that occurred were related in some way to your spell, child," Romulus kept his calm and even polite tone, but Ainz grimaced, sensing an unspoken suggestion that sounded close enough to the accusation.

"Do you really think that my involvement is dangerous?" Ainz smiled, trying to show with his expression the absurdity of the situation, "Or even that I... was somehow responsible for the appearance of the anomaly?"

Cainabel, sitting not so far away to Ainz, tensed, anticipating that gradually the peaceful conversation would begin to turn into something dangerous - and also very desirable for her.

"Of course not, child," Romulus, however, only smiled in response to Ainz conjecture calmly, "However, it's quite difficult to ignore the fact that a certain connection between your presence and the reaction from the barrier existed. For a long time, my court magis and Lord El-Melloi here have been studying the barrier, but so far they have not been able to come close to even finding out what is behind the barrier, or finding a way to influence it. At the same time, the presence of you and your Servants have caused a very noticeable reaction."

"I suppose that is true," Ainz just nodded at these words, and then raised his head, "However, in that case... Why not just let me get to the barrier?"

Ainz's suggestion caused Romulus to pause for a few seconds in thought, after which he silently turned his eyes to Waver - or rather, to Zhuge Liang who is sitting opposite the magician.

"It will depend on on you reason for doing so, which is what exactly?" Zhuge looked at Ainz from behind his glasses.

Ainz did not like his gaze. There was something in that gaze... Appraising. Dangerous.

"As was observed by the honored ancestor," Ainz smiled with his "dutiful" smile, "My appearance provoked a reaction from the barrier — or rather from someone who is behind the barrier. In this case, I can assume that perhaps I will be able to exert some influence to the barrier... Or even destroy it."

Ainz was not bluffing when he claimed that he could break the barrier. Of course, if this barrier was really strong, he might have to sacrifice his puppet body in the end. But, even without taking any drastic measures into account, he still had the ability to use some dispelling magic without stressing the fake body too much. For example, "Anti-Magic Field" or even "Greater Magical Dispel". Of course, some spells and barriers of too high a rank could resist the effect of these spells, but they still had a chance of success.

"This…" - Zhuge thought for a second, not taking the eyes behind his glasses from Ainz away - "It could work…"

Ainz smiled confidently.

"However," Zhuge Liang suddenly added, and Ainz felt his simple solution to the problem slowly begin to fade. "What if it doesn't work?"

Ainz could answer this question, but noting that Zhuge Liang have not finished his reply, only silently shook his head, allowing him to continue.

"Until the two explosions, the state of the barrier was stable even though we could not find a way to destroy it," the tactician continued, "However, your actions provoked some kind of change behind the barrier. If you then fail to influence the barrier, then perhaps it will be for the better. If you manage to influence it - or even destroy it - the consequences... It's rather difficult to predict. Especially now that Rome is on the verge of a possible invasion due to the presence of the barbarians."

"If you manage to destroy it, so that whatever is behind the barrier would no longer remain hidden, it will still be located in the middle of Rome, while another group of attackers are literally on its doorstep," Zhuge Liang then glanced at Alexander, who was sitting next to him, "I believe in the power that Romulus' possessed and I also know of the strength that we Servants possessed... However, the attackers are not weak, not weak at all. Hasty actions in this situation are simply too dangerous."

Ainz looked thoughtfully at Zhuge Liang.

All the above sounded logical. More than logical even.

Ainz then looked at Romulus.

"Yes," he smiled, "Child, may your strength serve Rome. Together we will be able to destroy the barbarians threatening Rome, and after that the destruction of the barrier will become our common task."

Ainz felt a sense of deja vu.

In fact, it was about the same proposal that he received from Nero.

'Join us, together we will defeat everyone else and then immediately deal with your problem!' - such was Nero's plan. That was also Romulus' plan.

In general, and in its essence, this plan was very logical, so there was no need to look for a hidden reason.

But Ainz was looking for it fervently anyway. Again, it was just his senseless paranoia... However, it was paranoia that Ainz could not ignore.

"Together with your Servants we will become an unstoppable force," Leonidas felt that this is the right moment to intervene in the conversation, "Moreover, even Nero will not be able to resist the voice of logic and will be forced to listen to us and go over to our side."

Ainz couldn't reply to this argument unequivocally or quickly, so he tried to make the time, "Hmm... By the way, although I'm well apprised of Nero's childishness, while looking at you, venerable ancestor, I cannot help but notice your protectiveness of your title as Emperor... Not something I would have expected from you."

Hearing this, Romulus only sighed.

"I didn't want this position," Romulus looked up at Ainz sadly, "Indeed, I never asked for this... However, it is necessary. Really necessary, only in this way is it possible to preserve Rome."

"And why is that?" Ainz asked a question, trying to get Romulus to talk more.

"Nero... Is a beautiful child," Romulus smiled, "Like Caesar, like Caligula... They are all my beautiful children - but they are still only children. Even though they have achieved a lot of great things, they cannot compare with their progenitor, at least for now. They wish the best for Rome, but only I can save Rome. Only I have enough strength to withstand the barbarians and only I have enough experience to preserve this empire."

"That's why?" Ainz was distracted for a second from his thoughts, "I understand your point, however... Nero would be glad to fight side by side with you. She does not dispute your superiority - all she wants is a title, a title that proves her worth. She would not be at all opposed to letting you become her first governor or adviser... or whatever title that you may want."

"Such a thing is indeed possible," Romulus sighed sadly, "Nero... Really is a beautiful child. However, that is not what I meant. No matter how powerful the adviser is, he will always remain second in line. The emperor will always be the first. The emperor is the symbol of an empire, it is the symbol of Rome, it is the symbol that encourages soldiers to greatness, the symbol that unites citizens in purpose. That title is not just an empty title with no meaning... It is something that stands at the head of an empire."

"That's how it is," Ainz nodded knowingly, "I understand."

Ainz did not understand at all.

'What nonsense!' - Ainz shouted in his mind, almost showing his disbelief on his face. 'This is just nonsense! This whole conflict arise simply out of nothing! One wants to be the Emperor because she wants to be it, deal with it! The second does not allow her to become the Emperor because he wants to be it too, deal with it! I would understand a similar conflict arising between two children... Well, I can understand that Nero would do it, given that she herself is essentially just a grown up child. However, Romulus does not look so childish to just say "No, I am the emperor!" If he really cares so much about his people. If he really believes that he should help the empire in this way, then shouldn't he put the good of the empire above his own petty ambitions? He could take any position or title that he wants - an adviser, patron, even as the first senator - but instead grabbed onto his position as "emperor" with a death grip... It's just nonsense!'

On the other hand... Servants were indeed irrational creatures.

How could a Servant created by his legend as a "King" simply abandon his title of "King", if such a thing was the trait that defines his personality? If you look at it from another position - it was like trying to force Ainz to abandon his "Ainz Ooal Gown".

Never.

However, while in the case of Nero, "the emperor of the Roman Empire" was one of her defining legend, in the case of Romulus, his description was "the divine ancestor of Rome" not the "emperor." This meant that while it would weaken his position, it is not impossible to give the title of Emperor to Nero. Yes, it is possible that, as an emperor, he would indeed have more power to preserve Rome, but his current behavior and actions did more evil than good. Distancing himself from Nero in the face of the barbarians brought him only harm...

'It's just nonsense…' - Ainz sighed.

However, Romulus, not capable of hearing Ainz's thoughts, suddenly froze, after which he looked up, "Hmm... It seems that we have guests."

Ainz looked up at Romulus. "Servants?"

"Yes," Romulus nodded. "Two... And I can assume that their intentions are not of the most peaceful ones."

Ainz froze.

"The barbarians went on the offensive?" Ainz started thinking. "A distraction?"

Romulus only glanced at Zhuge Liang that adjusted his glasses, "I cannot deny the possibility of it. Maybe."

"Strange..." - Ainz thought again - "Why attack now?"

Before his appearance at this city, the opponents of Rome had been been content to sit in their camp for almost a month and a half... Why attack now? What changed?

'Someone who was trying to spy on me from behind the barrier got a counterspell to the face,' Ainz suddenly realized.

"What is the likelihood that the barbarians are associated with the emergence of the magical barrier?" Ainz glanced at Zhuge Liang.

"One hundred percent," he answered calmly, realizing that Ainz had come to the same conclusions that Zhuge Liang himself had most likely come to.

Ainz froze.

But why now?

Why attack right now?

There was no logic to this.

If an unknown opponent was afraid to attack Romulus in Rome all this time, then attacking him now, when Ainz was next to him, was very reckless and illogical. Even when the enemy does not know the full capability of Ainz and Cainabel, whose strength was difficult to evaluate, the fact that there are five more Servants in Rome is unquestionable. The Servants that he brought with him would be a tremendous force. If the enemy was not so sure of victory over Romulus, now the probability of his victory was virtually zero. Of course, Ainz could simply retreat - but this did not cancel the stupidity of the enemy. Even if you remove Ainz from the equation, the rest of his Servants will not disappear. If the enemy was constantly afraid to attack Romulus because of the fear that the forces of Nero would come to the aid of Romulus in such a case, then what should have changed now?

Perhaps the unknown entity who controlled the Servants from behind the barrier really just panicked after he couldn't break through Ainz's defense twice, it was possible... But why now? A month and a half of unknown expectations and unknown actions just to suddenly derail everything in three days?

It was just too weird for Ainz.

"I guess that is so," Ainz sighed.

Could it be that the Servants sent to fight be used to gather information about Ainz?

Ainz froze.

That sounded... Alarming.

An unknown spell caster used a spell to spy on Ainz - and this failed to work twice. The spell caster then decided to possibly sacrifice two Servants in order to collect information about Ainz.

Romulus did not want to let Ainz into the barrier because he did not want to frighten off the enemy. That was logical.

Romulus also did not want to lose his leverage over Ainz.

The barrier was, quite simply, the centerpiece of the whole Singularity. One way or another, he needed to get into it. Romulus had access to the barrier and he planned to exchange this access for Ainz's help.

However, even if Ainz decides to agree to the proposal of Romulus and join his group, the destruction of the barbarians will take some time, probably not too long. A time that the spell caster would be best used to gather as much information about Ainz as possible.

Was it possible in this case that the unknown spell caster was a Master on his own right... And used his two Servants to lure Ainz?

But that was strange. Indeed, in this case, Romulus and his Servants could deal with the attackers on their own.

'Could' - Ainz suddenly realized, casting a glance at Zhuge Liang and Romulus - 'But they won't.'

Romulus also wanted information on Ainz's capabilities. Although he could fight the two Servants on his own or sent his Servants, Zhuge Liang already said that it could be a distraction. So, using the possibility that it was all a trap, Romulus could refuse to fight the Servants. Ainz could ignore the threat in such a case, simply retreating from the city, forcing Romulus and his Servants to fight on their own. However, any chance for further negotiations would be destroyed and Ainz would be left without support from Romulus. Of course, he would still be able to get to the barrier with the support of Nero, but in that case he would have to enter into an open confrontation against Romulus and his Servants. If he really was so sure of his unwillingness to give the throne to a girl, then only a battle awaited them. A battle in which Romulus was probably a very, very dangerous adversary.

Ainz froze and looked at Romulus. Was he able to come up with all this?!

"And you are very funny, four-eyed man," Cainabel grinned, leaning her back against the backrest of the chair, casting a glance at Zhuge Liang, "Good plan."

'Wait, him?!' Ainz was surprised then looked at Zhuge Liang. The tactician, however, only glanced at Cainabel.

"Come on, don't play with me with that 'I don't understand what you are trying to imply' look on your face," Cainabel grinned.

Ainz, of course, ordered Cainabel to behave peacefully, but this time he was grateful to her. Was it really Zhuge Liang?!

'Cainabel' - however, just in case, Ainz used his link with the girl to make sure - 'Are you breaking my order?'

'What?!' - instantly Cainabel, who was lounging in her chair, suddenly straightened up - 'But I praised him, Master, as the rules of etiquette require!'

'Praised?!' - Ainz was surprised - 'So that's what counts as praise for you?!'

Just in case, nevertheless Ainz clarified - 'Cainabel, for the future... Better just keep silent.'

'Of course, my lord' - the girl immediately apologized - 'Please forgive me for my misunderstanding…'

"That means..." finally Ainz attracted attention to himself, "Definitely, the appearance of the two Servants are bad. However, what makes this situation even more dangerous is the possibility that this is only a distraction."

"In that case, because you have showed hospitality to us," Ainz nodded to Romulus, "Let us show a bit of hospitality in return and deal with the two intruders."

"That is not necessary, child," Romulus tried to object, "I am sure that the strength of my Servants will be enough for this..."

"And yet" - Ainz smiled a fake smile, - "Consider this an apology for the fact that we came to visit you empty-handed."

"Hey, Master," but before Ainz could teleport away, a voice stopped him. Turning around, Ainz could see Cu Chulainn shaking his hand.

"Master," he said, "Some rumors have reached me that you give out gifts for good behavior..."

"And what do you want in such a case?" Ainz looked at him. Now was not the best time to discuss the possibility of awards.

"Well, there are two intruders," Cu Chulainn grinned.

Ainz nodded and sighed - "Do you want to take one of them for yourself?"

"Yeah," the man grinned, rising from the negotiating table, after which he took a step toward the magician.

'And yet, Master,' Caster said suddenly using the link between Servant and Master, 'Could you remove your limitations?'

Ainz wondered for a second, 'The Mana limits?'

'Yeah,' Cu Chulainn agreed and snickered in anticipation.

Ainz thought for a second, and then sighed - 'I'm sorry, but no. You can't withstand all of my mana.'

The worry itself was absurd. There were Servants so powerful that Masters trying to supply them with mana were dying of exhaustion. There have never been any Masters in history with such mana reserves to strangle a Servant with it.

But if there were exceptions in the world, then Ainz was clearly one of those.

'Okay' - Cu Chulainn sighed - 'Then... At least give me the maximum that is possible.'

Ainz thought for a second - 'This... is possible. But not here. I would not want to accidentally break the marble floors.'

'Okay' - Cu Chulainn grinned, after which he looked at Ainz - 'I thought that you didn't like to fight.'

'I don't like it,' Ainz answered calmly, after which he looked at Romulus and then at Zhuge Liang, 'But as they say... Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.'

'What?' Cu Chulainn looked at Ainz with a blank look.

'Nothing,' he answered, after which he cut off his connection with Cu Chulainn and looked at Romulus. "Can you tell me where the Servants are?"

"At the west gate," Romulus answered graciously, "The gate where you entered from. And once again - I am immensely grateful to you for your help."

"Not at all," Ainz smiled. "Besides, I still need to check one more thing... About the Servants."

* * *

Thanks to the teleportation ring, Cu Chulainn was immediately next to the western gate. To be more precise, it was about two kilometers away from the western gate, on the edge of the road where Romulus pointed him to.

"Teleportation is such a cheat" - Cu Chulainn grinned with a pleased smile - "But since this cheat is in my hands - I have no objections to this."

Two kilometers was a distance too big to say that this position was "near" the gate, but such a distance even for a Servant like Caster, who could not boast a considerable rank in Agility and speed, it was still an insignificant distance, to say nothing of the approaching Servant.

"Speak of the devil," Cu Chulainn turned his eyes.

A cloud of dust rising in the distance due to the speed of the Servant hid their features, but Caster could see the massive body of a man without any problems. However, Caster's success ended there.

"He is, however, quite hefty," Cu Chulainn shook his head. Maybe the man was not the size of Romulus, but he still towered head and shoulders above Cu Chulainn himself - "Oh well. The larger the Goliath, the louder it falls."

"Hey Master" - Cu Chulainn talked to Ainz via the link - "How to say it right... Limit Break!"

Cu Chulainn thought for a second whether there would be a need to explain to him exactly what he had in mind, but Ainz correctly understood Cu Chulainn's intention, so after a second he felt incredible power running through him.

It was not like an uplift and surge of strength, either from an inspirational speech or the second breath of an exhausted athlete nearing the finish line. It was a real quantifiable force.

"If you think about it, which of us generally has more strength?" - Cu Chulainn thought abstractly for a second.

Pure mana struck in all directions, literally blowing the surrounding landscape near Cu Chulainn in a wave. It was like a tsunami suddenly rising from the ground. If Cu Chulainn was now in a forest, then the sudden impulse of force would probably tear out the trees with their root, sending them on a short flight.

The echo of the unexpected flash of mana attracted the attention of the Servant, who was silently moving toward his target, forcing him to stop.

"A huge guy, huh," Cu Chulainn shook his head. "And also in armor."

The man who got up close to Cu Chulainn turned out to be a mountain of muscles - "Another of this kind in the Singularity" - dressed in what Cu Chulainn could doubtfully attributed to Chinese armor in red and gold colors.

"Not that it will help him in any way" - Cu Chulainn sighed and focused on his Mana reserves.

It seemed that the mana provided by Ainz was endless, at least from the point of view of Cu Chulainn himself. His parameters jumped one rank, except his Luck...

"Is this some kind of curse or what?" Cu Chulainn sighed. Even more so, his Noble Phantasms... Although their own rank also increased, so he could assume that their strength increased - the parameter of his Noble Phantasm, denoting their "mystery" - the measure of their metaphysical strength or effect in the world, also remained the same.

"Yet these things are not related to the amount of mana granted" - the guy sighed. His Divinity also remained at its previous level, although his Protection from Arrows received a plus to its strength...

"Damn it, how strong is he really?!" Cu Chulainn shook his head.

Cu Chulainn was ... Not the most powerful Caster, or Servant, for that matter. He probably would have managed to defeat Caesar if he could keep him at a distance... But, perhaps, that was his limit. Someone like Arthuria or Jeanne, not to mention Cainabel, remained beyond his capabilities. Of course, if we talk not only about direct combat, then Cu Chulainn could compensate for some weakness in this regard with the help of preparations, runes and the correct use of tactics, but almost any Servant could do that. In direct combat, Cu Chulainn was not the strongest Servant.

Until Ainz lifted the restrictions on his mana supply.

Cu Chulainn exhaled and smiled a predatory smile. Now? Now, he would perhaps be able to teach something to Arthuria in a one-on-one battle.

"Hey," noticing that the unknown enemy did not move from his position, Cu Chulainn waved his hand, "Guy. I'm not sure who you are, but I would not want to kill someone without knowing his name and goals. Won't you be so kind as to introduce yourself before our fight?"

Cu Chulainn did not particularly count on being given the name of his adversary, but it was still worth a try. His possible incarnation in a Lancer class, for example, could even be tricked this way.

The man, who was silent before, froze for a second, after which he opened his mouth...

A metal rattle, as if several mechanical parts had crashed into each other, hit Cu Chulainn's ears.

"A Robot?!" - Cu Chulainn looked at the enemy in surprise, but he was no longer there - "And where..."

Cu Chulainn did not receive an answer to his question, at least not in a way he would have liked.

The blow of a monstrously huge spear sent Caster into flight, after which the man who just appeared next to Cu Chulainn roared.

"Berserker!" Caster finally realized the identity of the Servant, feeling the full force of the blow, "Ouch! He could have killed me with that!"

Most likely, the Cu Chulainn from before, who had the insignificant Endurance of rank D as a Caster, would have died from that blow. However, for the Cu Chulainn of the presents, who, thanks to Ainz's intervention, gaining rank C Endurance, this was a major but not fatal blow. At least no more than six broken ribs.

However, Berserker did not stop his pursuit and clearly did not plan to engage in dialogue, instead choosing to immediately rush after Cu Chulainn.

"Not so fast, big guy!" - Cu Chulainn grinned. "How is this ring used..."

A second later, Cu Chulainn disappeared literally in the middle of his flight, forcing Berserker, who was moving toward his target, to stand still for a second. After that, Cu Chulainn's spell struck the giant, sending him flying.

"An eye for an eye!" - Cu Chulainn grinned maliciously, then grimaced in pain - "How many ribs did he actually break in me with that blow?!"

The spell that was sent, after Cu Chulainn's increased strength, actually doubled its power, forcing the Berserker to fly like an arrow fired from a bow. If Ainz were around, he would definitely shake his head and say that the spell "_Fire Arrow_" of such strength was usually a privilege of the seventieth level. However, Ainz was not here and there was no one to argue about the power of the spells.

The fire spell that struck Berserker caused their armor to be covered in soot and dent a little bit, but the Mad Enhancement allowed him to withstand it without any significant damage to their capability to fight. It meant that there was no reason for Berserker to stop his onslaught.

Instantly the frozen Berserker rushed toward Cu Chulainn, reducing the distance at the speed of a racing car.

"Oh, this thing needs a recharge..." - Cu Chulainn thought about the ring and looked at Berserker. He probably would have been able to easily catch Caster... If not for some help from Ainz, of course.

Cu Chulainn abruptly stepped away from the approaching Servant, not inferior in speed to the Berserker, and then Caster casted a suitable rune. A second later, the legs of the huge Berserker was entangled with vines, forcing him to stop in his tracks.

With a jerk of his foot however, the Berserker was able to break the vines by simply taking a step toward the mage. To the mage, who took advantage of the small respite granted to him, it was all the time he needed.

"Teacher, of course, told me not to mix the runes..." - Cu Chulainn grinned smugly - "But she's not here, so..."

Another explosion consumed Berserker, this time hiding him fully in a flash of light. The fiery inferno rose ten meters above the battlefield, instantly burning out what was until recently only peaceful meadows.

"Damn, not as impressive as Ainz's" - Cu Chulainn frowned. It was not his strongest spell, but "_Napalm_" was also not Ainz's strongest spell.

"I would like to see Ainz's battle now..." - Cu Chulainn allowed himself a second of thoughtfulness, but also not taking his eyes off the moving bulk of Berserker - "I'm sure he looks much more impressive now..."

Cu Chulainn was right, the battle of Ainz's was in some way really impressive.

Only there was nothing to look at.

* * *

Berserker stopped instantly as soon as he felt the appearance of an obstacle in front of him. As a Berserker, he was not interested in obstacles, in any other case, he would simply ignore it - or destroy it. After all, this was his purpose.

He, along with his... Comrade, that was the most correct term. Together with his comrade, the second Berserker, was supposed to attack Rome. It was an order from someone he respected. From the creature that was able to win the respect of even a Berserker.

Was it his Master?

No. Berserker did not have a Master. But if he had a choice, he definitely would choose this human as his Master.

Is it human nature?

It was a philosophical question that Berserker did not care about. Although if he were summoned in his other class, for example as a Rider, Berserker would be interested in ruminating about those thoughts - but now Berserker simply could not be bothered at all. He was insane, after all.

However, the thing that arose as an obstacle in his path made even the mad Berserker to stop in their steps.

"Good afternoon," the stranger's voice came clearly to the Berserker, "My name is Ainz Ooal Gown. I'm sorry, but I really need to test one of my theory, so if you don't step back now... I will have no other choice but to engage you."

Berserker did not understand what was said. Could not understand.

However, even his mind stricken with insanity understood.

This will be the most difficult battle that Berserker could ever imagine.

Berserker's madness consumed his mind like a leech, but even it couldn't completely swallow his mind and make him throw himself at the enemy instantly. Even if Berserker lost the ability to speak, he still understood.

In this battle, no tricks, no feints, no tactics and strategies will help him. He had no right even for one second to be distracted from this battle. Berserker realized that he had one single chance in this fight.

Berserker slowly, as if reluctantly, was able to utter a single phrase that was not swallowed by his madness.

"**Athanaton**," Berserker, whose name was once Darius III, spoke slowly the name of his Noble Phantasm, "**Ten Thousand Immortals**."

After a second, the Noble Phantasm of Darius took shape.

Darius' Mana struck in all directions, taking the form of an army. His immortal army.

In life, Ten Thousand Immortals were the elite guard of Darius, a symbol of the power of the Persian kings. Their elite army, which became his own Noble Phantasm.

However, a funny fact, "immortals" was not the real name of this army. This was the name that the Greek chroniclers of the time awarded to them. However, over time... This name has acquired much more meaning than their original name.

Immortals. The eternal guard of the Persian king. Warriors who followed their king even to the next world, and returning after. Those who were no longer human. Those who have become truly immortal.

Ten thousand dead soldiers of Darius.

Each of them took shape separately, gaining shields, blades, spears, bows... And a bone body. The body of the undead.

Each of the soldiers was a small fry compared to a Servant. But ten thousand? Ten thousand could have buried any enemy under them.

However, this was only part of Darius Noble Phantasm.

When Alexander the Great led his troops to conquer Persia, he first encountered a great horror within it, a monster capable of smashing a soldier into bits, forcing trained war horses to flee in fear.

War elephants.

Of course, for a Noble Phantasm, something like a war elephant was nothing more than an absurdity. However, when your army become undead, and your faithful war elephant terrified your enemies when they are alive - after becoming a Servant, it also undergoes certain changes.

Just as the army of Darius became undead, his war elephant turned into a monster. Now it was not even an animal - it was like a giant black haze created from the fear of soldiers who first encountered the invincible beasts, and the horror of the enemy, who were crushed by the creature's huge legs. It was a beast similar to a chimera, but surpassing its strength by several orders of magnitude not only in its power, but also in its mystery. It was a titanic Phantasmal Beast comparable to the Pegasus of Medusa in strength. It was a living embodiment of horror, almost indestructible and full of black magic, ready to crash upon the enemy.

However, even if an incredibly powerful hero could defeat ten thousand immortals, and then destroy the beast created by the Noble Phantasm of Darius, he would not find another easy target. After all, in the end he was to meet with Darius himself.

In the hands of Darius, perched on the back of his beast, two huge axes appeared, made as if from darkened gold, the blow of each of which could even cut a Servant with one blow. The power of Darius exceeded many, and even among the Berserkers he would take a place of honor. His Endurance would allow him to withstand more than a dozen blows from even the most powerful of opponents. And his Agility would amaze anyone who might be foolish enough to think that Berserkers must be slow. But even that was not his last trump card. His main trump card was his Battle Continuation of rank A. With such a rank in that skill, Darius could continue to fight even after being almost completely destroyed. A torn heart or with copious amount of blood flowing out of his body - nothing would stop Berserker in battle, until his opponent could overcome his incredible strength and make a strike of great strength, capable of finally stopping the creature's great onslaught.

Darius III alone could take a place among the strongest Servants of the Throne of Heroes, comparable with Romulus in battle.

But…

"The Undead are weak, but their number can become a problem," the enemy opposite Darius sighed. "Besides, it's a very interesting summon you have here... I can't immediately say what powers it possesses, but it alone could be compared with a middle-ranked Servant... Probably. And that's all so…"

Darius suddenly felt something that a Berserker like him should not have even known.

Fear.

"With all the power of your Noble Phantasm..." Darius suddenly realized that even his strongest trump card did not make the enemy to move in anyway.

No way.

If Darius was summoned as a Rider, he would be afraid of a battle with such an opponent. However, Darius was summoned as a Berserker and therefore reacted in the only way that a Berserker could.

"Attack!" - his command was heard, reaching all his soldiers - "Attack! Attack!"

Only an animal roar escaped from Darius' throat.

"But even so, to remain without any magical defense and without any protection from insta-kill," the enemy sighed and raised his hand.

The troops of Darius rushed forward and his beast followed them, but Darius understood. Even with such a show of force, even in this battle. Even putting all his strongest cards on the table.

From the very beginning, his adversary came only to test his theory and nothing more.

"_Death_," came Ainz's voice.

After a moment, it was all over. The armies of Darius, which could have buried dozens of Servants, only managed to take a few more steps before each of the Immortals fell to the ground instantly crumbling to dust. The great beast of Darius could not even take a step, instantly losing its strength, after which the beast simply turned back into black smog dispersing on the wins. Then the already dead body of Darius III finally touched the earth, hitting it with a great thump, and then froze. Now forever.

"I apologize," Ainz said calmly, after which he glanced at the fluttering remnants of the Noble Phantasm, "But looking at this I cannot call such a battle other than... Disappointing."

For a second, Ainz froze, thinking, after which he looked up at an unknown anomaly in the sky and shook his head. "I hope that Cu Chulainn likes his battle more."

* * *

**Death Magic**

A Skill, indicating that its owner was initiated into the secrets of the magic of death, necromancy and the darkest of secrets of the universe. A skill suitable for necromancers, black magicians... and clerics. Despite the fact that the magic of death is associated by people with death itself or the darkness brought with it - only by understanding the essence of death can one try to defeat it. In the end, the doctor studies the disease before he can begin the study of possible treatments. So the unending pursuit of a goal, inaccessible even to True Magic, a madman can achieve the sacrament of resurrection only by knowing the sacrament of death.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**To clarify, since some people misinterpret it - Ainz didn't kill Immortals. Ainz killed Darius and his NP crumbled after his death.****  
**

**And comments: (only one this time)**

**Ainz and lore - Ainz knew every available lore in the game. Most of the books in-game were just items without information written inside them - you can't even read it. So most of the time information inside these books will be out of reach for Ainz.  
**

**Also - ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	52. Chapter 52

There were really not that many things to do in Chaldea, if you're a Servant anyway.

Kiyohime with a sigh looked at her fan, closed it in her hands, and started thinking.

The Training grounds? Thank you , but no, she was not so muscle headed and aggressive as to fight the rest of the Servants daily. In addition, her Noble Phantasm remained the largest part of her strength. Using it, she could confidently defeat almost any Servant of Anchin. Without it... The situation would be a little bit too precarious for her taste.

The Workshops? Kiyohime did not suffer from excessive love for such things.

The Kitchen? Kiyohime knew how to cook perfectly and if Anchin was within walking distance of the kitchen and the girl, she would not neglect the opportunity to demonstrate this. However, without Anchin, cooking for someone else? Kiyohime's brow scrunched up at that thought.

The Lounges? They were full of all kinds of things - Mozart occupied both the piano and the game systems located there. There's also some other games like billiards and board or card games, but those things was not particularly enjoyable to Kiyohime. Perhaps, again, if the opportunity to play the games had been proposed to her, by Anchin, she would have been glad to have a chance to at least look at one of the many entertainments of this world with her beloved. But without him all of that was pointless.

In total, Kiyohime had few options available for an enjoyable pastime.

Kiyohime looked at her hand, delighting at her perfectly manicured nails, then looked at her white silky skin and beautiful silver hair, after which she shook her head.

The beauty salon was already thoroughly used in all its capabilities. Even if Kiyohime wanted to visit it again - she simply would not have anything to do in the salon, as her appearance was already impeccable.

In other words, Kiyohime literally had nothing to do.

"I'm sure Anchin is now fighting..." - this thought gripped the girl's heart with a steel grip - "For my sake... Without me..."

Just one thought about Anchin made Kiyohime breathe stutter intermittently. This line of thinking is not worth it. He simply cannot bear the thought of making her, Kiyohime, his beloved, fight. He could not even bear the thought that she would be wounded in battle, just as she could not bear the thought that her Anchin was fighting somewhere she cannot reach, in the Singularity.

"Anchin" - Kiyohime sighed again intermittently, after which she wiped away the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her kimono - "Please... Just come back..."

For a second, Kiyohime was infested by the idea of demanding information about Anchin from the "chief", Olga-Marie, but luckily, as soon as this thought appeared - it subsided - "Those idiots still have not established contact with the Singularity..."

Kiyohime sighed again for the umpteenth time. What carelessness! How could Anchin allow such idiots to be in charge of him! Anchin would be a much better leader - Kiyohime was sure of it.

However, even despite such thoughts, the cruel truth of reality before the eyes of Kiyohime did not rush to disappear.

She just had nothing to do.

The girl sighed again, after which she was deep in thought again. She is not so stupid and vulgar that, like that petty thing, Serenity, to sit in her room for hours and days, staring at the wall. No, she was Anchin's beloved - and even though this Serenity arbitrarily called herself a "wife," Kiyohime knew the truth! - and therefore would not allow her silly behavior to be reflected in her beloved Anchin!

Therefore, Kiyohime, after another heavy sigh, still decided on a course of action. She decided to go to the only place suitable for her status, as the beloved of Anchin, and a Servant of Chaldea's Master. To the library it is.

Perhaps, at least in the library, she could find a cure for her boredom. No romance novel, of course, could convey the same depth and strength of the feelings that existed between her and Anchin, however, the authors could try. Perhaps even their paltry attempts will be able to dispel some of the boredom of Kiyohime.

Having reached a decision, the girl moved through the winding corridors of Chaldea, reaching her destination after only a few minutes.

"The Chaldean Main Library" - proudly plastered above the huge entrance arch, behind which, reaching the distant walls and stained glass windows, there were huge shelves lined up full of books. Indeed, the Chaldean library was filled with books - of various contents - as expected of a research institute and a center of magical research under the patronage of the Animusphere family. Even if only one person was alive from this family at the moment.

Kiyohime took a step inside, then frowned a little. Her keen senses as a dragon told her that another person was not far from her. Even more than that, by the smell, Kiyohime could identify the visitor as a Servant. The number of Servants who usually visit the library was not so great - and its number became even smaller after Medusa left for the Singularity - another detail that Kiyohime was not happy about. However, of all the unlikely options, Kiyohime definitely did not expect this.

"Hassan?" The girl looked a little in surprise at the Servant, whose shape and face was hidden by a tattered black cloak and with a white skull-like mask.

Assassin, having heard his name uttered, extended his long bony hand, taking one of the books on the shelf, after which he turned to the girl and nodded at her - "Kiyohime."

Kiyohime did not need to communicate with someone like Hassan. Strictly speaking she had no desire at all to do this. However, taking into account the general deplorable situation she is in, who is currently greatly suffering from idleness and boredom. And also due to the fact that Hassan had interacted with Anchin in this incarnation longer than Kiyohime herself, she decided to start some kind of dialogue.

Glancing at the shelf from which the book was taken from, Kiyohime raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Memoirs of Marie-Antoinette? Hassan, up to this point, I would never have thought that you are interested in historical novels."

"I am not interested in its artistic merit," Hassan, however, answered so calmly that it could have been easily be seen that he did not want to talk with Kiyohime at all, "I am only interested in facts."

"So that's why?" Kiyohime shook her head. "And what facts in the biography of the unfortunate Queen of France might interest you?"

Kiyohime herself had in mind that what she said would be taken as an easy joke, but unexpectedly for Kiyohime. Hassan having flipped through several pages, suddenly extended an open book to the girl, - "This one."

Kiyohime, accepted the book, then carefully read the lines pointed to by Hassan.

"...There is a well-known legend that the ring Marie-Antoinette wore was presented to her by a family of peasants who kept the ring as a family heirloom." - read the dry lines of text - "Allegedly, this ring was passed down in their family for more than three hundred years, waiting for its chance when it can be presented to Marie-Antoinette. The ring itself was made of silver of the highest purity and inlaid with a large ruby, the inscription "Flower of Versailles" was engraved on the ring itself. According to legend, a wandering girl and her two companions in need of food and shelter once visited the family of peasants, after which, when the peasants showed them hospitality, the girl left them that ring.

Of course, such a legend, although beautiful, has no proof for its veracity and most likely was invented by storyteller much later, while the ring itself was created by court jewelers... "

Kiyohime disinterestedly glanced at a few more lines, after which, having determined that nothing interesting was written in the book, she returned the book back to Hassan.

"And what should I have understood from this passage?" Kiyohime looked at Hassan, who, having closed the book, returned it to its place.

"Hm?" Hassan suddenly turned to Kiyohime and tilted his head slightly, as if in confusion, then nodded slowly, "Oh yes, you weren't present then... Hm, then, maybe I have something that will allow you to understand."

After these strange words, Hassan suddenly straightened up, allowing himself to rise to his full height.

'He is really tall…' - despite the painful thinness, which even a black ragged cloak could barely managed to hide, Hassan was really tall. No, perhaps it was because of his painful thinness that he seemed even taller than he actually was - although even without taking into account the optical illusion, Assassin's height was approaching - if not exceeding - two meters.

Recovering his full height, Hassan easily extended his hand, the one not wrapped in numerous bandages, and grabbed another book that he could finally reach from a shelf and pulled it towards him. After which, he quickly began to leaf through the pages. After a few seconds of searching, finding the part he needed, Hassan again slipped the book into the hands of Kiyohime.

"Vichy Fire," read the title of the chapter. Kiyohime, whose mind seemed to be a little curious about what was written, read the lines.

"In 1431, after the execution of Jeanne d'Arc, due to mass religious hysteria a significant number of events were observed in France spontaneously organized by soldiers of the French army and the French clergy struck by religious hysteria. The most famous, though not the only such documented case is the so-called "Vichy Fire". According to modern archaeology data, this fire was organized by an unknown crowd of zealous admirers of the deceased Jeanne d'Arc, as her "retribution to the people who betrayed me." This fire almost completely destroyed the city and provoked riots, resulting in a short-term uprising of people who claimed that they saw the return of Jeanne d'Arc as a "black witch, burning with anger, riding a black dragon". Subsequently, many of the arsonist that was captured also claimed that it was Jeanne d'Arc with her dragon who was responsible for the mass arson. But the French crown did not did not consider such tall tales as evidence and soon executed the twenty-seven people for arson and mass incitement to riot against the crown. Also, this event and its consequences are considered one of the first events after which the view on the actions of Jeanne d'Arc changed from absolutely positive to balanced or even moderately negative... "

Kiyohime frowned.

"Vichy, a great fire and a witch on a black dragon," Kiyohime muttered to herself, "That sounds very familiar."

"That's right," Hassan said calmly, "This is exactly what happened during our incursion into the Singularity. There we attempted to get into Vichy after we were deceived by Chevalier. The Witch arrived a little later on Fafnir and, enraged by what had happened, burned Vichy to the ground, while in Vichy itself there was an uprising against the Witch and her soldiers. This is what happened in the Singularity."

"Hm," Kiyohime frowned, recalling the facts that she knew, "But Chaldea... This apparatus of Chaldea - should have fixed the Singularity, right? After eliminating the cause of the Singularity, Chaldea was supposed to replace the existing Singularity with a "corrected" version of the world, right?"

"Yes," Hassan nodded. "Exactly. And that's why I became engrossed in thought about what it means the "corrected" version."

Kiyohime blinked several times before being able to understand the simple words uttered by the Assassin - "What does the "corrected" version mean?"

"Yes," Hassan nodded. "That's it."

Suppose that there is a certain Singularity in which there is a certain Witch who destroyed France and summoned many Servants to help also dragons and wyverns. In the course of her actions, she destroyed many cities and killed many people, after which a certain Ainz appeared who could defeat her and destroy the Holy Grail, which created distortions in reality and history. This meant that the Singularity was supposed to disappear. Without the support of the destroyed Grail, a distortion like the Witch should not have existed at all. Chaldea then had to replace this reality where the Witch existed with that in which the Witch did not exist... However, what was to happen to the destroyed cities and the deceased soldiers?

If Chaldea used some existing template of the "correct history" to do it, then the story should have been corrected for one in which neither the Witch, the summoned Jeanne, nor Ainz himself existed. But this gave rise to a paradox. Chaldea did not have enough strength to completely rewrite the effects of the Grail and rewrite history as if it had never existed at all. This meant that instead of changing the distorted reality to the one in which the Grail did not exist, Chaldea was only able to change history to the one where the Grail did exist, but was destroyed by Ainz.

In this case, a question arose. What was to happen to the other victims of the Servants' battle in the Singularity? If Chaldea could not completely rewrite the reality created by the Grail, then this meant that certain events that were not directly related to the Grail and did not stand out so much from the "correct history of mankind" remained in the new reality created by Chaldea.

For example, the burning of Vichy. The existence of the Witch was destroyed after the destruction of the Grail, like her dragon as well as her Servants. However, the fact of a fire in Vichy, the rebellion and even the memories of some people that "a black Jeanne d'Arc riding a dragon burned Vichy" still remained in reality. Chaldea could not completely erase such things from reality. All it could do was smooth the corners a bit, finding possible reasons that did not stand out from the "correct history".

"Moreover," Kiyohime suddenly realized something else. "The event, after which the memory at Jeanne d'Arc changed to become moderately negative…"

"Yes," Hassan nodded. "The existence of someone like the Dragon Witch is impossible from the point of view of a "correct history." However, the fact that she was summoned means that a reason needed to be found for this. Even if it be weak and insignificant, but still real. For example, a fire in Vichy...

Kiyohime worriedly looked at Hassan, - "But this means that…"

"Yes," Hassan nodded. Looking at him, it was impossible to say that he did it gloomily, or vice versa, interestedly, - "As far as this one can understand... What happened in the Singularity can affect the course of normal history."

Kiyohime frowned. This was troubling news. Truly disturbing.

"What other changes did you manage to notice?" Kiyohime looked at Hassan, to which he only shook his head.

"There are many. However," Hassan turned away, returning the book to its place. "The fire in Vichy is the most notable event. The remaining possible cases can be detected only with careful observation and reading, also by knowing what to look for. Most often, such changes remain only as notes in history books or legends - as with the case of Marie-Antoinette's ring. It was a ring that she exchanged for clothes and a cart with a couple of peasants during our infiltration into Vichy. After hundreds of years - either due to the influence of Chaldea - or perhaps even Alaya itself - the original story has changed, turning it into a small legend, the only people who knew about the existence of an "unchanged" history could determine the incorrectness. Besides…"

Hassan thought for a second, "I know that Gilles de Rais received a much more heroic legend, especially in France. Although he is still known as the Blue Beard in many parts of the world - in France, he is revered as the defender of the French people and the main champion of Jeanne d'Arc. There is also a legend that during the fires in France that arose after the death of Jeanne d'Arc and arranged, presumably, by crazy fanatics, someone saw a man garbed in the robe of Saints, which many correlate with Saint George, who saved the people from the attack of fanatics. Also, for example, there is a not very well-known legend that the executioner of Marie-Antoinette, Charles-Henri Sanson was actually a disguised dragon - or that he said the words "no matter how many times this happened - it will always be our incorrigible fate" during the execution of the queen. There was also a story, not from France, in a strange way…"

After the words were uttered, Hassan suddenly froze, then shook his head, "No, nothing."

"Nothing?" Kiyohime raised an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure that you started saying some kind of phrase. And I don't think you wanted to say "there was still a story, no, nothing."

Hassan was silent for a second, after which he glanced at Kiyohime.

On the one hand, Hassan was not that concerned with the emotions of Kiyohime. If there was a mission or an order from the Master, anyone would die. Just because he was a Servant - and the Servants obey the orders of the Master. So simple.

On the other hand, if there was no Master's decree regarding his behavior, then Hassan could be in a somewhat strange situation, forced to decide in accordance with his own judgment. And Hassan's judgment was not always the best.

For example, if he had told Kiyohime about another strange legend that had made its way through the ages to a distant country, she would probably have reacted to it with an emotional response, which could both positively and negatively affect her current state - which could affect her further mission as a Servant. If he withheld this information, then he would definitely provoke a negative reaction from Kiyohime, which could affect their combat compatibility with Hassan himself. In other words, Hassan was at an impasse of speculation.

However, at the same time, judging by his observations, if necessary, Kiyohime would have placed the mission assigned by the Master above her own preferences, so he nodded, "There is another legend, but it concerns the events that took place in Hungary, one and a half hundred years later."

Kiyohime blinked, - "Hungary? But I never…"

Suddenly, Kiyohime was silent.

She has never visited Hungary or the region that would later be called Hungary, of course. But she knew one person - one Servant - that came from there.

"That's right," Hassan nodded. "According to one of her legends, Elizabeth Bathory claimed that in her childhood she had a friend of unearthly beauty with whom she spent all her time with. She spent several years travelling with her, but at the age when she was supposed to get out of girlhood she saw her friend for the last time - and that friend admitted to her that she was a dragon, after which she left and never returned."

Kiyohime choked on air.

Unlike many - almost all the Servants summoned from the previous Singularity, only Kiyohime was able to survive the Singularity and therefore preserved an untouched set of memories of what had happened. About the battles, victories, and defeats... And about one annoying horned Lancer, pushing on the nerves of Kiyohime.

"That's... how..." she said slowly.

"Yes," Hassan sighed, "In fact... It's hard to imagine whether such information would have any effect on Servant Elizabeth Bathory, summoned, for example, by Ainz. However, this has an impact on human history. Although the likelihood that the summon will be the "correct" Elizabeth Bathory, one that was not connected by this legend is much greater... It also means that there is at least a theoretical probability that the summoned Elizabeth Bathory will have memories of a "friend from her childhood". A friend who…"

"Who is me," Kiyohime nodded. "I... I understand."

Hassan stood silently, looking at Kiyohime.

Of course, Kiyohime loved Anchin. More than anything she loved Anchin. For the sake of Anchin, she would give everything in this world.

But that stupid annoying Lancer with terrible a singing voice... Kiyohime remembered her. She remembered a lot of things. How she sang and got on her nerves, how she talked all the time, how she was always angry and how she demanded too much respect for her pseudo-dragon person.

And also, as she walked alongside Kiyohime, she fought alongside her, and died, meeting her alter-ego face to face. Kiyohime remembered all this.

It was strange, but for some reason, the knowledge that some unknown chronicler wrote in the legend of Elizabeth Bathory that she and Kiyohime were connected was absurd, but at the same time... Strangely warm.

Kiyohime smiled.

"I think this strange assumption is also related to Ainz," Hassan's voice pulled Kiyohime out of her thoughts.

"Hm?" The girl looked up at Assassin.

"A lot of documents were kept in the chief's office, including the personal files of all Master candidates," Hassan explained, after which he muttered thoughtfully, "It was strange, but this man personal file was not there..."

"It doesn't matter," Hassan shook his head. "The list of Chaldean candidates for the Masters. One of them belonged to the forty-eighth Master, Gudao Fujimaru."

"Hassan," Kiyohime glared at Assassin with a threat, "Did you try to acquire some personal information about Anchin?"

"My mission as a Servant is to serve my Master," Hassan instantly bowed in apology, "If the lord-mage considers my actions unnecessary, I am ready to bear any punishment that he considers appropriate. However, until that moment, I considered it necessary to find out all the information available to me about my Master in order to serve him in the best way."

"If it's like that," Kiyohime still measured the man with a scornful look, but seeing in his posture and gestures completely ready to suffer punishment for what he had done, she had a little mercy, "In that case... What did you manage to find out?"

"Master number forty-eight," Hassan said calmly, "Gudao Fujimaru. Registered in the Mage's Association. Does not come from an ancient family. Distant relationship with the Tohsaka family. There is no information about his graduation from the Clock Tower or from the Atlas Academy. No information on any completion of any assignments. There is no evidence of any notable achievement. There are no distant or close relatives. Is regarded as self-sufficient."

"So..." Kiyohime frowned.

"None," Hassan nodded. "No personal connections and no notable acquaintance. An upstart out of nowhere."

"Watch your tongue, Assassin!" Kiyohime instantly flared up from the words used to describe her beloved Anchin.

"Of course," Hassan only nodded. "This is the official information from Chaldea. Any official information about Ainz Ooal Gown is not mentioned."

"Hm," Kiyohime frowned. According to the documents - no. In fact - yes - "And what do you think about this then?"

"I think..." Hassan paused for a second, picking up the words, "That such a minor and underwhelming, according to the documents, magi could appear and disappear at any moment. He would have remained just another entry in the archives of the Mages Association. Like one of the legends that appeared after the resolution of the Singularity."

"Do you think that the appearance of such a magi was an irregularity that arose because of a violation of the history of mankind?" Kiyohime looked at Assassin interestedly.

"Yes," Hassan nodded. "At least that appear to be the most logical conclusion in this case."

"But this does not make sense," Kiyohime suddenly shook her head, "Someone like the forty-eighth master... The occurrence of changes in the history of mankind was associated with our actions in the Singularity. How can the existence of the forty-eighth master be changed in such a case?"

"That is a difficult question," Hassan frowned at it, "I... Still, I'm not a genius or specifically educated in such matters. I would like to convey this information to Da Vinci or Roman, they may know or discover something about this. However... I have an idea. For example, the legend of you and Bathory... Arose one hundred and fifty years after your contact in the Singularity. This means that the consequences of such changes in the Singularity can be reflected after a long time. What if, in this case, a certain change in history... occurred in the distant past, after which it generated a similar reaction after many years?"

Kiyohime froze, pondering the thought, - "So you think that many years ago... A certain change in history led to the birth of Gudao Fujimaru? Some unknown magi... For the sole purpose of allowing Anchin, ahem, Ainz to incarnate in his body in the future?"

"This is my guess," Hassan shook his head, "And I myself see all the inconsistency in such a theory. That's why I wanted to convey what information I could uncover to Da Vinci, but at the moment she is busy fixing the broken pseudo-"Throne of Heroes", so for now I have found it necessary to search for more information."

"Is that so," Kiyohime shook her head, "But in that case, even if it is possible... All of the new legends were connected with some event. With some actions in the Singularity. The Witch burned Vichy - this is how the "Vichy Fire" appeared. I travelled together with Bathory - this is how the "friend of the Bathory girl" appeared. How could an unknown random magi related to Anchin be born?"

"In that case, my assumption is..." Hassan fell silent for a few seconds, "That Ainz himself created him."

Somewhere far away, Ainz sneezed again and just in case put his hand to his forehead to check his temperature.

"It may be strange," Hassan nodded. "However, we know for certain that the lord-mage was able to recreate the chief's body in totality. In this case, he could create a certain magi. Without friends, without family, without attachment. For the sole purpose that at the right time he would be able to serve as his passage into this world."

"That's how…" - Kiyohime thought about it, and then froze.

This can not be…

Her pupils dilated.

Can not be…

What if…

This, of course, is impossible...

But what if...

If…

Anchin was also such a created incarnation of Ainz?!

Somewhere far away, Ainz sneezed once more and just in case looked into his inventory for a scroll of "_cure disease_".

"But even so - it's certainly almost impossible," Kiyohime shook her head, "Even assuming that Anchin did create the forty-eighth master himself... How could he do this? To create such a thing, he would have to act from the past and perfectly predict the future. Maybe for hundreds of years. Doing such magic in the past and culminating in the future ... This is not the level of magis or Servants. This is the level of the Gods…"

Realizing what was said, Kiyohime was silent.

"And the lord mage killed gods," Hassan said calmly.

There was silence in the library. A loud, thundering silence in which you could hear how the moments pass.

"In other words," Kiyohime slowly summed up what was discussed, "Do you think that Anchin... Ainz was able to somehow disrupt the history of mankind in some way... Thanks to which he was able to create a certain Gudao, the forty-eighth master... In order to be embodied in his body many years later?"

"This is just my conjecture," Hassan shook his head, "I just wanted to combine it with what Da Vinci and Roman could figure out... Perhaps, having received all these information, they would be able to come up with some kind of harmonious theory."

Hassan was not wrong. They could come to some harmonious general theory, together with all the facts that they knew, Da Vinci and Roman could. Though, not even such a harmonious theory should have been the right one.

However, Hassan did not yet know how, gradually, due to the actions of Servants like him, the legend Ainz's acquired more and more details, gradually becoming more and more confusing and moving from pluses to minuses. On the other hand, a negative number is modulo positive still.

"That's all I managed to find out," Hassan finally nodded, and then turned away from Kiyohime. "Now, I'm sorry. I would like to meet with Da Vinci."

With these parting words, Hassan instantly disappeared behind the arch leading to the exit from the library. If Kiyohime wanted to run after him now, then she would not have been able to catch the elusive Assassin, given his love to use the Presence Concealment all the time. However, Kiyohime did not plan to run after Hassan at the moment. Left alone with herself, Kiyohime thought for a moment.

Thought very hard.

It was strange, but still...

If that was true...

If Anchin really was another embodiment of Ainz...

This meant that there were others.

Other incarnations. Who walked on other roads. Speaking other languages.

Who met with other girls.

Kiyohime clenched her fists to a painful whiteness.

Anchin was hers. No one will ever dispute this. She will not give Anchin to anyone.

But if Anchin really met with other girls, then maybe... Just for the sake of example... For a while... She should start investigating about Serenity's plans for Anchin.

The known enemy is better than the unknown after all.

* * *

**Name**: Kiyohime

**Race**: Heteromorphic

**Title**: Dragon in Love

**Occupation**: Servant of Ainz

**Residence**: Chaldea, a beauty salon in a residential wing

**Karma**: -25 (Neutral)

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**As I see there are not many reviews I can answer to. So**** \- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	53. Chapter 53

Medusa is looking around at the people gathered around her.

For the first time in a long time - literally "looked". Using her eyes. At real people. Well, Servants, it doesn't matter.

It was strange, unusual and pleasant. Exciting, even.

She could navigate in space without the help of ocular vision, of course. And do it very well indeed - she could easily distinguish the shape of an object no worse than a person who uses their sight, determine the sharpness of a blade without even looking at it, grasp the mana used by a magi in the instant they cast their spells only using her instincts and other senses. But many things remained beyond her comprehension. Color, appearance, beauty.

It was really amazing.

Medusa was the youngest of the Gorgon sisters, so in a sense she could even be called a "child." However, she was actually an adult and grown-up woman, so she absolutely did not want to take a closer look at the Servants surrounding her, to examine Cainabel's dress, to evaluate the contours of Romulus' muscles or to closely examine all the features of Jeanne's armor.

Well, only a little...

"I admit, it's a little strange to me that your Master went to a battle but left his Servants behind," Romulus said that immediately after Ainz and Cu Chulainn disappeared thanks to their instant teleportation.

"It's even stranger that he could teleport himself," Zhuge Liang, the Servant who was currently hidden behind Waver's mask. He sighed, then reached for his cigarette case by pure habit, however, after looking at Romulus, he retracted his hand, "Although the fact that he decided to confront a Servant alone except for one Servant also bothers me."

Teleportation…

Teleportation was a rare ability. Extremely rare, even unique one could say.

Not absolutely unique though - there were magis capable of wielding such power. There were just a few of them and each one of them is very powerful in their own way. Wizard marshall and the Second Magician Kischur Zelretch Schewinorg. The king of magic, Solomon. The great alchemist, Paracelsus... In general, magis of a similar caliber, exceptionally rare in history.

But looking at Ainz, Medusa was sure that someone of his caliber was in the least not inferior to the great magis in power. Which, however, answered another question, in fact a question just asked by Romulus.

"Well," Cainabel, still slightly worried of being chastised again by Ainz, tried to resist the insults that Medusa could see forming in her mind, "The battle will last as long as Ainz himself wants it too. And judging by the fact that he has not returned yet - he decided to have some fun."

"Hm, you have a very high opinion of your Master, child..." At that moment, Romulus' polite expression suddenly froze, like a mask.

"What is it?.." - Cainabel clearly wanted to continue her inquiry by spitting out something like "or are you like a dinosaur, your little brain not even capable to finish their sentences?" - however, she stopped herself halfway.

"The presence of one of the attacking Servants has disappeared," said Romulus after a moment of silence.

"The fun did not last long," Cainabel sighed, after which, not finding any opportunity to continue the conversation without insulting anyone, she simply shut up.

'Even if she is a blood sucking beast she doesn't even think of disputing Ainz's orders' - Medusa sighed. Blood sucking beast, ha… As if Medusa was one to talk about "blood-sucking beasts"...

There was an awkward silence at the table for a few seconds. Medusa was not particularly bothered by the silence of this type - in fact, she preferred silence to various kinds of conversations. However, not all of the servants of Ainz agreed with her sentiments.

"I admit, this is just like a fairy tale for me - to meet with so many famous heroes with my own eyes," - Mashu, the voice of youth and naivety in their company - at least when Jeanne was silent - tried to create a point of conversation, dispersing the thickened awkwardness, - "I would never even thought that I would meet Leonidas himself, the legendary king of Sparta!"

"Oh!" - Leonidas, having heard how it was about him, stopped looking at Jeanne, after which he turned his gaze at Mashu and smiled a proud smile, "It's nice to see people who know about me even after so many years! How many generations did my legend survive before it reached you?"

Medusa first started thinking about Leonidas's legend, and then suddenly stopped. How many generations have passed from me to you... Wasn't it just like the question "what time period are you from?" In order to collect more information about a potential ally - or perhaps an enemy?

"A lot," Mashu might have sensed the intent in the man's question, or maybe she just decided not to bother with the calculations, but she answered as friendly as before, "The Battle at Thermopylae, I am awed by the fact that you fought for so long against an advancing army of a greater strength! Was it difficult - to fight a battle, even knowing that you will not return from it?"

"So-so," Leonidas vaguely waved his hand in the air, making an unimpressed face, "But we were Spartans. When you have been taught to fight to the end all your life, sooner or later you have to learn how to stand and die."

"That is really unbelievable," however Mashu continued her childish admiration for the Servant, "Alone against thousands for the sake of saving the innocents behind your back... I hope I can do the same one day."

"Pf," however Leonidas, who had previously accepted the praise calmly, suddenly grinned and looked at the girl with a slightly cheerful look, "Saving the innocent... Well, you could say that we indeed did that."

Mashu, clearly not catching the hidden meaning in the man's answer, only smiled, but unlike her, Medusa was still able to catch the certain hidden meaning of the answer.

"As I see it," Medusa smiled at a silly joke that only she could understand. "You do not quite agree with the wording "for the sake of saving the innocent."

"Well," Leonidas patted his scruff of thought, "We fought to give the Allied army the opportunity to retreat and ultimately defeat the enemy. Not sure how much of this counts as "saving the innocent.""

"But you didn't fight only for victory," Jeanne picked up the topic, intervening after Mashu. "If the enemy reached the cities, ruin and death would have awaited many of the people... You - and all your warriors - defended all of Greece. Isn't that a heroic thing?"

Leonidas, thinking for a couple of seconds, shrugged, "But we did not go to battle in order to protect the people. We went to a glorious death - and all our people understood this."

"Does the awareness of the doom of your campaign diminish its value?" Jeanne smiled back.

"Damn, there is such a concentration of heroes that I'm going to feel sick now," for the lack of scathing comments from Cainabel, who continued to keep her silence intently, the Witch assumed the function of a "bad guy" in the company, "You just went and died. What is heroic about this?"

"Well... nothing!" Leonidas unexpectedly supported her remark, causing the Witch to frown, clearly not expecting such an agreement on his part, "Although... We did kick some persian butts, hah..."

"Yeah yeah, you beat a few persians," Alexander, who was sitting next to him, only crookedly grinned at these words, looking at Leonidas, "No one stood close to your great feat..."

"Oh, Alexander," Leonidas only waved it off, as if from an annoying fly, "Do not spoil the mood. Those are not even your own achievements."

"They will be mine!" Alexander instantly got into a heated reply, after which he froze, "That is, they were mine... In the past. My future achievements in the past…"

"Alexander," Zhuge Liang sighed, watching the boy's mental confusion, "Do not overheat your brain. I would not want you to break your brain before you grow up."

"Waver, how many years have passed - and you are still the same," Alexander only cast an angry glance at Zhuge, "I am your king!"

"Yeah, yeah," Zhuge sighed, and although due to his sigh it might have seemed to an observer that Zhuge Liang spoke only to shut Alexander up, but Medusa could determine that it was more like when she was talking to her sisters. Zhuge Liang talked about this disparagingly rather because he meant something like "we both already know about it, so why talk about it again?"

"Children, all of them," however, Romulus only smiled, looking at the performance that was in front of him, clearly enjoying his position as a "noble grandfather".

Medusa smiled back.

Everything around looked so peaceful ...

"Ay-ay-ay!" - Cu Chulainn avoided another flurry of attacks, after which he sent a spell to the enemy. A ray of fire drew a line from the instantly flared rune toward the enemy, crashing into the Berserker's chest, but this barely made him sway in their charge.

In response to the attack, the huge warrior only roared louder than before, after which he planned to sweep Cu Chulainn from his perch with a huge sweeping blow from his weapon.

"Damn!" - Cu Chulainn used the magic of the ring, instantly teleporting himself behind the Berserker. At a distance of several tens of meters it would only buy him a second at best. So without even stopping for an instant, he cast another spell. Causing a rune to broke out in an explosion on the Berserker's body - "This guy has no plans of restraining himself. "

The situation looked... dire enough.

If you look only at their supply of remaining mana, Cu Chulainn, surprisingly, was in a superior position to his opponent. Even if he could not receive the full strength of Ainz's mana, the mere fact that he was a Caster already meant that he was in a better position, mana-wise anyway, against many opponents. However, Berserker clearly had a clear advantage in this battle. Unlike Caster, who relied on costly spells to perform any effective attacks, Berserker simply used his exceptional strength exclusively in battle. Therefore the Berserker spent his available mana much more slowly than Cu Chulainn. In other words, despite the fact that Berserker had less mana, the first who would eventually have exhausted his strength in this battle was Cu Chulainn.

"Damn" - Cu Chulainn cursed silently to himself, instantly dodging the next blow dealt by the approaching Berserker - "I will lose to something like that..."

Cu Chulainn was not the strongest Servant, of course. He did not hope that he would be able to win the battle without resorting to his serious attacks, be it the strongest of his spells or his Noble Phantasm... Any of the two. However, in a battle between Servants, the Noble Phantasm has always been their strongest attack. To be relied for use only at the very peak of a battle. A trump card that can turn the tide of any fight. Using the Noble Phantasm meant that a Servant was finally driven into a corner and saw no other way to defeat their opponent than to use their most powerful weapon.

Of course, exceptions to this rule existed... But it was not that significant for now.

And the fact that Berserker still did not deign to use his Noble Phantasm meant that he was not of these exceptions.

Cu Chulainn closed the distance in a moment, then frowned. His Wicker Man was not suitable for capturing too powerful or fast targets. His Ochd Deug Odin took time to prepare. Two things that did not give Cu Chulainn the opportunity to use his Noble Phantasms. Given that his opponent has not yet used his Noble Phantasms... It was disturbing.

Cu Chulainn thought for a second about turning to Ainz for assistance. Even if he wanted to fight one on one with a Servant, this does not mean at all that he preferred to die in battle without using his chances to the fullest. Perhaps his version as a Lancer might have thought of something like this, but he was not quite the same as that Lancer. He preferred a not-so-fair victory to a very fair defeat.

Even so, he would prefer to use such a thing only in case of emergency. And despite the fact that Berserker still managed to injure Caster - he was still relatively intact, and therefore did not consider the situation critical in any way.

Cu Chulainn avoided the next attack, after which he sent the next spell, which exploded in a fiery flash from its collision with a target. Apparently, he will have to exhaust Berserker in order to use his trump cards... Not the most exciting turn of events - but it could be worse. Certainly, it could have been much worse.

However, this "worse" turn of events still happened to the magi.

Avoiding the next attack with the help of teleportation, Cu Chulainn was still able to convey to the Berserker the simple idea that it was not possible for the Berserker to kill Caster in a direct attack. Having realized this simple thought, he stopped for a second, after which he raised his face to the sky, bellowing a roar, which was impossible to describe in any other way than "mechanical".

"I wonder how Ainz is doing right now?" Cu Chulainn thought for a second, before Berserker lowered his head back to Cu Chulainn.

Cu Chulainn needed to use the momentary respite that he had been given in by sending another of his attacking spells to his opponent, but instead Cu Chulainn simply stared at the Berserker for a second, looking at the enemy. Berserkers were not famous for their great tactical skill. Usually they simply launch themselves at their enemy and attacked, attacked and attacked again until the enemy was dead. They ceased to attack only in very rare cases. For instance…

Pulling at his weapon, which was a strange hybrid of a spear and a halberd with two blades at its side, Berserker posed as if he was pointing it at Cu Chulainn. For a second, he was surprised at the gesture, before the blades that is connected with the two pieces of metal at the top of the halberd opened up, turning the spear into something like a bow. A very disproportionate bow, where the spear served as a huge arrow.

"Wait a minute?!" - Cu Chulainn looked at Berserker with a misunderstanding - "That is, that is actually a bow?!"

For a second, the thought that all the Archers in this world were somehow abnormal slipped into Cu Chulainn's head, but he was able to crystalize the realization, instead instantly realizing the purpose of the enemy's actions.

"**God Power**," Berserker said, clearly and distinctly, in a mechanical, emotionless voice, for the first time in the whole battle, pointing the huge arrow to Cu Chulainn, "**Five Soldiers of the War God.**"

"Lu Bu!" - Cu Chulainn instantly felt a surge of surprise - "Of course, the invincible General of the Three Kingdoms fell on my head!"

Lu Bu. Invincible warrior. The General of betrayal.

The warrior that was called the greatest warrior of the Three Kingdoms. And his faithful weapon, created by Chen Gong, according to the soldiers of the Three Kingdoms was created as if with the power of the God of War embedded in itself. Like many times before - the legends, in this case, turned out to be more important than the real history.

Cu Chulainn felt it instantly, an incredible power - a force that could be called divine - responded to the name of the Phantasm called out by the great warrior. A roar like a wild beast roaring in anticipation of the impending destruction instantly poured into the monstrous spear aimed at Cu Chulainn like a huge arrow.

"**Wicker Man**!" Cu Chulainn responded instantly, allowing his Phantasm to take shape in the world in response to his opponent's trump card.

The monstrous giant, woven from willow branches, appeared in reality at the very moment in which Cu Chulainn uttered its name. The figure of the giant, burning with power - and with a quite tangible flame - rose above the ground for several tens of meters, hiding with its shadow the Servants who now seemed insignificant. However, the sparkling of Berserker's bow was not obscured by the shadow of the monster. No, perhaps even more than that, the monster's shadow only allowed any observer to look at how powerful the weapon of destruction shone in the hands of Lu Bu.

For his attack, Lu Bu needed great concentration and a few seconds of delay, so an attempt to attack him with a huge monster like the Wicker Man was not completely devoid of logic - however, it was doomed to failure from the very beginning.

The Bow of Lu Bu was a central theme of his legend. The legend of an invincible warlord. The legend of the general of betrayal. About the child of the era of the three kingdoms, about the hundreds, thousands, millions of dead - destroyed villages, burnt cities, killed soldiers and executed peasants. Like Lu Bu was a man of his time - his weapon was a weapon of his time. The concentration of thousands of battles, millions of dead. An Amalgam of war. An arrow shot by the God of War itself.

The wicker man embodied the primitive powers, centuries-old wisdom and the unshakable traditions of the servants of the old Celtic gods, but in the end it was only a tool created by people to imitate their gods. The weapon of Lu Bu was a weapon bound to the God of War himself.

A second later, Lu Bu released the bowstring of his monstrous bow and an arrow of pure destruction struck forward, nothing is an obstacle to the blade of an angry deity flying in its path.

In an instant the ray of light pierced through the wicker man with no more difficulty than an arrow piercing a cardboard sheet. Then it rushed forward, burning the earth like the apocalypse lit on Earth, leaving behind only ashes.

Ashes as suited to the God of War.

After the attack, no dust would rose. Not even dust remained after the passing of the apocalyptic arrow.

The primeval strength and power released by the arrow burned everything in its path.

A husk of the wicker man, only swaying a little, as if in perplexity, looked at a huge hole pierced by the arrow in the monster's chest before slowly falling to the ground.

The creature, generated by the Noble Phantasm like a golem, turned into mana before its head touched the scorched wasteland left after the blow of the God Power, instantly lifting the cloud of blue-green particles into the air.

Lu Bu, the mechanical mass of Berserker, unable to experience any emotion other than rage, only looked with satisfaction at what he had done, and then slowly turned away from the target of the blow.

"I won't lie," the voice of Cu Chulainn sounded triumphantly in the silence that had arose. "For a second I even thought that I was dead."

A moment later, unable to express its surprise, Berserker turned to the speaker just to see Caster, still alive somehow.

Cu Chulainn's clothes and his fur cape was burned. Cu Chulainn himself looked hardly any better - there was no untouched spot on his body. Almost all of it was covered with instantly swollen huge ugly blisters arising due to the heat, and his right hand, which continued to squeeze the staff, looked as if it had passed through a meat grinder.

But Cu Chulainn was alive. And very cheerful.

"But only for a second," Caster finished his remark.

After another moment, Lu Bu tried to rush at his enemy again, but could not even take a step. Moving his gaze around his body, Berserker could only see a few transparent chains woven from runes that encircled his body. Cu Chulainn took great advantage of the few seconds given to him.

Lu Bu jerked his body one more time, but the magic chains did not even flinch even when the invincible general did his best to rush at the enemy, looking at Cu Chulainn in incomprehension.

How could he survive the God Power?

Lu Bu looked at Caster in confusion.

Even with mana from Ainz... Even having used his Wicker Man as protection... Even if in the end his body turned out to be fried and crippled... He should not have survived the God Power.

"Hey, with all due respect - even your God Power is considered to be just an arrow," and Cu Chulainn, as if sensing the emotions of his opponent, answered with undisguised joy, after which, after waiting for the necessary amount of time to build up the atmosphere, he grinned even more joyfully, "Skill: Protection from arrows. No one saw it being that useful, huh?"

Lu Bu jerked back to his opponent and this time the runic-weaved chains faltered for a second, allowing the general to move. Then again and again.

However, Cu Chulainn only smiled back.

"You know," he spoke to the general in a relaxed manner even when the first of his runic chains broke off under the onslaught of Berserker's overwhelming strength, it seemed as if he was not at all worried about what was currently happening. Cu Chulainn simply continued to calmly create rune after rune, "I generally thought of using my second Phantasm against you…"

A second later, the second chain of runes broke with a light ringing, freeing Lu Bu's hand.

"But on the other hand, I thought," Cu Chulainn, however, enjoying the moment, only outlined another rune in the air, "What the hell?

Lu Bu jerked again, throwing his released hand on the chain now within reach of his freed hand, breaking the next one.

"I'm a great Celtic hero," Cu Chulainn only calmly brought another rune with his hand in the air, drawing a symbol of fire, "And even more, I am the embodiment of the Celtic wisdom and power."

Having freed his other hand, Lu Bu grabbed the chain that had wrapped around his neck like a leash and pulled his hands apart, tearing the chain into pieces.

"Ainz…" - Cu Chulainn shrugged, - "No one knows who his identity. But his spells are something else."

Lu Bu, who had already freed the entire upper half of his body, rushed to break out his feet, breaking the next chain.

"On the one hand, we have Ainz," Cu Chulainn shrugged, bringing the next rune to completion, "And on the other, I, the great hero and great magi of the Celts."

Lu Bu finally managed to reach the last chain, almost resorting to biting his teeth into it, to break the last obstacle.

"And the spells he could cast - is something else," Cu Chulainn sighed and looked at Lu Bu, "And you know... It made me envious. After all, I am a great hero of the Celts."

A second later, Lu Bu, freed from his chains, rushed forward. However, Cu Chulainn only lazily brought out the last rune, as if putting a bullet point and grinned, looking at the approaching face of Berserker, - "And my spells are no worse."

After a second, the strongest of the spells that Cu Chulainn could cast was cast.

Unlike the God Power, which struck with a single spear shot towards the enemy - the spell of Cu Chulainn did not turn into a ray. It exploded. Under the feet of the rushing Berserker.

After a second, the titanic power of the explosion consumed the Berserker, vaporizing the body with an unexpected ease knowing the durability of the Servants.

However, Cu Chulainn only smirked, looking at how the pillar of fire rose from the ground, rising tens of meters into the air.

"How did Ainz say it?" Cu Chulainn broke into a smile, looking at how Lu Bu's legs instantly evaporated, and then shook his head, "Oh yes... Napalm."

Berserker's body evaporated only a moment later, after which a fiery whirlwind ascended so high that even any inhabitants of Rome could see it from any place in Rome, devouring the body of Lu Bu with the same ease with which his God Power was piercing through any obstacles in its path.

Cu Chulainn, looking at the aftereffects of his spell, grunted with satisfaction, then hissed, finally feeling the pain from his wounds. Playing tough with such grievous wounds was difficult.

"I see you have already finished your fight," Ainz's voice sounded very close to Cu Chulainn, forcing him to look at the Master.

"Uh, do you happen to have those miraculous potions of healing with you?" Cu Chulainn sighed, then grimaced, "I got a little bit butchered here..."

Ainz, glancing at the Servant for a second, only sighed and silently handed him a small phial with a reddish liquid.

"Thank you," Cu Chulainn nodded to him, after which he drained the potion in one gulp, feeling how his pain instantly being relieved and his body was beginning to take its former form, "And for not interfering in the battle, too. Yes, and for the battle itself, perhaps."

"Not at all," however Ainz just sighed at it and looked at the place where the adversary of Cu Chulainn had recently stood, "I see, you had fun here."

"You can say that," Cu Chulainn grinned, after which he looked at Ainz himself, examining him for damage, "And yours?"

"You can say…" - Ainz sighed, - "That it was about what I expected."

* * *

Medusa glanced at Ainz, who had just emerged from the flash of teleportation and smiled.

No, of course she was not afraid that the enemy would be stronger than Ainz. So far, her Master has proved himself to be a more than outstanding warrior, having defeated several Servants in battle, each of whom was far from weak.

But still, maybe a little, deep down... She was a little worried.

Turning her gaze to Caster standing next to her, she sighed.

'Oh, Cu Chulainn also survived' - Medusa slightly lowered the corners of her mouth - 'What a joyful event…'

No, Medusa did not hate Cu Chulainn in the full sense of the word. But next time, when he offers her "a little fun", she will crush his head with her hand. And will not worry about any consequences. Ally or not, but in the world there were certain things that she could not tolerate. Drunk Casanova, confident in his irresistibility, trying to drag a girl to bed was one of these things.

'Even if I can give him five points for his appearance' - Medusa shook her head - 'One hundred will have to be removed for the character.'

"You came back very quickly," Romulus glanced at the magi who appeared with some favor.

"I think you yourself can determine that the opponents have disappeared, o venerable ancestor," Ainz nodded politely in response.

"True," Romulus only nodded back, "I am afraid that I am not capable of finding anything as great as to express my gratitude to you, the defenders of Rome and my dear guests."

"Technically speaking," however Ainz only answered with a polite smile, "I only need access to the barrier..."

After that, a tense silence hung in the air.

"However," continued Ainz, "I understand that this is not possible at the moment, so I'll just say that I was glad to answer your hospitality, honorable ancestor."

For a second, the tension that had arisen seemed to dissipate after these words, however, Medusa could still feel that the tension had only passed from the category of the apparent to the category of the hidden.

That was weird. Just weird.

Of the three parties to the conflict, the Servants and Ainz managed to see two, and both sides have now proposed the same solution. "Join us and we will help you."

It was so simple and yet strange.

It is strange how Nero and Romulus continued to fight over nothing.

It is strange how the arising barbarians continued to remain inactive, only menacingly continuing to stand on the threshold of Rome.

It is strange why unknown Servants would attack Rome in broad daylight, not caring for victory or defeat.

It was all very weird.

However, it is not like the words "anomaly in the history of mankind" - the simplest description of the Singularity - would present something simple and easily understandable.

On the other hand, the strangeness around this Singularity was... illogical. Every insane man's delirium has its own logic - even if one day the madman believes that aliens decided to take him to their planet— he will impose this oddity into a general picture of the world. Even if this world is insane - it will still have its own certain logic.

What logic was expressed in this Singularity?

Strange enemies, illogical conflicts, three parties fighting against each other...

Medusa definitely know of such a conflict, in book form anyway.

"So, child," Romulus, however, deciding to break the silence, turned to Ainz, "Do you agree to join us?"

"Your proposal is very generous, venerable ancestor," Ainz just smiled at it, "However, I'm still not sure I can accept it."

"I'm sorry to hear that, child," Romulus only nodded graciously, "But perhaps this is the best I could hope for in the current environment. In that case, what will you do next?"

"Hm," thought Ainz, after which he nodded to himself, "The Servant's attack on Rome was very suspicious. I would like to study it in more detail."

"Of course, child," Romulus only nodded at this, after which he looked at the silent Zhuge Liang, "Since this is also a matter of our own safety, we are ready to provide you with all our available help."

"I am grateful, noble ancestor," Ainz smiled. "However, I would also like to visit the barbarian camp."

After these words, Romulus, who until then had been calm and even relaxed, suddenly froze, taking a much more alert position, looking at Ainz with a wary glance, "Why, child?"

"Oh, the fact is that the Servant I fought with," Ainz smiled, "He was not from the barbarian camp."

"I see..." Romulus nodded slowly, "And why are you so sure of that, child?"

"He told me about it himself," Ainz smiled at Romulus.

Medusa did not know why, but something in the conversation seemed to her to be... Fake.

"Is that so, child," Romulus looked at Ainz carefully, "And why do you think that he did not lie to you? There is no concept of honor for a barbarian - a lie is as usual for them as speaking."

"Look who's saying this..." Cu Chulainn quietly spoke to the side, however, Medusa was able to hear this remark.

"Oh, he indeed could be lying," Ainz also calmly agreed with Romulus, "Which is why I need to meet with the barbarians. Meeting them can clarify a few things for me."

"So that's your reason.." Romulus looked at Ainz appraisingly, "Child, it's not in my power to stop you... However, I can only give advice. Do not let their barbaric speeches seduce you. All their words are just frivolous lies."

"The Romans said..." Cu Chulainn coughed into his burnt cape sleeve. It seems that he did not survive the fight without any damage... Unlike Ainz.

"Of course, venerable ancestor, I just need to clarify the situation," Ainz smiled again at Romulus.

Romulus looked at Ainz carefully. He answered only with a gentle polite smile, not taking his eyes off him.

The two leaders clashed with their eyes. In the eyes of one was power, greatness and strength. The second only smiled politely.

For some reason, it was at that moment that Ainz's usual polite smile looked for Medusa... Frightening.

For several long seconds, the two leaders continued to look at each other before Romulus looked away first.

"In that case - I can only say that I warned you, child," Romulus shook his head.

"And I thank you for that, venerable ancestor," Ainz stepped back, glancing at his Servants. Something in this look told Medusa that the situation was becoming more incomprehensible before her eyes.

Smiling at a silly joke, Medusa returned to her thoughts.

* * *

"He lied"

It was this thought that flashed through Zhuge Liang's head.

These were also the words of Romulus, who remarked in his connection to the mind of the tactician.

However, the tactician himself came to this conclusion on his own even before Romulus confirmed it.

"About what exactly?" - Zhuge Liang replied to Romulus through the link. Although he could identify some lie in Ainz's words, any additional information from Romulus could clarify his view of such information.

"The Servant he fought was an insane Berserker" - this Zhuge Liang did not expect — "He was not capable of telling him anything."

"Is that so..." - Zhuge Liang cast a quick glance at Ainz - "Why then did he lie?"

"The reason is unknown to me" - Romulus only answered briefly to Zhuge Liang - "In the worst case... He is working for the barbarians."

After that, telepathic link with Romulus disappeared and Zhuge Liang looked at Ainz closely.

It was not impossible... But it was very unlikely. More than just unlikely.

Ainz could indeed be working for the barbarians, but in that case he would surely try to avoid suspicion by all means. He would not insist so much on accessing to the barrier or talk about contacting with the barbarians. Moreover, if he worked for the barbarians, he would clearly have his own contacts to communicate with their camp discreetly. In this case, seeking to contact the barbarian camp - especially given the attention that he would attract to himself given his desire to meet with the barbarians.

However, if he indeed understood this, then he could be doing this in order to allay suspicion from himself, making the idea that he is working for the barbarians so obvious that it would be too ludicrous to be believed.

Zhuge Liang frowned.

Such a line of behavior was possible. And such a probability could not be so easily discounted.

Zhuge Liang sighed and looked at Ainz much more closely.

Too many things to assess and consider.

After which he looked back at Romulus.

Despite the threat of the barbarians and the fact that they did not gain any more information in understanding the structure of the barrier even one spec over the past month, bothered Romulus and Zhuge Liang. However, he also continued to stubbornly hold on to the title of "Emperor", which is the reason why he quarreled even with his heiress, Nero, in the face of enemies.

Too many oddities.

In the end, Zhuge Liang turned his eyes to his potential opponents.

Caster in a burnt fur cape, standing next to Ainz. A girl in a black gothic dress, who sent goose bumps on his back with her presence alone. The girl with glasses and peculiar irises, silently studying the Servants of Romulus. A girl in armor and her blackened reflection, sitting next to her. A girl in knightly armor who carried a huge shield, who started the conversation about Leonidas.

Too many Servants.

Zhuge Liang writhed like from a toothache.

Too many instances in his life lately where he used the words "too much."

Too much trouble hid behind these words.

* * *

"Jeanne" - Ainz turned on his link with his Servants - "The characteristics of Caesar... That one of his abilities, similar to charisma... Can it be used like a form of mind control?"

"Ah?" - the girl answered confusedly to Ainz's question - "Ah... Incitement of EX rank... Yes, in theory it is indeed possible."

"I see," Ainz answered calmly, after which he cut off the connection.

Caesar had an ability that acted like mind control. An EX rank one at that.

Was it then possible that Caesar's ability was able to subdue the mind of the two Berserkers and direct them against Romulus?

It was possible, but why? Ainz could not determine the reason.

Ainz does not possess the greatest minds in the world, no matter what his allies or opponents would think. But still he was not an idiot. He understood that there must be motives behind any event.

If Caesar wanted to capture Rome, then the help of the two Berserkers would obviously be useful to him. However, sending only the two, even if they were strong, would not guarantee their victory. Perhaps, joining them in battle, the Three Emperors would be able to tip the scales in their favor... But in such a case, they actually needed to participate in the battle themselves.

Without participating in the battle, without even taking into account of Ainz and his possible help, their victory was very unlikely. In that case, why would Caesar send two Berserkers to Rome? And could he do it at all?

Or were they really allies of the barbarians? But in this case, the question of why they had to send two of their people remained? Why would they waste their precious advantage in such a mediocre way?

Ainz did not know this. Ainz did not understand what was happening around him.

What is happening in this Singularity was beyond Ainz's understanding.

And that is why he lied to Romulus.

In order to determine what was true and what was false, Ainz needed a fulcrum. And Ainz made this fulcrum to be himself by lying.

In an extreme case, if he did not understand anything around him and was entangled in a web of lies and deception. The best thing he could do was to spread around even more lies, hoping that the unknown spider would become entangled in its own web himself.

In the end, even in the distant future of the twenty-second century, humanity has not yet meet a more deadly adversary than the simple virus. And in this regard, Ainz would not compare himself with some terrible tropical fever. No, he was an ordinary, common person.

And the most dangerous virus of all times and the most dangerous to people throughout history was actually the common cold.

* * *

**Death Magic**: _A++_

Although the full mystery of life and death was not yet uncovered by the owner of this skill, he came closer to it than anyone else. The holder of this skill deeply comprehended the sacrament of bringing death, and in that respect, also the sacrament of the giving of life. The holder of dozens of spells and abilities of dealing death, giving him the opportunity and ability to take away any life that he wishes. The owner of Death Magic of such a rank also comprehended a great mystery, incomprehensible even to owners of True Magic. The sacrament of resurrection.

Although the owner of such a skill is capable of resurrecting or even rebirthing anyone bypassing any barriers, he is still not able to do this only with his desire and spells, but only through the use of his other abilities and with rare artifacts which contains such life giving strength. However, with spells that focus not on resurrection, but on the reverse process, there are no such restrictions.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Okay, someone else knows about Mister Black! I can't exactly remember the name of this fanfic, but this was a great read indeed and I liked it, and even more, I can say that influenced the way I'm currently writing things.**

**As I see there are not many reviews I can answer to. So**** \- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	54. Chapter 54

Zhuge Liang considered himself to be an intelligent person.

Lord El Melloi the Second, also known as Waver for the very limited circle of friends close to him also considered himself not the most stupid of magi.

Logically speaking, as the combination of two intelligent people, the pseudo-servant Zhuge Liang should never have fallen into situations that could clearly be described as "catastrophically stupid".

Why then, is Zhuge Liang currently on the way to the barbarian camp absolutely knowing that they would not accept him as an ally - hardly even as a neutral side to their conflict?

"I apologize for the inconvenience caused by my request, Lord El Melloi," Ainz apologized, for the umpteenth time.

Yes, exactly, it's all because of this person.

Zhuge Liang tried to make his face look benevolent, but he was never particularly good at acting, so his "kind smile" turned out to be very wooden like at best - "It's okay. It's an honor to assist you in your investigation."

To this reply, Ainz only smiled politely, after which he took a step away from Zhuge Liang, toward his Servants.

To the Four Servants that he brought along with him.

The decision to leave several of his Servants behind while going to a meeting with the barbarian camp, people who were most easily described as "enemies" could hardly be called logical or level-headed. Indeed just as illogical as the decision to meet with the barbarians altogether. But Ainz were committed to these two decisions. Leaving Caster in Romulus' camp - the one that Romulus have recognized as Cu Chulainn thanks to his "abilities", more particularly his Noble Phantasm - and the girl in dressed in all black, like two opposite side of a mirror to the Servant that Ainz brought along with him. So why did Ainz decided to commit such actions?

It was a rather difficult question to answer. Or, more precisely, there were so many possible answers to this question that Zhuge Liang was not sure which one was the right one.

The simplest and most obvious possible "answer" in this case was that Ainz left his two Servants as a possible "helping hand" to Romulus and his allies. Also considering that the designated "helpers" could additionally serve Ainz as observers to Romulus and his Servants, this answer was the most logical and natural, especially considering that Cu Chulainn's abilities were already discovered from observation by Romulus. On the other hand, what do we know about the second girl?

Zhuge Liang was not sure of who she might be. However, what he was sure of was that she was dangerous.

Not as dangerous as the other Servant taken with Ainz, and not as powerful as Romulus, but still stronger than any other Servant subordinate to Romulus.

Leaving a strong Servant in the rearguard was foolish. Almost as stupid as a Master going to battle with a Servant by himself.

But Ainz has chosen options that Zhuge himself could only describe as "very stupid" with astonishing frequency. So why?

Perhaps Ainz chose not to leave the two Servant behind as a possible "help" to Romulus, but in order to prepare for an attack? Leaving behind the enemy's rear two Servants, Ainz would be able to attack Romulus from the rear if necessary. If one takes into account the fact that Ainz lied about the actions of Berserker, then such a course of action looked at least as disturbingly possible on the part of the Master.

But still, if he really wanted to attack Romulus, then diverting attention should have become his main directive of behavior... Perhaps he's just diverting attention from himself to hide something by doing anything important in broad daylight, in other words by taking action so blatantly he manages to hide his true intention.

Zhuge Liang was far from being the most stupid man - if he commanded an army there were very few who could even stand on the same ground as him. However, when it came to intrigues rather than tactics, Zhuge Liang was not as strong here. Still as capable, but much less experienced.

So, to all the oddities and dangerous variables - Nero, Romulus, the barbarians - one more was added. Ainz.

As if sensing the thoughts of Zhuge Liang, Ainz started speaking, "Did something happen? You look like you have a toothache."

"Nothing special," Zhuge Liang again gave out a fake smile, which was easy to recognize and very obvious — but instead of commenting on it Ainz just nodded politely in response, "I see. Will we arrive at the barbarian camp soon?"

"Soon enough," Zhuge Liang supported the change of subject, after which he turned his eyes to the city road ahead and the city walls visible in the distance, "I already see the city. Alba Longa."

"Yes, as far as I know..." - Ainz thoughtfully said, "Romulus and the whole of Rome consider this city to be a very significant place in the empire..."

"Yes," Zhuge nodded, realizing that it was impossible to keep such widely known information secret decided to elaborate, "Romulus would become angry should someone mention the fact that this city was captured by barbarians..."

'And yet - he did not even take a single step to get it back' - Zhuge Liang left this thought to himself.

On the other hand, judging by the thoughtfulness of Ainz, he could have come to the same conclusion on his own just as before.

Zhuge Liang took a few more steps before stopping, forcing Ainz to stand still. "I'm afraid I will have to part ways with you here. I do not think that my appearance in the barbarian camp will be perceived positively, even if I tell them the pure truth that I arrived solely as your guide I doubt their reaction would be anything good. Nevertheless, we are at war with the barbarians - they will not miss the opportunity to reduce the combat potential of their enemy."

"I understand," Ainz just nodded. "In that case, I am very grateful that you were able to help us and serve as a guide, even when it would be dangerous to you."

"There is nothing to thank me for," Zhuge Liang smiled, although he understood that his course of action was indeed actually quite dangerous. If the barbarians had at least half that control and influence over the surrounding territory that Romulus had over Rome, then even by being at kilometers from the city Zhuge Liang is already at great risk. For instance, to an ambush by the enemy Servants - "You have helped Rome - it is natural that I would return this to you courtesy of your generosity ."

"Oh, it's an honor," Ainz smiled and nodded, deciding not to talk about this topic more than necessary, "In that case, I suppose our paths diverge here."

With these words, bowing respectfully, Ainz walked away along with his Servants, leaving Zhuge Liang alone.

Suge Liang, just in case, inspected his surroundings carefully at the possibility of enemies approaching him, nevertheless he extended a hand to his cigarette case and pulled out a large cigar. With a snap of his fingers, Zhuge Liang created a small flame, the cigar, and then puffed, releasing a ring of smoke.

What the hell ended up happening here?

Zhuge Liang shook his head, after which, having puffed out again, he looked around and slowly headed back to Rome.

Be that as it may however, he really needs to move away from the barbarian camp.

* * *

Jeanne watched Cainabel with some surprise.

It was impossible to say that they have become friends... Cainabel do not become friends with anyone. Jeanne even thought that the very concept of "friendship" was alien to Cainabel.

However, due to the time they have spent together, Jeanne have learned to distinguish the types of emotions on the face of Cainabel. Although, to be even more precise, since Cainabel herself does not express any positive emotions at all, Jeanne have learned to distinguish the various kinds of "annoyed" facial expressions of Cainabel. Usually it was annoyed and bored. Periodically, when Cainabel issued a new insult to the people around her, her expression changed to annoyed and cheerful. If someone tried to insult Cainabel in response - it became annoyed and angry. Therefore, right now, Jeanne felt awkward and perhaps scared to even look at the new expression on the face of Cainabel, so unlike her previous expressions.

Interested and perhaps excited.

"Cainabel" still, considering that Jeanne could not be overheard by her possible opponents, and even if they could, they would hardly have been able to get any information just from the name of the girl — even Jeanne herself could not get anything even with her skills, Jeanne turned to the very dangerous Servant, "You are... in a strange mood. Did something happen?"

"Hmm..." Jeanne felt something like horror. Something unnatural was on Cainabel's face at the moment when she turned toward Jeanne.

A smile.

A real smile. Not a predatory smile, not even a mocking smile... But a simple, real smile.

Jeanne felt a cold sweat break through her. If something in the world could make Cainabel smile, this was clearly a bad sign. A very, very bad one.

"Let's just say that…" - Cainabel, instead of insulting Jeanne, answered her. ANSWERED! HER! - "There is someone in this city that is... Strong."

"Strong?" Jeanne felt her mouth go dry. Strong... In what sense?! - "Strong ... For you?"

And Cainabel's smile faded a moment later when her gaze was fixed on Jeanne.

It was the usual, degrading gaze of Cainabel, but Jeanne suddenly felt... Joy. The joy that the incomprehensible smile of Cainabel has disappeared, replaced by her usual irritation, - "Sometimes I forget how stupid you can still be…"

Cainabel sighed, after which she glanced at the walls of the distant city, "No. Still nowhere strong enough. However…"

"Let's just say that," Cainabel glanced up at the sky. "You are trash. All of you. The Witch is trash. Cu Chulainn is trash. Nero is trash. Romulus is trash."

"But," Cainabel cast another glance at the approaching city, "The ones inside this city... Mostly trash. Except one. That one I will call... Prey."

At this point, Cainabel smiled again - but this time her smile did not make Jeanne sweat, because it was a smile that is in accord with the image of Cainabel. A predatory, bestial smile, - "Perhaps the battle with him will be my first source of entertainment in a long time…"

Jeanne wanted to smile at Cainabel in response, saying something like "It's good that you are in a good mood," but instead she suddenly froze, almost tripping herself.

If Cainabel called even Romulus trash...

How strong is the Servant then, that they attracted her attention?

* * *

Ainz thoughtfully continued to move forward, looking at the approaching gates of the barbarian occupied city.

Why did he leave Cu Chulainn and the Dragon Witch in Rome?

Zhuge Liang was right in his first assumption - Ainz really wanted to leave an observer in Rome and more importantly Romulus' camp. However, why precisely Cu Chulainn and the Witch?

Placing Cu Chulainn in Rome was justified from a logical point of view - Ainz himself could act as a passable Caster, so having another Caster is not that important. Leaving the Witch behind was also logical, because Ainz and Cainabel were suitable as damage dealers.

However, the main reason these two who were chosen to be left behind was because Ainz was now heading to the barbarian camp.

Ainz could not boast of possessing a tremendous amount of personal information about all of his Servants. But about Cu Chulainn, Ainz knew a few things ; that he was a magician, a generally good guy, a lover of battles and booze. And more importantly, he himself was a barbarian, at least according to the standard of the Romans.

It was foolish to believe that Ainz, even if he was not the wisest person in the world, was so stupid as not to be able to observe his Servants, especially their behavior in the Singularity. Therefore, he knew something else about Cu Chulainn.

He was not particularly pleased with the Romans.

Whether it was the long journey to Rome, the slavery, or simply the prejudice of Romulus towards barbarians, or maybe it was even Caesar's eating habits, whatever it is Cu Chulainn was not particularly happy with these possible allies.

Of course, he respected and obeyed his Master, Ainz was sure of this, so the likelihood that he would become stubborn or rebel and go over to the side of the barbarians was minimal at best.

But in this strange Singularity, Ainz preferred not to risk even more than he usually preferred to do.

Last but not least, the Dragon Witch.

It was now impossible to call her a destroyer, a megalomaniac or a brute. She was not particularly cooperative, not very feminine in behaviour and belligerent enough, but her somewhat negative traits ended there, perhaps. She probably is not able to to betray Ainz, especially just for the sake of joining the camp of the potential adversaries of humanity, who, judging by the testimonies of the other two camps, only exist to destroy Rome.

But Ainz preferred not to take risks. Now - especially.

Of course, this could be called cowardice or even paranoia... But unlike many people, Ainz was able to recognize his shortcomings. Yes, he was a coward. And perhaps a bit indulgent with his paranoia. If it was possible to avoid any possible confrontation, he would prefer to do so.

On the other hand...

"Cainabel" - Ainz turned to his Servant for communication - "Where is the location of the strong Servant?"

"Hm..." - a thoughtful voice came out in response - "Not far. In front of the gates of the city. And she... is approaching."

Ainz frowned to himself, then turned toward his Servants. Mashu, Jeanne, Cainabel and Medusa - Ainz's perception of strength was slightly different than that of other people, therefore, it was difficult to determine whether his Servants were really strong... Well, apart from Cainabel, that Ainz could easily determine. But if Cainabel herself noted the Servant existence separately... At best, this meant that the rest of the Servants had no chance of victory. At worst, they would be killed so fast, they would not even be able to determine what had killed them.

"Hold," Ainz gave the command out loud, after which he turned back to the city that was already not so far away. He paid close attention to the gates where he could see a moving figure. Looking closely, Ainz saw only two things. First - the figure itself was a girl. Short, with skin the color of mocha coffee, her lithe body might give the false impression that the girl is frail or weak - however, if Cainabel herself took note of her strength, then it was definitely the case that her incredible power was hidden behind her fragile facade. And the second is the way she moved.

The girl was moving at a speed that would be suitable for a Berserker, racing forward without taking note of any obstacles in her way with a speed of a racing car. However, unlike the majority of the Berserkers who would be sweeping everything in its path, she moved so carefully and gracefully and with incredible composure, as if she was not touching the ground at all, that her movements did not even make the grass crumple under her feet.

To be honest, such a sight looked fascinating... And frightening.

"She has incredible rank in Agility and at the same time she controls her movements so gracefully that she doesn't even raise dust even when moving so quickly," Ainz frowned at the girl.

For a second, the thought of not even trying to start a conversation with the girl and instead just attacking her slipped through Ainz's mind, but he threw it away. She obviously could become a worthy ally... Should it be possible, of course.

As the girl approached, Ainz suddenly felt a hand clutching his shoulder. Turning around, he was able to meet the eyes of Jeanne.

"You can't see her parameters?" The magician asked, after which, having received an uncertain nod in response, Ainя turned toward the newcomer.

Having approached Ainz, the girl stopped abruptly literally ten steps away from the magician, as if she were not exposed to inertia at all, fixing her eyes on Сainabel, who was standing near Ainz. Cainabel, instead of putting on her usual disgusted expression, only smiled at the girl - almost amicably, if such a word could even be used in relation to Сainabel.

"Why are you approaching our camp?" Without any greeting or a gesture of acknowledgement, the girl then froze, glancing at Сainabel. Cainabel, in response to this, simply took a step back, then pushed Ainz forward. The newly arrived girl, instantly realizing the meaning of such an action, shifted her gaze to the magician.

Ainz carefully looked at the girl - who now he was able to accurately determine the main features of her appearance due to their close proximity. The girl was not tall, with a skin the color of mocha coffee and with snow-white hair descending along her back reaching her knees. Her big eyes and delicate facial features gave her the appearance of a sad expression, but her unblinking red eyes that is currently looking at Ainz appraisingly more likely inspired thoughts of emotionlessness similar to an android, rather than of sadness.

She wore a tight-fitting white suit, however, on the open areas of her arms and legs, Ainz could see several white lines that made up a strange pattern, which stood out against the background of her dark skin.

"Good afternoon," in the end, while still looking at the girl, Ainz decided to be polite no matter what, "My name is Ainz Ooal Gown and these are my Servants."

The girl did not react to the Ainz's movement, who is currently gesturing toward the Servants, she only continued to look at the magician with unblinking eyes. It seemed as if she had not paid any attention to what was just said, but after a second of silence, the girl nevertheless nodded slowly, - "Altera."

'I do not know a single Servant with that name!' - Jeanne instantly responded to what the name the girl provided using the link between Master and Servants, after which Ainz simply frowned. Theoretically, nothing prevented Servants from introducing themselves by a different name... However, until now this has never happened.

"It's nice to meet you," Ainz, however, only smiled back, "We arrived in peace and just wanted to discuss some details of what is happening here and now..."

"I see," Altera nodded slowly, but Ainz did not have time to reply, "I understand now how you could make her go after you. You are as alien as she is. No, more... You are even more alien than her."

At that moment, Ainz froze.

Until that moment, Ainz was only called or considered as strange, incomprehensible, or even mysterious... But alien?

'She can feel my Existence Outside the Domain?!' - Ainz looked at Altera warily. She, catching something in the eyes of the magician, immediately took a step back, moving her hand to the side. A second later, a blade flickered in Altera's hand - although it was simply impossible to call it a blade in the full sense of the word. Rather, it was like a single crystal, from which the handle emanated. Green, blue and red light shimmered in this crystal when viewed from different sides, which made it seem as if the blade itself was shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow.

Cainabel, instantly feeling the tension that had suddenly appeared, took a step forward. In her hands, however, instead of the blade, was only a small umbrella. It appeared as if it was gathered from drops of darkness, appearing instantly in Cainabel's hand. The parasol looked like it was designed to protect from the sun rather than rain, it was a black parasol made of light fabric. However, Ainz understood that in order to kill the enemy Cainabel didn't need anything more than a parasol.

"Well, well," instead of attacking, Ainz merely raised his hands in a conciliatory manner. Although the fact that she was able to discern one of his skills — or rather, feel it, and somewhat knocked Ainz out of his calm, he still would have preferred to avoid any bloodshed, if that were possible — "There's no need for any alarm. As I have said before, we came in peace and do not want to fight."

Altera looked emotionlessly at Ainz after these words, then turned her gaze toward Cainabel. She, having caught the command, grinned, then threw her parasol aside. The parasol having only travelled for several moments in the air instantly scattered with dark drops that dissipated into thin air. Altera, observing this action, only nodded, after which her crystalline blade also disappeared from her hands in a small flash.

"Why did you come here?" Altera looked at Ainz after that. Ainz noted with some degree of nervousness that from the very beginning of the conversation, the girl had never blinked.

"Considering that the situation around Rome is more than ambiguous now..." Ainz shook his head thoughtfully, "I would like to find out the point of view of all parties before making any decision."

Altera for several seconds only continued to stare unblinkingly at Ainz before blinking, which managed to calm Ainz's nerves, "That's why... So, have you already met the forces of Romulus and Nero?"

"Yes." Ainz just nodded.

"Then why didn't you join them?" Altera only looked at Ainz emotionlessly.

"I thought about it," Ainz just smiled back, "But, as I said... I prefer to hear all sides of the conflict before making my verdict."

"Hmm..." Altera looked silently at Ainz for a few seconds more before reaching a definite decision and nodding, turning around. "Then follow me."

Ainz just nodded, and then moved forward.

* * *

The city looked... Peaceful.

Again he repeated to himself - too peaceful.

Ainz did not consider himself a man with a lot of prejudices, but when he heard something like "barbarians, the main enemies of all Rome, captured a city from which our conflict began", he expected to see a devastated city, many marauding soldiers, the populace in fear and reclusion... But instead he just saw... a city.

The most ordinary, quiet, and peaceful city. Of course, among the ordinary soldiers and the expected Romans there were many others bearing the symbols of their own tribes and clans, men and women, dressed in a different style of clothing and armed with different weapons, but there was nothing beyond that. Not a single house was burned or plundered, there were no corpses, not even blood stains on the ground or walls. It seemed as if this city simply continued to live their daily life as they always did. As if their capture by the "barbarians" did not occur at all.

Ainz grimaced as if with a toothache trying to keep up with Altera who is walking ahead while looking around at his surroundings. But no matter how much he looked around, even his very attentive gaze could not find anything out of place.

"It's... Too calm," - the voice of Medusa voiced his thoughts, - "It's... Strange."

"Perhaps, over the past month, people have come to terms with the occupation?" Mashu tried to rationalize the picture that is in front of them.

"It is possible," Medusa agreed, but judging by her tone, she did not really believe in such a possibility. Ainz could not blame her - he himself considered the current situation more than suspicious. Once again this Singularity did not give him any simple answer.

Unlike Nero, at the sight of which the people of Rome usually immediately abandoned their affairs in order to greet their Emperor. At the sight of Altera, the rest of the people only gave her approving or even admiring glances, after which they simply went back about their business. No matter how you look at it, it didn't seem like a terrible capture of the city by evil barbarians at all.

Ainz expected this time that he would be heading into another palace, however, instead of walking into any palatial building, Altera simply turned towards one of the large building nearby.

"It looks more like a barracks than a headquarters for a conquering Servants," Medusa answered instantly, barely knowing exactly where they were moving toward. Ainz, looking around, instantly found several training dummies and even some training armor and wooden copies of weapons that is hung on racks.

Ainz just nodded, noting this detail to himself.

Throughout the journey, Altera did not utter a word, simply continuing to walk forward, without even turning around once. Opening the doors to the barracks, she proceeded inside, which were now practically deserted. Passing silently through the barracks, she reached one of the room then the doors.

"Oh, my dear comrade-in-arms!" - before she was able to even enter the room Altera was greeted with a loud voice, "And... Have you brought reinforcements to us for this liberation war?!"

"Spartacus," Altera instantly greeted the speaker, after which she glanced at the already familiar red-haired girl standing nearby, "Boudica."

"Hm," Ainz took a step inside after Altera, after which he could instantly find the speaker. Standing next to Boudicca was... Him.

'Were everyone so muscular in Rome?' Ainz sighed, not hoping to hear the answer to his rhetorical question. However, in the case of Spartacus, this, perhaps, was to be expected.

Spartacus was a mountain of muscles. Muscles so powerful that it seemed as if the muscles worn on the huge, two-meter body, were ready to explode any second now. His musculature is balanced on a thin line where such stature is possible on a human and one where such a thing is "freakish". Each fiber on his body was greatly outlined and in itself could be comparable to a bodybuilder's pumped up biceps. However, it is surprising that besides this, two other things attracted attention to Spartacus.

The first was his face. Massive, as it should be, it was nevertheless hidden behind a strange mask of leather straps that completely hid his features, leaving only his large mouth, grinning in a friendly but even more disturbing smile, leaving only the eyes and short blond hair free. The second was the fact that Spartacus was not wearing any clothes.

More precisely, though not completely naked, he was covered in massive - for a second Ainz even felt a prick of envy - iron belt that hid his dignity in the manner of a chastity belt. However, that was all. All the rest of his body was completely exposed, so Ainz could have considered that Spartacus was actually in his underwear.

'...I don't feel comfortable standing in the same room with him' - Ainz noted to himself, looking away from Spartacus to the nearby Boudica.

"You!" She instantly recognized the magician. "You have come to the aid of the Red Saber!"

"Ahem," Ainz glanced at Altera, "I just intervened and stopped your fight, nothing more."

"Hm!" Boudica, seeing Ainz, was silent for a few seconds before exhaling and smiling, "Good... In any case, I suppose if you came here to us, you are not at one with her."

"No," Ainz replied tactfully, " I'm currently not her ally."

"Then I'm ready to at least listen to what you are ready to say," Boudica smiled back.

"Again, meeting new people and yet they forgot about me again," a fourth voice suddenly came out, forcing Ainz to pay attention to the fourth Servant present, turning to face her.

The girl was sitting in the very corner of the room - not very tall, and not capable of attracting attention at all. Is it because she was equipped with a katana - or because she was wearing a yukata? - Ainz, despite the fact that he came from the Tokyo Arcology, was not particularly well versed in such a thing, since he had not seen it in reality either in his own time or even in his new reality - however, in any case, against the background of the undressed mountain of muscles that is Spartacus, she seemed the most calm and normal of all of them. Although the fact that even being in the presence of her probable commander, she continued to lie lazily, spreading herself out on several pillows laid on a bench, lazily sipping from the bowl filled with something that Ainz recognized as sake by the smell toned down this impression a little.

'Jing Ke' - Jeanne's voice rang out in Ainz's head - 'Assassin of emperors.'

For a second, the thought flashed through Ainz's head that if there were more suitable working conditions for the "assassin of emperors" - whoever she was - than the Roman Empire, then Ainz did not know about it.

However, Altera, not paying any attention to her comrades' antics, took several steps, after which reaching her chair, took a seat, after which she finally turned her attention toward Ainz, finally nodded, blinking only a second time after meeting with Ainz, - "Ainz."

Ainz took a step into the room, after which he nodded at Altera, looking at the occupants of the room, a room filled with Servants of his likely enemy, and smiled, - "My name is Ainz Ooal Gown. Pleased to meet you."

"There is nothing more pleasant than seeing another friend on the battlefield against tyranny," Spartacus broke into a huge, actually somewhat threatening smile, seemingly trying his best to look friendly.

"Again, you're babbling about such a thing," the girl, now known to Ainz as Jing Ke, only sighed and then drank from the bowl, "Every day, that phrase again and again... it is as if you couldn't think of anything else..."

"What else can I think about when our friends is currently suffering in slavery from the damned oppressors, the Romans?!" Spartacus looked indignantly at Jing Ke, while still expressing his broad smile, which made him look quite befitting for a class like Berserker.

"Silence," Altera's voice, despite being quiet, instantly interrupted the conversation between the two Servants, forcing Ainz to look at Altera again.

Again…

Again, the same thing is happening. A group of Servants again. Again they would be throwing jabs at each other. Again, the leader would call them to order. Again, again, and again... All the same.

"Hm," Ainz nodded silently, after which he looked at Altera, "The Romans have already told me about the situation around them... But I think you would be adding some more detail to add to their story."

"Right to the point," Altera glanced at Ainz with her head slightly tilted over. It seemed as if she were asking a question, but her tone was completely non-questioning. Rather, she simply stated a fact, "Good. We must destroy the barrier."

Mashu next to Ainz choked in surprise, coughing right away, but honestly Ainz already suspected something like that.

"Is that so?," Ainz just shook his head, "In that case why then not unite with the Romans in this aspiration?"

"With these oppressors?!" - at that moment Spartacus managed to ask indignantly, but Altera only shook her head.

"They are weak," she replied calmly and emotionlessly, "Only I have the strength to destroy the barrier."

"Perhaps," Ainz did not argue. At least if Cainabel singled her out from the other Servants, then her strength was definitely on a completely different level than that of everyone else - "But would help from the Romans be superfluous? Even if they are weaker than you - they are still Servants, they are still able to fight. So why not join forces with them?"

Spartacus only indignantly cast a glance at Ainz, however, he did not break Altera's order of silence.

All the same, hearing the words of Ainz, Altera only slowly looked down.

"Disbelief," she said at the end, after a few minutes of silence, "Dislike of the Romans. Previous story with them."

"Hmm, that's the reason?" Ainz nodded. Well, paying attention to Boudica and Spartacus, Ainz already realized that people who were not flaming with love for Rome had probably gathered in this camp... Perhaps the "assassin of emperors" also felt that it is her duty to join the war against the Emperors of Rome. But then, who was Altera in this case? "And this dislike is more important than the destruction of the barrier?"

The spoken words made Altera slowly look up and blink slowly.

"No," she said at the end, after which she was silent for a few seconds, "Maybe. The exact answer is difficult."

'She sounds like a robot,' Ainz frowned. What famous robots were in the history of mankind? Ainz could name a couple of famous science fiction books from his childhood, but it is unlikely that Altera was something like "Sento the Red Dragon" - or any other hero whose adventures he had once read.

"I see," Ainz nodded. Now the final test was coming, - "And what course of action do you suggest in this case?"

"Join us," Boudica, who was silent before, stepped forward, "Together we..."

"We will gain enough strength and would be able to destroy all our opponents, yes," Ainz nodded.

Three camps. Three situations. Three sides of the conflict.

One group. One mission. One suggestion.

This time, even his usual mantra "do not think too much about it" did not bear fruit. Ainz would not even trust a penny to any of those present.

"However, in this case I need to know," smiled Ainz, "Why did you send the two Berserkers to the Romans' camp."

Boudica paused for a second, then frowned. "What are you talking about? We did not…"

"I needed to evaluate the combat potential of the enemy," Altera answered calmly, glancing at Ainz.

"What?" Boudica turned to silent Altera, "But when..."

"Hm, clearly," Ainz nodded, and then smiled. "In that case, did you succeed?"

Altera continued to stare at Ainz for a few seconds. Ainz, not waiting for a reply, simply nodded, "So - no."

Altera just silently continued to stare at Ainz.

"In that case, I seem to have come to a conclusion," Ainz nodded to himself.

'Cainabel,' he immediately contacted his most powerful Servant, 'How many of them can you destroy by yourself?'

For a second, silence spread over the connection before Ainz heard Cainabel's voice. Joyful and even anticipatory, uttering only one short phrase - 'Everyone.'

'The entire barbarian camp?' Ainz expected something like that.

'Everyone in this Singularity' - Cainabel answered even more joyfully.

Ainz was silent for a second, considering his next step.

'In that case,' Ainz nodded to himself, 'I think I know what we're going to do now.'

After that, Ainz, breaking the connection with his Servant, nodded to Altera, "I agree to join you."

"Good," she responded monosyllabically.

"But with one condition," Ainz smiled. Altera just calmly turned her gaze back to him - "You will need to arrange a meeting of all the camp leaders."

Altera, hearing the request, only tilted her head a little, - "Why?"

Ainz smiled mysteriously - as much as he could, - "I think I have an idea what is happening in this Singularity."

* * *

**Death Magic:** _A++ (Case)_

The most logical explanation for such a rank and the existence of such a skill would be the fact that Ainz is a top-ranking magician possessing a huge arsenal of spells, but in fact, since this skill does not denote possession of a specific magic system, but rather as a supporting skill, like Paracelsus 'Average'. This is the skill that is connected with the very nature of Ainz as an Overlord - the highest form of the undead - and as the Eclipse, the highest form of the death mage. The effect of such a skill does not lie in giving Ainz any new capabilities, but instead in the strengthening of his existing abilities with respect to controlling the undead or with the spells of instant death.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Ah, you're a fan of the Make A Wish series? - Not all series. I liked the original fanfic quite much but didn't follow the sequels after the original one ended.**

**Does he still believe any of his friends are in the Nasuverse? Or has he just not considered it at all? - He thinks that they would probably be born in this world sometime in the future, but don't think they present in it right now, in their game avatars, similar to him.**

**How does Ainz match up against ORT? - If it would be Ainz in his game-avatar body during the days of Yggdrasil game - it would take a lot of effort to put ORT to sleep, maybe not from the first try.**

**And what level would ORTbe placed at if it was in YGGDRASIL? Would it classify as a World Enemy? - If we talk "applying the Yggdrasil rules to Nasuverse" or "if Nasuverse was the YGGDRASIL-game like MMO-RPG", then ORT would be classified as the Lord of the Realm, one step below the World Enemy, the strongest bosses around. But if we compare them now, hmmm... No.**

**And in the end ****\- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	55. Chapter 55

Mozart stared at his enemy warily trying not to miss even a single twitch from his adversary.

Click… There, that motion means that the enemy is attacking with a blow from below.

Mozart smiled, and then simply stepped back, allowing the blow to fall into the void, after which he struck back with a sharp counterattack using his fist.

Light click... A high guard.

A slide kick, then, while the enemy is still airborne - a jump strike. Then a finishing blow while he is still on the floor.

After that, the enemy instead of simply getting back to his feet decided to roll away - this was indicated by the audible slight rustle of plastic caused by the movement of fingers.

Hmm, as if he would allow such a thing. Mozart just smiled, then pushed on the attack. A leap to bypass the enemy, guard from a somersault blow, and then catch him in between frames with a double combo and...

"VICTORY! FLAWLESS VICTORY! "- the invisible referee loudly announced his triumph and Mozart turned toward the man sitting next to him.

"Another match goes to me," Mozart smiled at the technician who decided to test his mettle against an insurmountable opponent in the form of the Child of God today. After putting the controller down, the technician slumped his shoulder in disbelief.

"Seven matches!" He grinned then extended a hand toward Mozart, "Seven matches without receiving a single blow! My respect toward a master."

"Well, I'm after all the Child of God," Mozart grinned, shaking his hand back in respect. Few still dared to play against him in any fighting games after that memorable night, when he won a battle of one against three without suffering a single blow, - "I have a couple of abilities for any occasion."

Any other Servant would consider it an unworthy endeavour - to use their Servants' abilities in something as mundane as playing a console game. But Mozart really appreciated his absolute sense of hearing. And if, thanks to his heightened sense of hearing, he could determine which buttons his opponent pressed and in which direction the controller joystick was pointed towards, then why should he not take advantage of that?

"And yet, how did you do it?" The technician looked at him questioningly, to which Mozart only smiled smugly.

"Let's just say…" - Mozart looked at his fighter - or rather, at the swordswoman, who still stood in a victorious position, - "I was always good with the girls."

The technician, having heard the joke, laughed, after which he sighed and shook his head.

"Well this has been enjoyable" rising from the couch, he glanced at the Servant. "But, the Core recovery team ran into some kind of problem, and they needed me for something. So I have to go back to work ."

"I see," Mozart sighed, "Then good luck with that, Lancel."

Lancel only nodded graciously, after which he left the room.

Mozart was left face to face with the still flashing victory screen.

For several seconds, the Servant thoughtfully watched the victory celebration, after which he sighed. The Chaldea's core, huh...

Mozart was a Servant. Not the strongest he admit . Perhaps even below average. But still he was a Servant, of the Caster class. His knowledge and achievements in magic were great. Unfortunately, he could not help with the restoration of the Core itself.

Mozart was a specialist in Orpheus Magecraft, a rare and very complicated system, built on its own principles that is wildly different from many other magic systems. And therefore, Mozart, although he understood his magic system like no one else, could not help with something so alien to him as the techno-magical miracle of Chaldea's Core, even if he wanted to.

Strictly speaking, Mozart was not really able to help with anything in Chaldea right now.

He then began examining the room he was in, the two controllers from the console, the sofa on which he was sitting right now, placed next to the ottomans with a table full of dirty glasses, he sighed, and then rose from his seat.

Of all the Servants summoned by Ainz, Mozart was indeed, most likely, the best option to leave behind in Chaldea.

In fact, it was a somewhat strange topic to think about now. Yes, Mozart was not the strongest, but he was still a Servant. Someone who stood far above almost any magi - either in the present or the past. It was ridiculous to call him weak - if he wanted or needed to, he could destroy an entire city the size of Tokyo to rubble in a couple of weeks.

However, the situation with Ainz was even more unusual and incomprehensible than the situation with the Servants, and therefore, of all the possible options, Mozart was indeed the most suitable in order to be left behind in Chaldea.

In Chaldea itself moreover, he was not threatened by any danger that could lead to his death either by battle or traps. Therefore, Mozart should have been - and was - grateful to Ainz for the rest provided to him.

However, in Chaldea lies another all consuming danger...

"Boredom" - Mozart sighed. Chaldea possessed beauty-salons, swimming pools, workshops, lounges with a bunch of board games, game consoles and a library, however... There was still something oppressing in a forced rest in a vast but locked down building, with the full understanding that it was now impossible to leave it. At the very least, it was impossible without being burned to a crisp by the infernally raging inferno behind the barriers.

Mozart sighed, and then shrugged his shoulders, stretching his sedentary body.

What should he do now?

Mozart glanced at the game console, which switched to a standby mode after a period without any input from the controllers and shook his head. He had already finished all the single player games at least once, and obviously there's no one that have agreed to play with him either cooperatively or competitively.

Just in case Mozart checked his long hair ,the color of ripe millet, descending much lower than the shoulder blades and was forced to admit that he also did not need to visit the beauty salon. As there was no point in fixing perfection.

As the last possible option, Mozart looked at a book with a bookmark on the sofa, and after a few minutes of deep thought, he nevertheless came to the conclusion that he did not want to read or visit the library right now.

Mozart once again examined the room, not particularly hoping to find any missed thing in it, after which he shrugged and moved toward the exit. Perhaps somewhere in the corridors of Chaldea he will find something interesting.

The lounge room, now occupied by Mozart, was only one of the many rooms in one of the considerable number of wings of the huge complex, so the fact that Mozart did not find anything or anyone outside the door was not surprising.

"Well, silence is also good" - however, given that Mozart still had nothing to do, after some thought, he moved along the corridor towards the central building.

The walkways began to blur together after walking through one after another, differing only in the occasionally appearing directory. On the whole, Chaldea looked very similar from the inside out - numerous spacious white corridors with many rooms - now empty or was never really intended for anything specific, created simply "just in case". This, despite the overall very bright interior, was oppressing. It seemed as if Mozart simply slowly walked through an endless man-made labyrinth of entwined doors, walkways and stairs.

"I wonder what Ainz is doing right now?" Mozart curiously thought. Chaldea was never able to establish a connection with the Singularity, which is why they were now blind to Ainz's circumstances. Mozart, of course, was not at all worried that Ainz could be in any danger - he was a powerful magi, stronger than Mozart himself - and of course, they had Cainabel.

Mozart shivered at the thought of the girl. He is able to hear a lot, much, much more than anyone else. And therefore, he was completely sure - as long as Cainabel was involved - something that could pose a threat to Ainz was more of a theoretical exercise.

Mozart, he admitted to himself, was a weak Servant, but this was true only in the event of a face to face combat. If it were necessary to make a list of fighting capability in the event of a fight, then Mozart would put himself second from the end, surpassing perhaps only Mashu. And that, perhaps, only because of her inexperience.

But if it was an actual Holy Grail War, and with access to resources, time, a workshop and a good enough Master...

In such a case, Mozart was the fourth most dangerous fighter in Chaldea. Three steps above even Arthuria or Jeanne... And two steps below Da Vinci. He possesses a few very promising trump cards, but... Mozart did not even want to think about what she could do if she had the resources and time.

But speaking of Cainabel... Mozart preferred to consider himself a realistic and cautious individual, but even in such ridiculous conditions such as "Cainabel against all of Chaldea's Servants", Mozart preferred not to think about the outcome of such a battle. Because he did not even want to voice his thoughts on this subject. He really do hear much more than what others could.

In this case, Ainz's decision to leave someone like Mozart and taking Cainabel along was logical. The only illogical thing in his decision was that Ainz took Cainabel and still decided to take the other Servants with him too. And even more than that, given the raving words from Cainabel herself, it was illogical for Ainz to take any Servants with him and not just deal with Singularity personally.

Mozart, thinking about it over however, gave up after a couple of seconds and simply shrugged. The purpose of Ainz's actions would not yield itself to a simple calculation of logic - which would only be expected from an unknowable divine spirit from beyond the borders of the universe. Or could he even say... The Root?

"Fou!" Mozart's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the small exclamation. Mozart, looking at the small animal that had just issued the snort, smiled at him.

"Four," Mozart nodded to the little animal that had caught his attention. "Good afternoon."

"Fou?" The animal snorted in a kindly questioning tone.

"Nothing special," however, Mozart, contrary to any possible expectations, answered back, as if hearing and understanding a question from Fou, "I am just walking around Chaldea."

"Fou?" The animal yawned in reply.

"No, thanks," Mozart just nodded. "But thanks for the offer."

"Fou," the beast shrugged in completely human gesture, then continued to walk slowly along the corridor, passing Mozart by. That, having followed him with a look, only nodded to him.

He really heard much, much more than other people.

However, pulling himself out of his thoughts, Mozart looked around, trying to determine where he had ended up. Apparently, being a prisoner of his thoughts, he wandered somewhere where he had not been before. At least not one of the doors around him was familiar - not that it spoke much. In Chaldea, almost all the doors looked the same... Except, perhaps, the door to the room of Serenity. It was difficult not to notice the huge sign "Do not touch! Deadly dangerous!".

However, Mozart only shook his head to get rid of that train of thought, after which, looking around him again, decided to keep slowly wandering on. In an extreme case, he will leave this labyrinth using the left hand rule.

However, as if from a result of some evil irony, walking further along the corridor did yield any turns and even the constant presence of doors ceased existence further along in Mozart's path. He was already contemplating about turning back around and walking back until he saw a door on the end of the long empty corridor.

Unlike the other many, many doors in Chaldea, this door was different from the rest. The huge, massive door made of white metal was clearly supposed to be sealed from the rest of the world - this was clearly indicated by the security panel for magnetic cards and a display with a keyboard for entering the code near the door. However, as Mozart himself knew, at the moment, many things in Chaldea had to be turned off to conserve the energy of Chaldea's Core. As could be seen from the most like supposed to be locked door that was currently open, with the security system located behind this door also turned off.

In general, it was a logical conclusion. At the moment, Chaldea have no need to be afraid of spies from the outside world, as they are all dead, and it is unlikely that the technicians would have decided to rummage around the secrets of Chaldea for some reason, especially realizing that no one needed or wanted these secrets without the surrounding external world.

Mozart shook his head. He, in fact, did not need these secrets either, but all this way he was led by banal idleness and boredom, so the opportunity to brighten up his day a little and maybe quench a little of his curiosity were things that he would accept readily. So Mozart, not bothering to torment himself with any unnecessary worries, took a step inside the unknown room.

"Wow, it's cold here!" Mozart instantly rubbed his shoulders as he came closer to the door. The temperature inside the room was clearly a dozen degrees lower than anywhere outside the room - "Did I get myself into the refrigerator?"

Mozart looked around inside the room - fortunately the light in the room was on - only to see a huge, spacious and virtually empty room. The only exception being that at the very end of it there were several obscure large objects sticking out of the walls. Mozart walked further into the room to take a closer look at the wall of the room that had caught his attention. Literally in the middle of the wall, he saw a small, flickering green screen, and next to it... A small blue window.

Looking around, Mozart himself was able to determine that his initial observation was wrong - in fact, the walls of the room is littered with numerous green glowing displays and bluish flickering windows along all the walls, and the walls themselves were not completely bare, but had many minor protruding parts, suggesting that the walls of the room was used for something.

Mozart closed his eyes for a second, and listened, trying to determine the purpose of a room like this, before opening his eyes after a couple of seconds.

"So that's what it is," Mozart nodded to himself, after which he took a step toward a display on the wall and peered through the window.

Behind the window was a man.

It was a young man - about twenty years old. His black short hair was slightly burned and hung only on one side of his face, covering one of his closed eyes. The second half of his face was burned - as if it was disfigured by an explosion. Blood did not run through the injured tissues, but even with just one look, Mozart could easily determine that the man was seriously injured in the explosion. Part of his face was completely burned and Mozart could see that in some places flesh was torn off almost completely, leaving only bare bone.

Heartbeats. A lot of slow, stuttering heartbeats - that's what Mozart had heard. The room he went into was really a fridge. More precisely, a storage facility for cryocapsules filled with the many people who were injured from the explosion.

Mozart peered at the face of the person immersed in cryosleep for a few seconds more.

Another victim of humanity's extinction, if in a somewhat indirect way.

It was strange to become regretful at someone's fate despite knowing that he might have been more fortunate than others. All the people who were not behind Chaldea's barrier died instantly. They were destroyed by the fire - they did not even have bones or dust left, while this person, in retrospect, while suffering great injury was preserved in a cryocapsule. There was even a chance that he could be cured...

And yet, in spite of such grim comparison, Mozart was looking at a victim face to face. Toward his scars, burns, coagulated crust of blood. Right now, he was looking into the face of one of those had become a casualty in the event known as the "Destruction of Humanity".

Mozart looked at him for a few seconds more.

Who was he?

Perhaps it was one of the selected forty-eight Masters. One of the magis chosen as a participant for the noble mission of researching a temporal anomaly and saving humanity. Maybe he was the noble son of some ancient family of magis. Maybe he was an excellent student of his academy. Or perhaps it may even be an upstart who rushed forward into Chaldea to get himself a Servant for personal use, in order to subsequently use his Servant for criminal activities. Mozart had many backgrounds that he could think of in this regard, and not one of them was unequivocally true or false. Without an answer from the unknown person, Mozart never be able to find out the answer to his questions.

Mozart sighed and took a step back.

"Oh!" - a female voice heard from behind Mozart startled him, causing him to turn toward the source of the sound.

"Ah, chief," Mozart nodded to the approaching Olga-Marie, "Do you need me for some reason?"

"No," Olga-Marie nodded instantly, after which she stared at Mozart, "Why did you come here?"

"Random chance," Mozart answered honestly, moving away from the cryocapsule, "And you, chief?"

"This is my Chaldea - I can go wherever I want," the chief answered him instantly, to which Mozart himself only nodded.

"True," he confirmed, "But any action is usually backed by a reason."

"Which doesn't concern you," the chief replied sharply, taking a step into the room, then stopped, looking at Mozart closely and, after nodding to herself, went to the cryocapsule that he was observing at the moment.

Approaching the capsule, however, Olga-Maria stopped, and then stared at the person behind the glass window. Silence settled for a couple of seconds.

"Is something bothering you, chief?" Mozart glanced at the girl, forcing her to turn towards him.

"Do I look like a person who likes to discuss his inner demons with strangers?" Olga-Marie looked aggravatingly at Mozart.

"No," he admitted, "But you look like a person who needs to vent."

Hearing this, Olga-Marie simply turned back towards the window to the cryocapsule again..

"I don't think such a thing would apply to someone like me, so mind your own business.," Olga-Marie nevertheless replied back after a couple of seconds of silence, continuing to stare at the man's face.

"Did you know each other?" Mozart asked a question after the silence become somewhat unbearable.

Olga-Marie, turning around sharply, looked at the Servant, as if deciding what she should do with him, after which she sighed and looked away, -" No. I don't think so. I think I saw him only at the briefing."

"Hmm, is that so," Mozart nodded. "Then why do you care about his condition?"

Olga-Marie cast an angry glance at Mozart, "How can I not?!"

The Servant only looked away thoughtfully after these words, "How often do you come here?"

Olga-Marie, continuing to look at Mozart, sighed. "You are a bad psychologist."

"Yes," Mozart agreed easily, "But I have never been a psychologist. I'm just a musician."

Olga-Marie reacted to this reply with a frown, turning away from Caster once more.

"I suppose…" -Mozart thoughtfully began, - "With words like "you are not to blame for this, it's all Lev's fault" I can not give you relief?"

Olga-Marie, closing her eyes, inhaled slowly and deeply, then exhaled, after which she looked at Mozart again, "Every day. I come here every day."

"You think it's your fault," Mozart finished knowingly.

Olga-Marie winced and turned away, - "Who else's but mine."

Mozart nodded, suspecting such an answer, after which he nodded again, waiting for the continuation.

"Even now..." Olga-Marie said quietly, "I... Could I have done something differently? Notice the actions of Lev. Strengthen security before reyshifting into the Singularity. Take more care in protecting the Core. To do something to circumvent this disaster…"

Mozart only sighed at this, - "Lev tricked not only you alone. No one noticed his subversive actions until the explosion occurred - and even after that he was outside the circle of suspects until he himself admitted guilt for the act. In addition, I doubt that he used simple explosives for sabotage. Most likely it was magic - and strong magic at that."

Olga-Marie, having heard this, only wrinkled her brows, clearly she had heard such arguments before, after which she shook her head.

"Probably," she agreed weakly, "But still ... What a shitty chief of me, huh?"

Mozart, having heard this, did not rush with any consolation for Olga-Marie. Not because he did not want to support her, but because he finally managed to get Olga-Marie to start talking.

"All my life I was brought up in the magnificent family of Animusphere," Olga-Marie said her last name with a kind of malicious mockery, "An ancient noble and degenerate family of magis. Degenerates down to me."

"Since childhood, they tell you about how much nobler and important you are compared to other people," Olga-Marie grinned at her story, "Magis or not, it doesn't matter. You are an Animusphere, which means you are already the best. It can mess with a growing girl's brain, you know."

Olga-Marie sighed, and then took out a pack of cigarettes from her breast pocket. Mozart sensed Ainz's mana from the pack, so Mozart could only conclude that it was a gift from him.

Olga-Marie set a cigarette alight, and then pulled it in with one eager breath.

"You study, you grow, you live with the stories about the greatness of your family," the girl inhaled the poisonous smoke once more, "Until one morning they tell you that your father once argued a little with another noble magi... And as a result, you are born as shitty as you are. Cursed, for fuck's sake"

Olga-Marie grinned, after which she looked at herself.

"Degenerates, ha," Olga-Marie grinned wryly, "I heard that the Matou family went through something like that. Their heirs became weaker and weaker until they completely lost their magic. The story with me is a little different, ha, but that doesn't make it much easier…"

Olga-Marie inhaled another smoke from the cigarette, burning it to the filter, and then threw it under her feet, not caring about the cleanliness of the room.

"And then you are put at the head of your father's most perfect project, although you only heard about it like twice in your whole life," Olga-Marie grinned bitterly. "And what should I do? They just told me that our family will degenerate, everything will start from me, and then they put me in charge of the organization with the influence and reach like that of the damned Bilderberg Club. At fourteen, fucking, years old! What did they expect from me?! That I will turn out to be a fucking super-genius, who will immediately begin to wring concessions from the "wise" magi who live their whole in politics and intrigue longer than I ever lived? Or that I will turn a super-corporation, which even my father could not finish, into a new Clock Tower?! What did they expect from me?!"

At that moment, Olga-Maria clenched her fist until her knuckles turned white, then she slowly sighed and exhaled. "No one expected anything from me, huh? Yes, and I did not seek anything more. A warm place, all the money and the influence in the world, endless parties and entertainment, and a loyal deputy, always finding resources for my stupid projects. They did not expect anything from me - and I did not do anything."

The chief took out another cigarette, after which she silently lit it and stared towards the cryocapsule, behind the glass of which some random Master was lying in cryosleep.

"I let everyone down and I understand that perfectly," Olga-Marie sighed. "If only I was a little smarter, a little stronger, a little better..."

"I don't think it would have made a difference," Mozart finally gave a voice, forcing Olga-Marie to look at him.

She was silent for a few seconds before agreeing lifelessly, "You're right. Indeed, it would not."

An uncomfortable silence fell.

"Is it possible to save them?" Finally, having finished another cigarette, Olga-Maria asked Mozart, nodding towards the rows of cryocapsules, "All of them?"

Mozart pondered this question.

Mozart was indeed somewhat lacking in many aspects when compared to other Servants. In battle, he would probably lose to most Servants. As an offensive magi, Cu Chulainn was ten steps ahead of him. Any cunning trap or artifact that he could create, Da Vinci could create in a tenth of the time and using only a third of the resources and mana he needed. But if we talk about potential... About some infinitely long process of achieving an unattainable goal, assuming that Mozart could move towards it endlessly... There were few Servants equal to him. It was like the question: if there is some incredibly large almost impossible goal, but still a way to complete it exists exists, then who will win? The one who moves at a negligible speed every second - or the one who travels half the distance in every second?

Mozart moved slowly, but with purpose that is why he always have the capability to achieve any goal.

"Yes," Mozart nodded. He was a specialist in Orpheus Magic — not the kind of magic that correlates well with the healing of the dying... But he was a Child of God. He could come up with something eventually, - "But not now. It takes a lot of time and effort…"

"I understand," Olga-Marie nodded, after which Mozart could see a faint smile on her lips, "But still... Thank you."

"For what?" Mozart glanced at the girl.

"For giving me support, at least," Olga-Marie grinned, lighting her next cigarette. Mozart could hear by her tone, by her heartbeat, by the sound of her breath - that she needed it - "For the fact that they can still be saved. Then, it may turn out that my patronage was not so catastrophic."

Mozart continued to stand silently before reaching a definite conclusion. After all, in Chaldea indeed sometimes there was nothing to do. Therefore, one could say that he just found a new thing to occupy his time.

"You don't want to remain so weak, do you?" Mozart glanced at the girl, forcing a grunt out of her.

"My, what a brilliant conclusion," - Olga-Marie smirked sarcastically, - "And so, what prompted you to such a conclusion?"

"Your words," Mozart answered with a smirk, "In such a case case, I think... I think I can help you with that."

"Huh?" Olga-Maria looked at Mozart with surprise. "How?"

"Well, I'm certainly just a humble musician," Mozart smiled. "But I'm still a Servant, A Caster and the Child of God. I think I can teach you something about magic."

"Hm," Olga-Marie grinned at it, "Is that so? But isn't your magic related to music? I believe I must warn you, I'm tonedeaf."

"It's a pity," Mozart sighed, "So you won't achieve heights in this magic... But for an ordinary magi, even some of the things that I can teach you are enough."

"That's indeed so," - Olga-Maria only grinned at it, - "So are you suggesting that you want to be my teacher?"

"Do you refuse?" Mozart raised one eyebrow.

"No," Olga-Marie sighed, "But I warn you right away. No "let me show you a new pose." Do not use your hands more than necessary, I am not as foolish as to ignore such things."

"I never intended to do anything like that," Mozart sighed, "You're not my type."

"So you're gay?" Olga-Maria grinned.

"What? No!" Mozart frowned at the girl. "I was married! "

"Not that that was proof in itself," Olga-Marie grinned.

"I had six children," Mozart objected to the girl.

"And there have been such precedents for such things before," she answered without blinking.

"Oh," Mozart stopped, after which he rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Well, the thing is... There is one. The one I love. And though you are beautiful, but I love only her."

"Better," Olga-Marie smiled, after which she thoughtfully reached for a new cigarette, "Because I think... I guess I also have such a person."

"So now you are ready to open your soul to me?" Mozart grinned.

"Go and die in a ditch," Olga-Marie curled languidly, then nodded. "So... When's the training?"

"Get ready and let's go," Mozart grinned, after which, noticing the perplexed look on Olga-Marie's face, laughed, "What? There's no better time than right now!"

"Okay," Olga-Marie sighed, and then nodded. "Go, I'll be right behind you."

Mozart just nodded, leaving Olga-Marie alone in the room.

Olga-Marie, on the other hand, simply peered again at the lone unresponsive person behind the glass of the cryocapsule.

"I will become stronger," she clenched her fist. "And then I will make a difference."

* * *

**Name**: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

**Race**: Human (?)

**Title**: Child of God

**Occupation**: Servant of Ainz \ Olga-Marie's Teacher

**Residence**: Chaldea, staff lounge in the residential wing

**Karma**: +100 (Neutral-Good)

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Underestimating ORT - well, while I treat them with the respect - like anything I borrow from the Nasuverse - the power levels in this fanfiction are just my artistic interpretation of things and nothing more. And Lord of the Realm is a hell of a title since there were only 7 of them in the entirety of the Yggdrasil and they were the most powerful bosses around, except for the World Enemies.**

**If Nasuverse was an Yggdrasil type of game then Umbral Star would be considered as a World Enemy.**

**Oh wow, exactly 341k of words!.. Or it was, till that chapter hit. But damn, it was precise.**

**And in the end ****\- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	56. Chapter 56

A meeting of three irreconcilable opponents. Between barbarians, people who want to see Rome in ruins - at least that's what two other camps said about them. A Divine Ancestor who appeared out of thin air to protect Rome itself. And the legitimate emperor - or maybe the empress, Ainz was still not particularly sure how Nero should have been addressed - in exile, along with a small group of people still loyal to her.

Most likely, it could be easily assumed that all three camps - or their three leaders - would never meet on the same battlefield before then deciding to sit at the negotiating table, of course one could dream. But as soon as Ainz and his own side were added, one that could unbalance any scales and give the strength necessary for any of the three camp to gain complete superiority, the three proud leaders agreed to a meeting.

Unfortunately, what is supposed to be a peaceful meeting was somewhat hampered by the fact that the leaders of the three camps were not particularly ready to trust each other and therefore arrived at the meeting fully armed and in the presence of their own bodyguards - Ainz charitably probably could call them attorneys - but the very fact that they even participated in the negotiation at all could already be considered as some sort of success. At least this moved things from the point of "the three camps stand their ground and are not going anywhere." Of course, Ainz didn't want the meeting to transform into bloodshed - especially because Ainz himself suspected that Altera had a good chance of winning even a "four against one" situation, but... This would also get the ball rolling, which was good - even though Ainz did not particularly liked the way this ball would roll.

Romulus' offer to organize the meeting in Rome, of course, was rejected - the likely counter proposals to organize the meeting in any of the camps strongholds were also rejected. So the meeting was actually organized in an open field. Also, Ainz, in addition to the role of negotiator, had to play the role of the "fourth disinterested party", limiting himself only with the presence of Cainabel. However, in an emergency where there would be violence, this was quite enough.

In addition, at the insistence of Ainz himself, the small detail about the fact that Ainz had formally "joined" Altera was decided not to be disclosed. In an extreme case, he did not swear by the name of Ainz Ooal Gown, the noble name of his guild and friends, about supporting Altera's side, which means that his "support" could turn out to be... very short-lived.

Yes, in a sense, it was dishonorable. But Ainz knew how to accept his flaws as they were. And as one would come to understand understand, he was not the most... Honest man. It seems that Tabula Smaragdina once uttered a good phrase on this subject... A la guerre comme à la guerre, in war as in war.

These thoughts flashed through Ainz's head at the moment when he watched the incoming Servants took their seats on the sides of the square table created by Ainz's magic.

On the side of Altera's camp, with whom he had entered into an "alliance" in exchange for agreeing to attend the negotiations with two other camps, was attended by Altera herself and her alleged "confidant" - Boudica.

On the side of Romulus - the Servant because of which Ainz had to significantly increase the size of the table itself so that the Divine Ancestor could be seated behind it - was Leonidas, who is currently considering Altera and Boudica more likely from a military point of view.

Only from the side of Nero did Ainz see the Servant whom he expected to see at such negotiations - someone smart and level-headed, Caesar.

The fourth side, naturally, was occupied by Ainz himself, along with Cainabel.

The four parties to the conflict, taking their places, silently stared at each other, evaluating each other's fighting capability at the more likely possibility of a subsequent battle rather than trying to determine the chances of a peaceful settlement of the conflict. Ainz expected something similar of course, but that did not mean that he was not hoping for a different result.

"Good," in the end, still concluding that this time, like in his past experiences, nothing would have changed without his direct intervention, Ainz stood up, drawing attention to himself, "The leaders of the three camps and their deputies have arrived and the negotiations of a possible peaceful resolution of conflicts shall begin."

"There will be no peace with the barbarians!" And with the voice of Nero, hope for easy negotiations crumbled. Not that Ainz was seriously counting on such a thing, but one can dream.

"Accepted. Supported," Altera answered emotionlessly.

"I apologize," Ainz said a little louder, drawing attention to himself, "But before we say something so unambiguous, we can at least listen to each other's side of the story. No one will be barred from turning around and leaving at the end of the meeting."

Hearing such a statement, Nero sighed indignantly, but nevertheless flopped back to her seat. Altera had not moved from her seat at all.

"First of all, let me state the most important problem that encompass all three camps," Ainz looked at Romulus, Altera then Nero, "The barrier. All those present agreed that such a thing should not have appeared at all, and all those present wants to destroy it."

Altera instantly mechanically nodded to this, forcing Romulus and Nero to admit the veracity of such words.

"That means we all have at least one common goal," Ainz blurred into a smile. The main thing was to accidentally mention the word "we" in the speech - that was what he learned over the years of his "work", "However, we have a problem. Correct me if I make a mistake with something at the moment."

Ainz sighed, recalling all the claims they have expressed to each other and more importantly at him - "Nero and Romulus demand that Altera leave her camp, Alba-Longa."

"Not possible," Boudica said instantly in reply, "Our soldiers, the people are behind us. You called them barbarians - and I know what the Romans do with barbarians."

"Just as what barbarians would do to the Romans." Nero glanced angrily at Boudica.

"Did you justify yourself with these words when you found out what your soldiers did to my daughters?" Boudica flashed with anger a moment later. Ainz rubbed his temples - it was worse than mediating a negotiation between different branches of the company - and until that moment he believed that nothing could be worse.

"Enough," Ainz raised his voice once more, "Personal conflicts can be resolved later. Now we are only discussing the problem that is troubling to all the camps and nothing more."

Boudica, hearing this, cast Ainz an angry glance - like Nero - but still returned to her seat. At least the situation did not become worse.

"Nero also demands her recognition as the Emperor of the Roman Empire," Ainz glanced at Romulus, but fortunately, he at least resisted reacting like Boudica, simply staring at Ainz intently.

"Romulus, in turn, demands the preservation of his title of Emperor and the liberation of Alba-Longa. Altera demands the preservation of the lives of his soldiers and their well-being," - Ainz just in case kept silent that this was demanded more by Boudica rather than Altera, who did not present any other requirement besides destroying the barrier at all.

Each of those present nodded at these words. Good.

"In that case, it will be easiest to deal with Alba-Longa," Ainz turned his gaze at Nero and Romulus, at the same time catching Caesar's attentive gaze, "I think no one will mind if the barb... Altera's soldiers leave the city under the guarantee of their safety from Nero or Romulus."

"What?!" the voice of Nero and Boudica resounded in unison, after which the two glanced at each other. After a few seconds, Nero began to speak first, "How can we just let go of the barbarians who struck us so hard? At such insult?!"

"The city welcomed us as heroes, as liberators!" Boudica hastened to object, "Perhaps you are not so loved in your empire, Red?"

"Hush!," Ainz did not feel confident calling for order in a meeting between Emperors and Kings ... Or Empresses and Queens — some of this title game confused him — but if he didn't, definitely no progress would be made in these negotiations, "Do not forget that in the camp of Altera there are not only barba… Altera's soldiers, but also Roman citizens - and many other inhabitants that lived with the citizens of Rome. Perhaps their actions were unforgivable - but their words were true. The Romans did not fight for their city, and none of them were executed or persecutes, there were no robberies or murders. Altera took the city - and could leave it so quietly if the generosity of the Emperor of Rome could show that she is capable not only of cruelty, like those that fell on Boudica, but also of mercy."

After this proclamation Ainz glanced at Caesar. He had been preparing this speech all night, but it was easy to determine how hard he put the pressure based on Nero's personality. Caesar could easily sabotage it if he wanted to...

"Nero," however, fortunately, Caesar supported Ainz in his quest to move things off the ground, "Think about it. What would you do otherwise? Take the city under siege, to kill its defenders - to shower in blood the streets of the city from which our history began and to burn it to the ground?"

At this moment, Ainz cast a glance at Romulus, but fortunately Romulus is simply continuing to silently study the rest of the Servants at the meeting, especially focusing his gaze on Cainabel. She, having noticed his attention, only bared her teeth.

"I..." Nero voice stopped short, and then she looked at Boudica, as if hoping that she would find reasons to disrupt such a deal in her face. Boudica, however, only glanced at Altera, who, having listened to the suggestions nodded in reply, "Possible."

Nero, with a sigh of anger, once again fell into her seat, casting a heated glance at Altera, Boudica and lastly at Ainz - "Fine… But this does not mean that I will forget your actions."

"I understand and accept that," Ainz nodded. Moreover, given that after the Singularity, such a gesture will not mean anything, - "In this case, the Emperor…"

Now to move on to a much more difficult negotiation, but Ainz still had one option, - "Is it possible in this case for the reign of two Emperors?"

At that suggestion, Romulus and Nero stared at Ainz with two different emotions. In contrast to Romulus who remained silent, letting Ainz finish his suggestion, Nero did not hide her indignation - "You shamed me enough in the face of the barbarians - how much more do you intend to laugh at me?!"

At that moment, Ainz praised Punnito Moe and Tabula Smaragdina and their history lessons, which at the moment turned out to be much more useful than anyone could have ever predicted, after which he looked at Leonidas, who was almost resorted to picking his teeth in boredom, - "As far as I have known, in Sparta there were always two kings. And this system served them faithfully."

"Aye, something like that was indeed done," Leonidas sighed and shrugged.

"The Emperor is the one who stands at the top, above everyone," Romulus finally answered, breaking his silence.

"Why can't two stand at the top?" Ainz asked a question. Honestly, he was not sure why both of them could not stand at the top - his guild worked well on the principle of voting and majority rule - "Moreover, as far as I know, this will not be the first time that two people will be ruling Rome at the same time."

"Two rulers will tear the realm to pieces with their conflicting desires and aspirations," Romulus replied calmly, "Rome has outgrown the Senate and now only one can rule Rome."

"The Senate was rotten right through," Ainz was not sure of this fully, but just in case, he decided to mention this fact, "While you are two Emperors. Is it possible that the Emperor of Rome and the Divine Ancestor themselves would wish for their power to perish? You are the two incarnations of the power of Rome; you both wish only the best for Rome. You will always want to rule only for the good of your people."

Once again, Ainz pressed hard on the identities of the two Emperors and on their desire to rule for the benefit of their people, but that was the only thing that Ainz could do. Nevertheless, he was not so good as to spread the networks of deception and lies and, as a result, to push people to the conclusions he needed - he could only use what information was given to him by observation.

After that, booth parties fell silent, pondering what was just said, forcing Ainz to cast his attention at Caesar. He, once again after catching Ainz's gaze, did nothing, only looked away. Apparently, he supported Ainz's idea.

After a few tense moments, Nero surrendered first, exhaling, - "It would be nice to have a Divine Ancestor as a companion."

"In the end, you were also recognized as the Emperor of Rome," Romulus sighed once more, "So perhaps together we can achieve more..."

Ainz breathed out, his emotion suppression prevented him from almost dancing in joy. It seems that he managed to deal with the main heap of problems.

"An objection," Altera voice sounded suddenly, after which she stared at Nero, "Before the end of the meeting, we need to know. Corfinius. Boudica's troops were attacked when she advanced towards it."

After that, all of those present focused their attention at Nero - except for Cainabel, who from the very beginning of the meeting kept her gaze straight ahead after realizing that Ainz was next to her, watching her actions .

"Ahem." She turned her gaze to Caesar.

"Well, we are in a sense now organizing an alliance..." he drawled pointedly, after which Nero gave up and looked at everyone present.

"The Grail," she said shortly.

Ainz blinked.

He did not expect this.

"Grail?" He asked.

"Umu" Nero said absolutely seriously.

* * *

So, the Holy Grail was not behind the barrier, but was in a small cave in a random city within the reach of the rest of the Servants. They asked to Nero why she didn't take the Grail herself, and she stated that she was afraid that after possessing the Grail, any subsequent dialogue or negotiations with Romulus would become impossible - Romulus logically being afraid of the strength Nero's side would possess, Romulus could simply attack her later after being weakened by the barb… Altera's side. This could even sound logical if only Nero herself was interested in a peaceful dialogue, that is of course before Ainz forced all the representatives of the three camps to gather at a single table for negotiations.

Ainz did not trust anyone in this Singularity. But information about the Grail was still a necessary thing to verify.

"I understand," Ainz nodded when Nero finished her story, then nodded. "In that case, I suppose to preserve our fragile alliance, we need to pick up the Grail."

In the best case, after the Grail was acquired, Ainz would have no need to further deal with the Barrier.

"Of course, it is necessary for all of us, all the leaders, to go for it." It is unlikely that any of the leaders would allow the Grail to be taken without their participation, fearing that their fragile alliance would collapse after a side possess a definite advantage, - "Therefore I suggest that soon it would be time to start putting our plan into action. Perhaps if Nero moves out of Antium right now, along with the forces of Altera, we will be able to pick up the Grail tomorrow even."

"Aren't you going to pocket the Grail yourself?" Leonidas threw a suspicious look at Ainz, a look similarly possessed by the eyes of everyone else.

"I'm only interested in the barrier," Ainz lied without batting an eye. At least until that moment, he showed his interest only in the barrier, and not in the Grail, so his lie could work, - "Besides, as many of you know, I can use teleportation. If I wished, I would have disappeared a moment ago, having learned all the information I need about Corfinius."

In fact, Ainz needed at least a description of a conspicuous place for even his highest level teleportation skill to work correctly, but it was unlikely that the rest would be knowledgeable about such things, especially to the work of his spells.

Apparently, such information was enough to reassure the initially disbelieving Servants.

"Besides, as a gesture of goodwill, I'm ready to leave my Servants in the camps of all those fighting," Ainz smiled. "In this way, we can make sure that none of us moves before acquiring the Grail, while leaving me without Servants or bodyguards."

"But who can verify the inspectors?" Caesar nevertheless ask Ainz a common question.

"I'm not a Servant," Ainz lied once again, "And I cannot use the full power of the Grail. As a magi, I can only get a slight advantage from possessing the Grail - at the cost of gaining enemies in all the other camps. I always considered myself not a stupid person, and therefore I can not imagine myself committing such stupidity."

Caesar continued to stare at Ainz for a while longer, after weighing all the pros and cons, he nevertheless stood down. Apparently, he understood that if he continued to doubt Ainz, the one who gathered all the leaders initially, he would call into question their entire fragile alliance, and now, after the information about the Grail has become known to all the camps, it will mean a bloodbath.

"Well, then," Caesar stepped back, "Tomorrow. The process of retreating, transitioning, and resolving the problems in the camps can take days, weeks, or months. Tomorrow, we would take the Grail together, thereby cementing our friendship."

"Great idea," in fact, Ainz would have agreed to even the option if everyone had demanded to pick up the Grail in ten minutes. All he needed was a couple of minutes alone with Cainabel. Not in a romantic sense, by the way.

However, tomorrow was not such a bad option, because in this case he could send his Servants to the camp of each participant. That was pretty good on its own.

Ainz smiled as he watched each participant leave the impromptu conference, after which, after waiting a bit for luck, he turned to Cainabel.

She, contrary to her usual state, was in some thought.

"Cainabel," Ainz's voice instantly brought the girl out of her trance, forcing her to bow her head, "My lord?"

"You remember what needed to be done," Ainz nodded. Cainabel nodded in response, and then put her hand on the table created by Ainz's magic. After a second, he felt a strange pulling feeling.

'So, that's how I feel the destruction of the objects I created' - Ainz saw how, after a second, the object created by his mana began to collapse, turning back into pure mana. After a second, the bluish suspension began to be absorbed into the body of Cainabel.

"I always did it with blood," Cainabel made a comment to herself, "I never thought that I could do it with mana..."

"Cainabel, is there something wrong?" Ainz turned to the girl.

"No, my lord," she immediately turned toward Ainz, not allowing herself to be distracted by her occupation, and bowed her head, "I am grateful to you for revealing new facets of my skills."

"Um, yes, of course," Ainz nodded at this response, after which, having waited after Cainabel finished, he addressed her again. "Did everything work out?"

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel took her hand away from the last remaining motes of mana, after which she looked at Ainz, "Now the probability of error is zero."

"Good," Ainz nodded and sighed. This, of course, was another possible plan for the future, and an extreme one at thaat, but Ainz was one of those people who preferred to have a plan for every situation. Believe in the best, and get ready for the worst, hmm...

After that, Ainz noticed a certain reverie of Cainabel, similar to his own, "Cainabel? Is something bothering you?"

The girl raised her gaze to him, and then nodded. "Truly, my lord, nothing can be hidden from you, but I suppose my thoughts are occupied with the same question as yours."

"Is that so," Ainz seriously doubted that Cainabel was thinking about the need for a contingency plan, so he did the same as before, "Speak out. Hearing a second opinion is always helpful."

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel smiled, taking a step back, and then thought for a moment. "It's Romulus."

"What about Romulus?" Ainz did not pay special attention to Romulus. Why would one think of him at all - apparently he behaved the same way as always.

"Yes," Cainabel nodded, "Romulus already has information about Cu Chulainn's powers - a small achievement. This means that he should have known about his ability to teleport. At this point, he should have known that this ability does not come from his own strengths or abilities, but from an equipment. The same equipment that all of your Servants possess. He should also have known that all your Servants could retreat from the enemy camps instantly or teleport to Corfinius and pick up the Grail right now…"

'Yes,' Ainz realized in surprise, 'They really can do it. I forgot about it.'

Ainz's servants could indeed teleport in an instant, take the Grail from Corfinius, use it - even if it was assumed that Ainz himself couldn't do this - and gain enormous power, after which simply say that Nero lied. However, Romulus did not say this in the negotiations or even hint at such a possibility.

Perhaps, like Caesar, he considered it necessary to ignore such a possibility in order to avoid the death of the newborn alliance, which would be a logical choice... If Romulus himself wanted this alliance from the very beginning. Given that he did not want such a thing...

"Is it possible," Ainz began with uncertainty, "That Romulus wanted me to take the Grail?"

Cainabel looked at Ainz and bowed. "I don't know for sure, my lord, but... This raises the question - why?"

Ainz thought for a moment.

For some reason, the idea of an alliance meeting did not seem so ingenious to him...

A distinct unpleasant apprehension settled in Ainz's stomach.

* * *

"Do you really trust Ainz?" Nero turned toward Caesar, trying not to betray her inner feelings.

Unlike the certainty that Caesar demonstrated at the meeting, this time the fat man was deep in thought for a long few minutes.

"He has no reason to betray us," Caesar finally issued his verdict.

"This is not an answer to my question," Nero frowned.

Caesar only sighed before issuing a clearer verdict - "He does not want to outright betray us, but I can not unravel his plans for sure."

"This is... Frightening," Nero frowned, "Very frightening ~ umu. Before Ain, you could easily solve every riddle of a man."

"Perhaps," Caesar sighed. "However, whatever his reasons, he wants to destroy the barrier. This could be easily understood - I do not know if he is really not interested in the Grail - most likely not - however, he does strive for the barrier's destruction. It was clear to me from the very beginning."

"I see," Nero nodded, and then sighed. "Sorry."

"About what..." Caesar turned toward Nero, but was interrupted halfway.

"Hey-ya," - next to Nero, as if out of thin air, a new person appeared.

"A Servant," Caesar instantly realized, looking at the girl who appeared as if from thin air. She was not very tall, dressed in an oriental outfit and with black-colored hair that almost descended to her knees - "Assassin".

"A message for Nero," the girl instantly took a step toward Nero.

"What message?" Caesar was instantly wary.

"I have no idea," the girl shrugged, "I'm just a negotiator, this is about the leaders."

"Umu?" Nero glanced at the slowly approaching girl. "From whom?"

"Altera," Assassin sighed. "Apparently she wanted to discuss something without extra ears."

At that moment, Assassin eloquently glanced towards Ainz... Well, or at least to where he would be.

"What things does Altera want to talk with us now?" Caesar frowned.

The girl slowly continued to approach, - "Like I said, no idea. Although I know something about the message."

At this moment, the girl pulled out what most likely should have been a message. However, instead of plain paper, it was... A scroll? A huge twisted scroll.

"Since when did we start using scrolls?!" - Caesar instantly rushed forward, - "Nero, step back, this is a trap!"

"The message was intended Only For Kill," a moment later the scroll opened. Caesar managed to take only a step before the scroll, as if submitting to an evil will, was between the two Servants, effectively cutting Nero from the whole world. For a couple of moments, but that was enough.

In the hands of the Assassin - Jing Ke, the assassin of emperors, a blade flashed. A small one that could be hidden in a scroll, a dull black blade. A skillful display of the legend of the killer of emperors.

A second later, the blade entered the very heart of Nero, cutting off her life.

After a second, Caesar's blade cut the scroll apart, but it was too late.

Nero seemed to be confused as she looked at the blade sticking out between her ribs.

"Umu?" She asked in confusion, after which she took a step back, swaying. Jing, grabbing the blade, pulled it out a moment later, after which Nero, swaying for a moment, fell down. Caesar managed to catch her at the last second before she would hit the ground.

"Hurray, another Emperor was added to the bank of the slain!" Jing stepped back, after which a moment later she rushed away.

Caesar wanted to rush after her, but it was impossible to leave Nero alone.

"Fuck!" Caesar swore, he rarely allowed himself an expletive, looking at Nero, "What the hell..."

"Caesar," Nero tried to breathe, but she could not hold out in this world for a long time, "Retreat. Without my mana, you and Caligula... Not enough time... Find Romulus... Avenge me…"

"Yes, yes, damn it, yes," Caesar could have stayed and tried to console Nero that everything was fine and she would survive, but that would not work. It was the Noble Phantasm of the assassin of emperors. After it was deployed, it was impossible to survive.

Caesar laid the slowly cooling body of Nero on the ground and rushed away. They needed to get to Romulus.

And then…

Caesar felt the hatred rising in him.

The barbarians will regret that they decided to fight the First Emperor of Rome...

* * *

Nero felt her life slowly leaving.

It was difficult to distinguish time in this state.

Caesar needed to have time to get to Antium, notify Caligula and enough time to get Romulus... It would take several hours...

Nero grimaced. Her skills did not dull the pain, it did not dull at all, so she had to experience her death every time. And every time it hurt.

At some point in time, Nero felt her body filled with strength and the pain gradually began to recede. Her mana... her Master's mana began to act in full.

A few minutes later, Nero was able to open her eyes again and breathe, immediately she began coughing. Although her wound was healed after her resurrection - or, more precisely, her skill, some unpleasant side effects - like the rigor mortis that began to grab her body - did not recede.

"My dress is ruined," Nero looked at her dress. Her Master would not agree to give her mana to restore even her clothes...

That was one of the thousands of reasons why she hated him.

"It's convenient for you to do such scenes," a velvety voice sounded in her head, "A servant who does not die... I am grateful to the people's rumor for having invented your skill. And on the third day of the emperor's death, Nero's corpse was covered by a passing horseman with a cloak as a pity and the emperor opened his eyes and said, "Here it is, loyalty" and died. The usefulness of such a skill is hard to overestimate."

"Enough!" - Nero, unable to restrain herself, shouted at her Master - "I did everything you wanted!"

"Yes, but you'll have to work on your acting skills" - the Master stopped for a second - "But yes, you completed your part of the deal. True, I did not want this to happen... But this Ainz is a dangerous fellow. You can convey thanks to Caesar, it was thanks to his analysis that I decided on this. A wonderful pawn, even if he didn't want it."

"ENOUGH!" - Nero grabbed her head - "You promised me that after the incident, the Empire and the people in it will not suffer!"

"Of course," her Master agreed easily, "Don't you trust my word? To the King's Word?!"

"I do not trust the words of a demon" - Nero squeezed her hand tightly.

"Well, in my case, the two are equal," her Master smirked through the connection, "Demon, or King. Do you trust or not? "

"No," Nero answered instantly.

"Such a joykill," the Master grunted in her head, "Just like with Lev. He always talked about "the need to show them the futility of their efforts"... I'm sure if he reigned in this Singularity he would simply summon a bunch of Servants and arrange a massive obstacle course. There is no style in that human at all. Isn't it better to give people the opportunity to kill themselves?"

"Just shut up and tell me where to go," Nero snapped back.

"You know where I am," the Master smirked in response. "Or you can look beyond the barrier, suddenly I'm there. Or check the "Grail" - you have a lot of options. "

"You are disgusting to me" - Nero slowly moved away.

"And these are the words that you should tell your Master?" - The Master smirked - "Especially after I agreed to save your Empire? I'm a man of my word; if I want it, I'll give it, I want it, I will take it."

"You promised!" - Nero spat out an insulted reply - "You are a King!"

"And also a demon," the Master immediately reminded, "Now go where I says. And we hope that Ainz will have more difficulties to kill Servants more than Lev. My lord still cannot figure out how to resurrect him now... But do not worry about this. It doesn't concern you anymore. Well, good luck with your affairs, I still have the Servants to keep an eye on."

After that, the vile sensation that always accompanied the connection with her Master disappeared and Nero, vanquished, trudged away.

She didn't want that.

Really didn't want to.

But if even a tenth of what her Master told her was true, then this was the only way to save her Empire.

"Forgive me, I ask you if you can" - Nero cast a last look in the direction of Caesar, Caligula, Romulus - "I beg you, forgive me."

Then she slowly headed away to her Master.

* * *

**Yggdrasil Magic**

The same skill that is responsible for the existence of Ainz's magic. Perhaps the simplest explanation of its essence would be to say that this skill is another existing magical system, similar to hundreds of others - but that would not do it any honor. In the end, every system is built on a principle. Runic magic - runes once carved by the God of Wisdom, Odin. Orpheus Magic - magic created by a divine melody once extracted by Orpheus himself. As one can understand, most of the principles of magic were built on the divine forces and the forces of nature and were aimed and cultivated at their repetition - that like causes like.

Yggdrasil's magic was also built on a certain principle. On the principle of developers that created a similar system, writing it into the very aspects of a distant game of their own free will. Without repeating any miracles and being guided only by their desire and vision.

Or, more simply, on the principle of "a miracle created by man that was free from the gods."

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Why did you take away the comments section from every time you post about servants? - This is for some different occasions.**

**So Ainz is weaker than Umbral Star as it would be considered as a World Enemy.** **\- If Nasuverse was an YGGDRASIL-type of the game, then Umbral Star would be a WE. Nothing else I have to say about this.**

**I wonder if Ainz has any Total Maniacs with him? -** **Total Maniacs are just a joke item made for chibi spin-off. It doesn't exist in the main story, so, obviously, Ainz doesn't have any.**

**Any plans for Kara no kyoukai event? - No**

**In the first early chapters, you said that both Zelretch and Aoko also play Yggdrasil but in the later chapters you said that not even True Magic can reach Yggdrasil. - I didn't say that they are playing YGGDRASIL, I just named a few player nicknames. Anything else is already too much to reveal right now.**

**And yeah - this chapter is where shit hit the fan.**

**And in the end ****\- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	57. Chapter 57

After completing her mission Jing Ke retreated to an inconspicuous undergrowth not so far away from where Nero found her demise, and exhaled.

On the one hand, it was a little strange for someone like her to rejoice that she did not die while trying to kill a Servant - and even more, an Emperor, especially given the nature of her Noble Phantasm.

Only For Killing, the blade that was once created for her only assassination - the murder of the First Emperor of Qin, Qin Shi Huang. The blade was an ideal assassin's blade, a reflection of her legend - the legend of a hired murderer that agreed to a mission even while knowing that she would die as a result. It was a blade reflecting an unshakable confidence in its mission, an absolute willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of killing the target and all the sacrifices made for the sake of one murder. In other words, it was a reflection of the ancient law of life - "Life for life". Renouncing his life and every opportunity to escape from the justice and calamity that should befall her, the blade will take the life of its target.

True, using her Noble Phantasm was not a suicide attack, but rather an attack that took its target life, in exchange it would leave Jing completely open to any retaliation from the target or from anybody nearby. In this case, however, Jing had her scroll to protect her in that instant.

In other words, Jing was ready to sacrifice herself for the sake of murder... But still, this did not mean that after using her Phantasm she was predestined to fall victim to Caesar's blade. She was ready to die to complete her mission, but it doesn't mean she wanted to die.

Therefore, after retreating from the doomed target, Jing used her abilities as an Assassin in full, hiding her presence with Presence Concealment, and then returning towards her camp.

On the one hand, she was still a little embarrassed by what had happened.

Jing had received an unequivocal order from Altera - to deal with Nero. Moreover, unlike many previous cases - this time Altera gave the order in person. Which was weird in her opinion.

On the other hand, the orders of the commanding officer were not to be questioned - if Jing Ke was ordered - she had to kill her target, regardless of the price for such an act. That was the paradigm of the Assassin of Emperors.

Jing Ke moved cautiously, but still quickly, and so her camp appeared on the horizon in only a couple of hours before the sunset had touched the horizon.

This time, Jing Ke did not bother to be courteous and did not manifest, slipping through people who were unaware of the unmanifested Servant, moving along the streets of the city with the ease inherent to her class, before slipping into the barracks now chosen as the headquarters by its leader.

Of course, at first she was worried, why not take the local palace as a headquarter, but Boudica instantly objected, saying that she wanted to be closer to her soldiers. Spartacus, of course, reiterated his eternal "we are fighting tyranny and therefore the best we can do with its symbol is to destroy it completely and not make it our headquarters" - well, or something like that, Jing Ke stopped listening to the Berserker's rants a long time ago when she understood that she will not get a clear answer from him. On the other hand, Spartacus was a Berserker, so getting at least some kind of answer from him was already a good result.

Altera didn't care at all what building they would make their headquarters - given that Jing Ke noticed that Altera was able to sleep standing up, with her eyes open and even while continuing to move and do something, Assassin no longer had any questions or complaints. And is there really a big difference? Pillows and sake could be spread and consumed, respectively, in the barracks if it was at least relatively clean. Fortunately, at least from that side the barracks passed the quality requirements from the Assassin of Emperors.

Jing Ke slipped inside the barracks, and then finally removed her Presence Concealment, moving towards the room designated as the "Meeting Room" at Altera's headquarters.

After a few seconds, Jing opened the door behind which the voices inside were spilled - especially the voice of Boudica - and then took a step inside.

Instantly, as soon as she appeared on the doorstep, the ongoing dialogue in the room ceased and the eyes of all those present - Altera's, Boudica's and Spartacus' focused at her.

"The target has been neutralized," Jing Ke reported, and then she went to her nook of the room, next to which a small bowl of sake rested on a table. The best way to celebrate another day of your life...

However, Jing Ke took only one more step into the room before Spartacus took a step in front of her, blocking her path.

"What is this about?" Boudica asked. Jing Ke was not slow to notice how her hand shifted closer to her blade.

Jing Ke turned towards Altera, seeking clarification from her for the situation unfolding before her eyes, but she only saw her cold, unemotional eyes.

"What target was neutralized?" Altera asked coldly.

Jing Ke felt the situation was rapidly beginning to become more confusing beyond the permissible limits.

"Nero," Jing Ke answered honestly, looking straight into Altera's eyes, "You ordered me to kill Nero. I did it."

After Jing Ke's reply, silence fell in the room.

Jing Ke glanced once again at Altera's eyes, but her expression did not change at all.

"When?" She asked suddenly, staring intently at Jing Ke.

"...This morning," Jing Ke began to doubt herself while looking at Altera. Altera, however, only blinked at such a statement.

"What?!" Boudica's voice, however, sounded surprised.

Jing Ke turned toward the Servant, but she had already shifted her gaze towards Altera, "Is this true?!"

Altera only closed her eyes in response. The gesture is so uncharacteristic to her that Jing Ke realized the answer even before it was pronounced.

"No," Altera answered bluntly, after which she opened her eyes, glancing at Jing Ke, "I did not give the order for the removal of Nero."

Jing Ke silently looked at Altera.

Everyone else present stared at Jing Ke.

"How did you get the order?" Altera glanced at Jing Ke carefully. She sighed.

She did not want to die, but she was ready for it.

"This morning you visited me in my room," Jing Ke said everything as she recalled, "After which you personally told me about the need to eliminate Nero after the meeting."

Silence.

Jing Ke did not like many things in the world - just as she did liked many things, but silence was not in either the first or second group.

Because Jing Ke was not often confronted with silence.

She definitely wouldn't like the next meeting.

"I always gave orders using our link," Altera answered as coldly as she always had before. Jing Ke usually liked her cold professionalism, but not now. Absolutely not now.

"So," Jing Ke sighed and glanced at Altera, "Who then gave me the order?"

"Unknown," Altera blinked again, "Illusion, Memory manipulation, Change in perception, Magecraft, Noble Phantasms, Skills."

After she listed out the possibilities, Altera suddenly stopped for a second, after which she slowly nodded, "Ainz."

"Ha?" Jing blinked, looking at Altera, "But he was the organizer of the meeting, wasn't he? Why would he destroy his own plans?"

"To blame us," Altera nodded slowly.

"From the very beginning, Ainz strove to reach barrier, that is true," Altera nodded. "However, he strove to get to the barrier, not destroy it."

After these words, everyone - including even Spartacus, who had only silently and frowningly smiled with his eternal, unnerving smile - no matter how he managed to combine this, was deep in thought about it.

"Ainz had previously visited the Roman camps, which means he should have known that their strength was not enough to break the barrier," Altera said coldly, slowly looking around her Servants with unblinking eyes, "However, immediately after his visit to our camp and meeting me — he proposed organizing a general conference, luring Nero out of their city, after which, after finding out that she had acquired information about the Grail, he instantly pitted us with the rest of the camps by manipulating Jing Ke. In order to prevent our camps from coming together and putting an end to the threat of the barrier."

What Altera said sounded... Not so far-fetched. Even more so, it was too logical and dangerous to leave it unchecked.

"Bastard!" Spartacus roared instantly, as soon as Altera finished the line of thought, "Traitor! How dare he betray our military brotherhood?! How dare he use us for his vile plans?!"

"However, he made a mistake," Altera said instantly.

Boudica, a second later, realized what she meant.

"His Servants," Boudica nodded. Ainz took his strongest Servant as his bodyguard and thereby left only three in the camp of Altera.

"Spartacus," Altera turned toward the Berserker, after which she nodded slowly, "Jing and I will eliminate his Servants now, while he is too far away. Boudica - your goal is Corfinius. You must reach the Grail before Ainz, his Servants, and the Servants of the Romans do."

Boudica nodded. "It will be done."

After a moment, Rider darted off, rushing to the Grail. Altera looked around the remaining Servants and nodded, rising from the table.

It is time to show Ainz the power of the Scourge of God.

* * *

The Dragon Witch foresaw that in this Singularity everything would be simple. Unlike Ainz, she was not prone to bouts of paranoia and being wary of the enemy, preferring not to look for a black cat in a dark room, especially knowing that she might not find it there.

What can she say, she paid for that carelessness.

"You are accused of complicity with the barbarians", - despite the fact that usually a court sentence was not read out with a blade directed at the accused - or in this case, Romulus's monstrous spear threateningly hanging over the Witch - Zhuge Liang's voice sounded as if he had pronounced the verdict, "Excuses?"

"Um," Cu Chulainn looked at Romulus, trying to find an excuse, "We didn't know?"

While the sage of the Celts possessed many talents, eloquence was not one of them.

'Master' - the Witch instantly reached for her Master, however, to her horror, she did not feel the usual connection with her with the Master.

"My control over Rome is enough to block your connection," Romulus looked at the Witch accusingly, clearly realizing what bothered her so much at the moment. His voice sounded saddened, as if he didn't want to do what he was doing now - but he held his spear confidently enough to easily kill the Witch or Cu Chulainn, - "You can not escape. Teleportation has also been blocked."

The Witch turned her gaze toward Alexander, who, for all his boyish appearance, now looked like a Servant - a real Servant, ready for battle - then towards Caesar, who had become Romulus' Servant a couple of minutes ago.

"Hey, Witch," Cu Chulainn glanced at the Witch, "Romulus could not restrict teleportation to too large a territory. Damn it, even I don't know how to do it - but believe me, I'm not a fool."

"Another word and I will kill you on the spot," this time Romulus did not use his patronizing "child." No, now he spoke not as a noble Ancestor, but as a soldier. A soldier of Rome, who scornfully called the Mediterranean Sea "ours," a soldier of the Mare Nostrum.

"I don't think that the result will be very different in any case," Cu Chulainn glanced defiantly at Romulus.

The Witch thought.

Cu Chulainn's plan was easy to catch, but could she follow it?

The Witch glanced at Alexander, then at Zhuge Liang and Romulus. Even if he can distract Romulus and Zhuge Liang - Caesar and Alexander can slow her enough so that she does not have time to escape before Romulus deals with Cu Chulainn. And he will deal with him quickly.

"Hey," The Dragon Witch suddenly turned towards Cu Chulainn, forcing him to listen, "This reminds me of something. Remember when we fought?"

Cu Chulainn juggled his memory, recalling that moment and trying to understand what the Witch meant, "Yes... Then our battle came out very... Blaze of glory?"

"Ready for a repeat?" The Witch grunted under her breath, watching Caesar begin to draw his blade.

Cu Chulainn shot her a last look, but the Witch only nodded. She had a plan.

A plan suitable for the Altered Servant.

Cu Chulainn grunted, after which he finally looked at Romulus, "Hey, big man. I wouldn't want to spoil the whole deal, but you better really let us go."

"Why?" Romulus glanced directly at Cu Chulainn.

"Because while you think you took us hostage," Cu Chulainn grinned, "We took all of Rome hostage."

A second later, Cu Chulainn rushed forward.

"**Wicker Man**!" Cu Chulainn's Noble Phantasm worked instantly, creating a barrier between them and the Servants of Romulus. The Witch had to use this opportunity to rush forward, leaving behind the doomed Servant.

This time, Cu Chulainn did not care about the surrounding landscape, and therefore the rising colossus of the Wicker Man easily broke through the ceiling, destroying the walls of the magnificent palace, making the Roman citizens in the distance to freeze in horror. Against the backdrop of the Phantasm that has just arisen, even the bulk of Romulus was completely overshadowed as something insignificant and so small.

"**Ochd Deug Odin**!" This time, Cu Chulainn did not care about hiding his Phantasm. He had to act quickly - his second Phantasm manifested itself instantly, but required a few seconds for a supply of mana. Seconds that no one would gave him.

Having hardly just arisen, the bulk of the fire giant suddenly swayed, in incomprehension - before the next blow tore it to pieces. A lot of tree shoots tore it apart - Romulus's spear, the incarnation of the tree of Rome, struck only once - exactly as much as Romulus needed to destroy the symbol of the Celtic wisdom - just as only one company of Rome put an end to the Gaul, who once gave rise to the tribes that praised the old gods.

A second later, the torn giant turned into pure mana, among the clouds of which he appeared. Romulus, the Divine Ancestor of Rome.

Cu Chulainn did not have time. Just a couple of seconds and all...

"**Moles Necessrie** !" Romulus' Noble Phantasm took shape.

After a second, four walls, cutting off the Witch's retreat, arose from underfoot. Instantly four fragile-looking, ephemeral, as if ghostly walls rose from the ground, cutting off the combatants from escape. The speed of the emergence of the Phantasm was such that the Witch barely managed to jump to the side so as not to be instantly cut into two parts by the Phantasm of Romulus.

Moles Necessrie . The legend of Romulus and Remus, two beloved brothers. The legend of how Romulus killed his beloved brother and build his beloved Rome on his blood.

A Noble Phantasm reflecting Romulus' love for his Rome, subjugating and supplanting even his love for his own family. His incomparable love for his Empire, for his City, for his People. Romulus' manifestation of love - "I will defend Rome even if for this I have to destroy the rest of the World."

It was a barrier-type Noble Phantasm capable of saving the target of his love - as easy as destroying what would stand in the way of his infinite love of Rome. Ephemeral and barely perceptible, like any love, and indestructible, like his love for Rome.

Now Ochd Deug Odin was hardly a danger to Rome - Cu Chulainn understood this.

It was impossible to retreat now - the Witch understood this.

Cu Chulainn was left with only a very little chance for victory...

"Kha!" Cu Chulainn suddenly felt a sharp pain. With incredulity he turned around.

His gaze met that of the Witch. A Witch clutching a black blade that does not reflect light. The black blade that entered the heart of Cu Chulainn.

"What the hell... ?!" he looked in surprise at the Witch.

A second later, the Witch pulled out the blade, causing Cu Chulainn's body to sway.

"You thought we were allies?" The Witch's face turned into a contemptuous grin, "What a pity."

After a second, Cu Chulainn's features turned to that of contempt and hatred. The Witch's black blade struck his neck, chopping off Cu Chulainn's head a second later.

"You... You are capable of killing even your own ally?!" even Romulus stopped for a second from surprise.

"Hate me for that," the Witch grinned.

A lump appeared in her throat, she suppressed this impulse with a new grin, - "Your hatred gives me strength."

A second later, her black plate glove touched Ochd Deug Odin, who did not have time to crumble, pouring the last of the required mana into him.

A second later, the black blade, still stained with the blood of Cu Chulainn, pierced the exposed wall of Romulus Phantasm.

The barrier of Romulus was not invulnerable, but even the power of the Witch would not be enough to destroy it. Earlier.

However, the Witch that existed now plunged the blade into the walls of Romulus Phatasm with unexpected ease, breaking a gap in the walls with the black blade. Betrayal that destroys even all-embracing love.

"Say goodbye to Rome," the Witch smirked, after which Ochd Deug Odin activated.

"NO!" Romulus rushed forward, but the Witch was right. Distracted by his Phantasm and what happened before him, Romulus lost control of the barrier restricting teleportation. The Witch disappeared instantly, missing the spear of Romulus with only a couple of centimeters.

After a second, Ochd Deug Odin activated.

Although the owner of this power have died Ochd Deug Odin embodied the wrath of God against the people who tried to comprehend his wisdom. The Dragon Witch, the embodiment of the other side of the coin - a rebellion of humans against the divine - and so she could activate it.

A second later, Leonidas activated his Noble Phantasm, defending himself and the other Servants against the might of the Phantasm of Cu Chulainn, but his Noble Phantasm could not cover the whole of Rome. The endless hatred of the divine and of humans, mixed in the Phantasm of Cu Chulainn, poisoned by the betrayal and hatred of the Witch, broke free, absorbing Rome with the ease with which a fire devours the most beautiful of canvases painted by a master painter.

Hundreds of buildings, thousands of people ceased to exist instantly, devoured by flame, turned into dust and ashes.

Rome ceased to exist in an instant.

Leonidas's Phantasm was the only thing that stood against such a force, not yielding, until the raging tornado of fire died down, leaving only a scorched wasteland.

Romulus was not under the influence of Leonidas's shield.

However, when the fiery inferno subsided, Leonidas saw Romulus.

He stood still, motionless while looking at the wasteland.

The wasteland that was once called Rome.

"Rome…" -Romulus held out his hands to the beautiful city that he vowed to protect.

"Rome, Rome, Rome…" -Romulus pronounced time after time.

Leonidas lowered his shield exhaustedly. Such an attack took all his strength to defend against and judging by the fact that the Witch had escaped, a retaliatory attack was no longer required.

Leonidas grabbed his spear, and then stuck it in the ground.

"My Rome…" -Romulus said once more and Leonidas saw how a lone tear slowly escapes the face that was as if carved from marble - "My Rome…"

"Orders?" Leonidas glanced at Romulus.

When he heard this, he suddenly dropped his hands exhaustively, turning from an eternal titan into a hunched, decrepit old man.

"Kill them all," came a quiet voice, "Each one. Everyone you see. Everyone you smell. Everyone who meets you."

"Every Servant or..". -Zhuge Liang made a step towards Romulus, but after a second Romulus hand grabbed him, instantly striking him into the ground. Zhuge Liang, not expecting such a reaction, crouched in pain.

"Waver!" Alexander rushed forward and Romulus pushed Zhuge Liang away from him as easily as he picked him up, like an unnecessary rag. Alexander rushed toward Shuge Liang - "Waver, are you okay?!"

"Everyone you meet," - the glance of Romulus, speaking in the void, was insane. The look of a man who have vowed to protect Rome and failed, - "There is no more Roman Empire without Rome. No more Romans without Rome. Kill them all. Press their corpses into the ground. Tear them apart. Hang them on the crosses. Feed them to the dogs. Kill them all."

"Besides that woman and Ainz," Romulus suddenly stopped, "For I will show them the greatness of Rome, which cannot be burned."

* * *

"NOOOOOOOO!" - Nero fell to her knees. "You lie, you lie, this is all an illusion!"

"Why should I create a lie if the truth would hurt you the most?" - the Master's voice sounded in her head mockingly - "Come on. Take a look at what remain of Rome. I'm sure a couple of shacks have survived even after all that. A pair of shacks and a pair of unwashed peasants - the greatness of Rome in all its glory... "

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" - Nero crouched on the floor, trying to clasp her head with her hands, as if this would save her from the monstrous visions of a burning Rome - "You forced her hand! You forced them all!"

"Oh, believe me, I would love to do it if I could," the Master sighed. "But I cannot and I did not have to. Or did you think that this would be one of the romantic stories? Oh yes, the noble prince saves a virgin in trouble from the clutches of a vile sorcerer, ha-ha, a classic... "

"Shut up, shut up, shut up" - Nero muttered like a mantra, trying to keep the tears from running down her cheeks - "Why can't you just leave me!"

"Because I am your only chance," the Master smirked. "Here is a little lesson for you. Sometimes a knight saving a princess is a monster worse than a dragon. Or did you never know that in order to defeat a killer you need to think like a killer? "

After the words of the Master, Nero could no longer withstand the shock and lost consciousness.

"Ugh, how weak..." - the Master sighed, after which he thought - "But I really didn't order her to do that. That damned Ainz and his damned unbreakable bonds with his Servants... Oh, well, at least this Ainz and his Servants know how to make the situation interesting! I am sure that Lev would have just found and killed everyone , as, in fact, he had done before. Lev, you are a disgrace to all the Demon Kings! Well, was a Demon King, of course. "

After that, the Master fell silent and sighed - "Well, okay. I can't wait to see what happens to the Grail now. I am sure that at least I will receive praise for such a Singularity. "

After that, the Master imagined how his master pats him on the head and grinned. His imagination sometimes threw him... interesting pictures.

"But there is so much potential for darkness in Nero," the Master sighed. "It's interesting that she will respond to the offer to be summoned as... Hm, Rider?"

* * *

Caligula ran forward.

Power. More power. Even more power.

His mind was in furor.

He was not going to return to Romulus' side. He was about to avenge his dead niece. And for this he needed power.

A lot of power. More power than Romulus could give him.

Just as much as the Grail could give.

Caligula moved on, paying attention to nothing. Corfinius. That sounded like his destination.

Approaching Corfinius Caligula felt the presence of another Servant, but he did not care. Only the Grail now means anything to him.

"Damn!" Came a distorted voice from afar, "Damned Romans! Again ahead of us!"

Somewhere in another time, under different circumstances, he would have identified the voice that just resounded as Boudica, the adversary of his niece, but now he was not bothered by anything. No barriers stood in his way. His way to the Grail.

"Step back!" Came the distorted voice, "Ainz is manipulating you, like all of us!"

Caligula did not listen to Boudica's explanations, moving forward with all the power that a Berserker had. Caligula moved towards the Grail.

"You! Stop!" Boudica's voice came, after which a blow sent him flying.

Caligula was thrown aside from the blow of the Servant, but he did not even pay attention to it. Rising from his fall, he rushed forward. The goal was so close...

"Fucking Berserkers!" Boudica's voice sounded loud and clear, but for Caligula it was no different from white noise, "Why are you all like that?!"

Caligula was not interested in answering the questions addressed to him. He saw the cave. He could smell the fragrance of power emanating from the Grail.

Otherwise, he would have felt that the sweet scent reminded him of a decaying corpse. But not as he is right now.

The clouds parted, revealing a full moon night. The night he is in full Power.

Caligula rushed forward to the cave where the Grail was hidden, but this time he was stopped.

An obstacle stood in the way of his last step to the Grail.

"Finally you stopped!" Boudica rejoiced quietly, after which she intercepted the blade, "The Romans will receive the Grail through my corpse. Fight!"

Caligula stopped.

Before him stood a Servant. Girl.

Caligula's mind was no longer directed his actions. Only madness and emotions. The bitterness of loss. Crazed Love. And Hatred.

"Not attacking, hmm?" Boudica shifted a little, preserving her center of gravity, and then she struck. Her blade entered the flesh of an unprotected Caligula.

She just doesn't understand.

Caligula realized.

She does not understand his madness. His hate. His aspirations.

And if she does not understand his madness...

He will make her understand.

The clouds in the sky parted, revealing the full Moon.

That Moon that gave him his crazy love. And the one that robbed him of his love.

"NERO!" Caligula exclaimed, looking at her, after which he turned his gaze towards Boudica, pronouncing the name of his second love, "**FLUCTICULUS DIANA**!"

And the mad light of the moon illuminated him. Before he lost his mind because of the love of the goddess. Now he has lost his mind because of his love for his niece.

Boudica realized the power of Caligula's Phantasm too late.

Diana. Goddess of the moon. As cruel and changeable as all the gods. The goddess that saw a great commander and warrior, ruler and orator and wished to make him her own. The goddess that showed him the beauty that appears only on a moonlit night, strewn with stars. Beauty that mortals cannot touch.

The proximity of the beautiful moon and the inability to touch it. It drove dreamers, poets, and writers alike crazy. What could one man have done when the moon goddess herself showed him a beauty that no man could ever reach?

Caligula went crazy. Touching beauty and not being able to keep it, he plunged into madness in despair, which led to his fall. His crazed love tore his life apart.

And so Caligula was endowed with power. A force, which allowed him to open the eyes of anyone about what he saw. To the madness of unattainable beauty.

Boudica fell to her knees. Caligula's Noble Phantasm penetrated her mind, revealing to her eyes what he saw. The unattainable beauty of the moon goddess.

Boudica's mind was instantly crippled by Caligula's Phantasm. However, Boudicca had a goal.

Therefore, even the endless beauty of the moon could not distract her for a long time.

But it still was enough.

When Boudica's mind cleared, she saw the hands of Caligula reaching out to the Grail.

"No!" She rushed instantly, but it was too late. Caligula touched the Grail.

To instantly fall to the ground.

An inhuman scream came from his mouth.

Boudica paused in confusion before seeing that his hand, touching the Grail, was covered with a viscous black slurry.

Boudica did not know this, but this black slime was similar to the one from which the Dragon Witch was created.

The Grail before which had sparkled with gold due to the winner, faded and slowly began to distort, turning from a golden bowl into black slime. The Slime of which is flowing onto Caligula.

Caligula began to scream, but a second later the black slime swallowed him completely, interrupting his scream. Boudica stepped back.

The grail was a trap.

Boudica felt horror.

A cocoon of black mucus, moving like a living creature, suddenly froze, after which it lost its color, turning into a gray shell. The shell cracked a moment later.

A hand appeared behind the fallen gray shell. Then the second. Then the whole body.

The Servant who rose from the earth was like Caligula, but he was not. He also looked like Romulus.

Rising from the ground, a giant dressed in black armor, decorated with gold, stretched out, overshadowing Boudicca with his entire three-meter height. Another trait that shows his relation to Romulus.

After that, the unknown Servant opened his eyes. Black, with red dots for pupils. The same as those of Caligula and Romulus.

"Hmmm..." the Servant then stared at Boudica, "So you are Boudica, the one who swore revenge on Rome?"

Boudicca gripped her blade tighter. What just happened... Unsettled her. However, she was not going to give up, - "Yes."

Hearing this, the giant grinned, and then laughed a patronizing laugh, "Do not be afraid my child. I am not an enemy to you - I am your ally."

After that, the Servant glanced at Boudica and tilted his head slightly - "I vowed revenge on Rome even when my brother had just founded it."

* * *

**Yggdrasil Magic:** _A++_

It cannot be said unequivocally whether or not some kind of magical system is worse or better. Rather, they are all just different. Orpheus's magic is practically useless without musical talent, Solomon's magic can be learned at a basic level even without magical circuits, and the magic of Circe can boast of its capability of creating a potion of immortality.

There is only one magic that is above the rest. True Magic.

And the Magic of Yggdrasil.

Of course it cannot be said that Yggdrasil's magic is equal to True Magic. Rather, it is simply a magical system that serves as a bridge between the two. While magical systems are a kind of "constructor" that can be folded into new forms by the effort of countless generations of Magi, Yggdrasil's magic was created complete. There is no way for improving it - it is just a complete set of existing spells. Powerful, incredibly strong, but still finite and limited. Separated by levels of "power" - of "tiers" - from the weakest, easily duplicated by the spells of other magical systems - to those that are able to stand on par with the True Magic.

Of course, it cannot unequivocally be said that Yggdrasil's magic cannot be changed or modified — and Yggdrassil Magic does possess something called Supertier Magic that is something completely different — but such a description speaks well of the strength and capabilities of such magic system — as well as its weaknesses.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**And yeah - this chapter is where shit REALLY hit the fan.**

**Also, I started up a quest at QQ (QuestionableQuesting if you don't know) (my nickname the same)**

**You probably already know what a quest is - but for the rest of people - do you remember "choose your own adventure" book series? Something like this, written by me in real-time, by people choosing what they want the MC to do.**

**The first vote is already closed (I'm really sorry, I fucking forgot, I'm a fucking idiot) but all the rest is still up to you. This is, to put it bluntly, NSFW BtP (just think of it as Eldritch Horror) and RWBY crossover.**

**Well, that's if someone wants to try this out, of course.**

**A new chapter will not be delayed, just started a new project.**

**And in the end ****\- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. That's pretty much all.**


	58. Chapter 58

If an ordinary person were asked to describe Da Vinci's workshop, then most likely he would use the words "filled with trash", "chaotic" and "piling up". The word "orderly" would have never come to a person's mind, perhaps as a sarcastic thought.

Numerous tomes and books, priceless manuscripts and semi-decayed drawings, huge encyclopedias and useless books about ten pages thick, artifacts of unknown purpose and broken objects made of gold, iron, bronze, precious gems and useless glass pieces lay on tables, shelves, armchairs and even sometimes on the floor, some piled on huge pile of papers balanced so precariously it would fall when an observer looked at it - all these things filled up Da Vinci's workshop.

An ordinary person might be surprised or perhaps not even believe that the most brilliant scientist and inventor could create such chaos at his workplace, in his own shrine. Only a person of similar stature of mind to that of Da Vinci could determine that despite the seemingly macabre placements of Da Vinci' things that would seem to be scattered in an absolute mess at random - they were, in fact, exactly where they were needed to be.

In other words, instead of placing things in a certain "order", as it might seem sensible to simpler minds, Da Vinci preferred to keep things where they should have been.

Sometimes this system however, as objects balanced "randomly" is ought to do, would fall down - so Da Vinci for the third day could not find her teapot that was now probably swallowed by one of the heaps of her drawings and folios.

The rest of the time, this system worked almost perfectly. In particular, right now.

Da Vinci opened one of the many scattered books on a page only she knew a certain information she needed is, after which, finding the line she needed, she quickly ran a glance through the words and slammed the book shut, then placing it away from herself, then returning to the object occupying her table and attention.

"Ainz Ooal Gown" - the text that is in the title of the drawing sheet, which at the moment was completely covered by notes, which by the volume and randomness of the subject noted it was not possible to understand the meaning of these notes for anyone except Da Vinci.

By nature, Da Vinci was the ideal embodiment of a scientist. Not a wise old man enjoying the well-deserved fruits of his work, but a young, ardent scientist who first encountered the incomprehensible mysteries of this world and decided to reach the truth at all costs and break through the veil of secrecy over this world.

In other words, Da Vinci loved and hated riddles at the same time with equal - and tremendous passion.

And Ainz was one big ball of mystery.

Da Vinci smiled to herself, singing a melody known only to her under her nose, after which she looked at her notes, summing up her long research.

Ainz Ooal Gown. Magi.

The fact that Ainz was a magi was clear, obvious and logical, so Da Vinci did not focus on this word. She looked further.

Magician.

This was a more interesting conclusion.

Several lines and notes led to this point at once - "Supertier Magic", "Unknown Magic System", "Foreigner".

Ainz was a foreigner, this fact was easy to deduce, but confirming it took a lot of time to verify the conjecture.

Strictly speaking, the world that Da Vinci knew of was vast, not to mention the existence of other worlds - the existence of which is laid undeniable by Kischur Zelretch, the Second Magician, who travels through parallel worlds with the ease and frequency with which other people go for a walk.

On the other hand, even Zelretch was somewhat limited in his travel destinations.

Of course, the endless existence of parallel worlds and the ability to endlessly walk along the endless parallel of the endless worlds could not be called limited, but there were such worlds where even the Wizard-Marshal should not have travel to.

For example, the Outer Gods. Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath or Nyarlathotep existed in a distant reality, which could be charitably called "parallel" to this world - as well as many other possible worlds, and therefore, theoretically, Zelretch could visit them. However, Da Vinci knew that the universe where the Outer Gods existed was not the most welcoming of places among the countless realities - in addition, the Outer Gods usually showed their hospitality by destroying the mind of the one who dared to approach them. Moreover, such a horrific "retaliation" is not intentional - so there were extremely few who could withstand being in the same universe with a full-powered Yog-Sothoth

Thus, despite the fact that Zelretch could travel through an infinite number of parallel worlds - there were worlds where even the Wizard-Marshal did not dare venture to meddle.

Judging by all the information available to Da Vinci, Ainz came from one of these worlds. A world so alien that even the simplest and most logical common truths of Da Vinci's world were hardly applicable to it.

Similarly, the existence of Ainz, whose existence was like a living violation of the existing constants of this world, was logical and even expected.

His existence that is similar to that of a Divine Spirit in such a world was logical and perhaps expected. Only an existence that has reached levels of power comparable to that of a Divine Spirit - or perhaps a Magician - would be able to easily move through parallel worlds, and especially to bring part of his own world with himself to another world. In other words, Ainz was another version of an Outer God from a parallel reality.

And this harmonious theory was broken by only one fact. Ainz was a Magician.

Da Vinci placed her hands in front of her and looked at her drawings and notes.

Strictly speaking, it is impossible to say unequivocally that Supertier magic was like that of True magic, it was impossible. Maybe yes, maybe no. In the end, according to Ainz, something else could also describe Supertier magic — the "highest form of magic". A Divine Authority.

However, in this case, another contradiction emerged. How could Divine Authority be the logical progression of the usual magic system of Ainz?

Ainz's magic was just magecraft. Though strong and of unknown origins and laws, but magecraft all the same. Looking at the gift given to the Chief, Da Vinci was able to determine that the objects were the products of a spell. A very strong and complex spell, but Da Vinci could repeat a similar feat after several attempts. If she needed to develop a spell that produce a similar effect, creating a magical construct that takes shape in reality, she would have done it in... A couple of weeks, or some similar time scale.

In the end, Ainz possessed magic. The gods did not learn magic. The gods used Divine Authority.

The "magic" of a god is to create any desired effect solely by his will and strength. A similar ability is derived from the birth of the god.

On another scale is that of Spirits created by the faith of mankind and Gaia, the accumulation of mana and pure chance which took shape in reality. The embodied side of the life of Gaia herself, the very embodiment of the Earth. Due to the fact that the gods were something like a "self-developing module" of Gaia, they could control a part of it as if it is the finger of a person, with simply the power of their own will the world would change in response.

Therefore, the gods did not need to learn magecraft - they could use the Divine Authority bestowed upon them from birth from the very beginning. Considering that all sorts of magecraft from the time of creation was aimed only at mimicking divine miracles, it made no sense for the gods to study magic at all.

Of course, Da Vinci cannot deny the possibility that there could be a god so interested in magic that he would endacour to master it the same way that magis would, but Ainz did not seem the type of person to do that to her.

In that case, Ainz could simply be a simple Magician of course. But why then, did he have such a reality-distorting presence, how could he navigate the parallel realities, why did he have such an aura of power, and why would a trail of divinity stretch behind him, like a subtle smell in the air?

To make things worse - Supertier magic. What is it? Is it Divine Authority or perhaps True Magic?

Ainz appeared in all respects like a Divine Spirit, but even if such a conclusion would justify the presence of magic, it would still fail to take into account his possession of True Magic. A Divine Spirit themselves were only spirits embodying one of the many aspects of Gaia. In order to "acquire" True Magic the magician had to reach into the Root. There was no position farther from reaching the Root than that of the position of a Divine Spirit.

In such a case, Da Vinci could then call the Supertier magic as Divine Authorities, and Ainz as a Divine Spirit which studied magecraft as a passion - however, other facts would appear as contradictions in this harmonious theory.

Cainabel.

Da Vinci sighed remembering the girl. Cainabel was a contradicting factor, bringing in new information as if only with the goal of breaking Da Vinci's fragile theory.

Cainabel could also be classified as a Divine Spirit - and unlike Ainz she directly called herself a god - or a divine ancestor, the distinction does not matter. Moreover, Cainabel did not consider Ainz a god, but instead refer to him as a being apart from the gods. A Higher Being. This was her way of referring to Ainz.

But still, what is a Higher Being then?

Cainabel was a book filled with useful information - very intriguing information. However, her information rarely helped in building theories.

The Higher Being is the unborn soul from a destroyed world, who is then placed into a body by the Creators to fight the World Eater. This was not the most useful of information for building theories.

But Da Vinci took it into account.

So, Ainz. A Divine Spirit, but also a Magician. A Servant, but also a man. A hero of legends, but at the same time a normal, not particularly remarkable Master, who somehow arrived in Chaldea.

At that moment, Da Vinci smiled. This was not the first time that this list of qualities is embodied in a person.

A Pseudo-Servant.

A person used to contain a divine essence.

A very interesting project, albeit inhumane in its essence - Da Vinci would not approve of such an experiment, but still could appreciate their beauty. Use the body of an ordinary person as an anchor, and then place a Divine Spirit inside this human body. As a benefit, it became possible to let a Divine Spirit, usually a being either too strong, too immaterial or even too weak from time and unbelief, to become embodied in reality, bypassing the usual limitations of such an existence and even the fact of the end of the Age of the Gods. The downside, of course, was the fact that the new body that Divine Spirit would possess was a human, which meant a decrease in divinity, strength and ability. Although even with such a decrease in its capabilities, a Divine Spirit is still too strong to be contained in the body of a normal human, the death of the vessel is the usual aftermath.

But what if you reverse this process?

Rather than using the body of a human as an anchor but instead the body of a Divine Spirit, and to put inside of it not a Divine Spirit, but that of a person who would then take control of it, just as the Divine Spirit would took control of the human body when it is summoned?

Cainabel spoke about the history of the birth of her world, but right now Da Vinci was not interested in the story of the emergence of Cainabel's world neither in the personalities of the Creators. She will dig further into it after she can finally deduce who Ainz really is and what connects him with humanity and especially how he appeared in this world.

So, according to Cainabel after the death of the Creators in their battle with the World Eater, they committed a last act of retaliation against it and allowed the souls from the worlds destroyed by the World Eater to reincarnate in order to continue their fight. A very successful act, as Cainabel herself claimed. One of these reincarnated souls was Ainz himself, or herself. She couldn't exactly throw stones no?

True, Cainabel claimed that Ainz was not his real name, but so far Da Vinci was not very interested in such a tidbit. It seems that she is finally beginning to unravel the tangle of mysteries called Ainz.

So, Ainz incarnated in the New World. But he was not existing in the form of a simple magi and also not in the form of a Divine Spirit. But instead he is embodied in the form of the two at the same time.

A Higher Being... If we assume that the creation of these Higher Beings was an act of desperation, or perhaps spite on the part of the losing Creators, it would be logical to assume that the Creators in the end would have little power remaining to create such creatures - as Cainabel herself confirmed, saying that the Higher Beings who were newly "born" in the world were not stronger than an ordinary person - or a magi. However, they would gradually became stronger, absorbing the power of the world where they were now existing in. The behavior of characteristic to that of a Divine Spirit.

However, from their existence as a Divine Spirit, these Higher Beings received only the body - or at least what could be called a physical "body". The last action of the losing Creators was responsible for the construction of this "body". However, the created bodies were only puppets. Divine Spirits without mind. Their Mind was brought into them by souls from another world who would take "control" of the emerging Divine Spirits. Souls from the other, destroyed worlds from the wings of the World Eater.

Thus, the paradox of how Ainz could both be a Divine Spirit and man was resolved. The Divine Spirit was only his body created by the Creators. His mind and soul belonged to mankind - thus, although his body possessed all the abilities inherent in a Divine Spirit, the mind of the "controller" needed to adapt to the use of these abilities. Thus, they needed to learn magecraft first before their personal power could sustain the use of Divine Power and their mind could control it. So, the knowledge of magic gained by Ainz on the way of his growth when faced with the appearance of Divine Authority decided to call it Supertier magic. A being knowing the laws of the creation of magic who then gained the power to change the world by its whims, a terrible combination. A combination that is neither Magic nor Divine Authority in the truest sense of the word. Instead of True magic drawing its power from the Root, or Divine Authority drawing its power from Gaia, it was a type of magic that draws power from the laws of the universe. The knowledge of the laws of the universe - and the power to break and rebuild them - what could be more dangerous?

Da Vinci clicked her tongue out loud - again she was distracted from her line of reasoning!

So, within the body of a Divine Spirit, an alien mind and soul was placed. One of the souls of an annihilated world. But which world?

And now the last piece of the puzzle came into play.

Ainz knew about the impending Third World War and wanted to prevent such a thing from occurring.

When Ainz faced the Singularities, with the destruction of the world and humanity, he did not even blink in surprise. Perhaps because he had faced such a thing in the past?

Trying to determine the powers and abilities of a creature like the World Eater was a headache in itself. It was only known for certain to her that Cainabel said that the World Eater was capable of devouring worlds. But perhaps it is possible that she did not mean it the truest sense of the word.

There was a whole history behind the existence of the World Eater, the fall of the old world and of the death of the new one.

Da Vinci closed her eyes.

She could afford to remember this story.

The Creators created the world. More precisely, a tree that embodies the infinite worlds, this tree is Yggdrasil. They created the world "pure" - in other words, free from morality. Do not think that this meant that the created world was "good" - instead, the concept of "good" or "bad" did not exist in it. A wolf hunting a hare is not "bad" and a hare escaping from the wolf is not "good". They are simply animals that are not aware of these concepts. Similarly, a "pure" world does not contain good and evil.

And the Creators created an observer. One powerful observer over all the worlds. Then they named him Nidhogg.

Da Vinci repeatedly noted the existence of similar motives to this world - Cain and Abel, Yggdrasil, Nidhogg - all these concepts were known and familiar to her of course. Da Vinci even had her own idea on this subject, but it was not important to unravel the mystery.

Nidhogg was a perfect, powerful observer who looked at all the worlds from the outside. This was his strength - as an observer, he could see all the worlds at once. His weakness also lay in this - unlike the ordinary inhabitants of these worlds, he could see clearly what their "pure" existence really was. Stagnant progress, an animalistic life and neolithic existence.

Nidhogg tried to settle the conflicts between the inhabitants of these worlds - but his lessons were always forgotten, his words would be erased, and there would be no trace of his actions left. Just a couple of million years - not even a blink of an eye for the observer of all the worlds - and they all would return to their "pure" existence.

And then Nidhogg realized that the worlds that was created in this way was not viable from the very beginning. He then went down to the roots of Yggdrasil - to the Root, to the Source of all worlds and devoured it, dooming the worlds to death. He poisoned the Root with the concepts of good and evil, and worlds that have lost their "pure" existence began to perish. And then the World Eater was born, devouring the perishing worlds, becoming stronger and stronger.

This story also had a continuation, a link between the history of the death of worlds and the last battle of the Creators, there were further continuations - about the Twelve Angels of Sephiroth, about the Seven Lords of Sins, about the Five Rainbow Buddhas - Da Vinci still has not heard the full story, but she was not particularly concerned about this fact. What was important to her was different.

The devourer condemned the worlds to death by devouring the Root, and at the same time poisoned it, bringing his vision of "good" and "evil" to the previously "pure" world, as an observer the World Eater is able to see impartially of what is "good" and "evil".

In this case... Perhaps he did not "devour" the worlds in the literal sense of the word. He brought to the worlds the concept of "good" and "evil", condemning them to death. Perhaps, in this case, the destruction of the worlds were the result of its indirect action.

In particular, it is not so difficult to imagine that in one of an infinite number of worlds, people behaved just like in Da Vinci's world, on a similar planet and with similar nations. Poisoned by the knowledge of good and evil, they began to develop just like people in this world - however, without the Root, they were deprived of magic and doomed to extinction. A world like the current Earth would then die under nuclear strikes, annihilating billions of people in a matter of moments. After this, this world perished and its power would then join the power of the World Eater.

In this case, it was one of the hundreds, thousands and millions of similar dead worlds that joined the forces of the Devourer. After a long time, when the Devourer was wounded by the Creators, a soul escaped from his jaws, A soul that would later gain great knowledge and power. The soul that would later become Ainz.

However, how exactly does this soul then possess True Magic? It is a simple explanation. Souls that were born from the World Eater's wounds were already in contact with the Root, in the literal sense of the word. These worlds were already swallowed up by the World eater, which means that all the souls that were in it once touched the Root when the World Eater devoured it. And so from the destroyed world Ainz finally appeared. The embodiment of non-life and non-death. Although he was born in one of the worlds that have died without the personal participation of the Devourer, when the Devourer swallowed this world, it continued to exist - subsequently, in close proximity to the Root. In other words - if Gaia existed on Earth - the embodiment of earthly life - and Alaya - the embodiment of humanity - then, after the ashes of the nuclear fire settled, Ainz embodied everything that was left of both of them. From both destroyed pillars of the world. Ainz, the embodiment of the destroyed world, perished in a nuclear fire.

And as the embodiment of the devoured world, Ainz was one of those who wanted to get revenge on the Devourer. He was one of those who was embodied in the new reality, with a new body by the Creators in order to destroy the World Devourer.

And as Cainabel had informed Da Vinci, he succeeded.

However, even with Ainz background solved, there was one more question remaining.

Why and how was Ainz here?

Da Vinci sighed.

Answering such a thing was very difficult, it was already much more difficult to even speculate.

The theory of Ainz's existence sounded rather harmonious in her head, however, when trying to combine this theory with reality - with the Root, with the Singularities - some problems arose.

But not those that could not be easily resolved.

Although Da Vinci did not hear the full story, she knew how the story of Ainz and his accomplishments ends. Ainz was not just called the Last Being for no reason.

According to Cainabel, the world of Yggdrasil finally disappeared in the end, just as all worlds would disappear someday. However, Ainz was the last of those who remained in this world. Such facts usually mean something in the general picture of the world.

The whole world ceased to exist, but Ainz continued to live - well, how an undead can do this. Cainabel provided some information about why this could happen.

The Last Being. The one who was the last in a perishing world. Is it possible in this case that Ainz did not just survive? Is it possible that by "surviving" the end of the world that now the role of the "observer", a title who once belonged to the Nidhogg, has passed on to him?

But now Ainz was already observing another Devourer himself. After all, the Singularities, the distortions in the worlds, could resemble the actions of the World Devourer himself, when he poisoned the previously existing "pure" worlds. Such a thing explained everything.

This explained everything perfectly.

His desire and motivation to fight. His acquaintance with the principles in the structure of the Singularities, the Pseudo-Grails. His cautious attitude toward the existing world. His appearance in this reality. And even how he was able to create an "empty sheet" - the forty-eighth Master. Being an observer of the Root must go with its own set of abilities.

However, even so, one question still continued to concern Da Vinci.

"And who are you in the end, Ainz Ooal Gown?" - Da Vinci grunted out loud.

Getting the answer to this question is yet to come to her.

* * *

"AHCHOO!" Ainz clutched at his nose, trying his best to prevent further outbursts with no avail, "AHCHOO!"

"Who did I provoke that they talk about me with such intensity?!" - in between sneezes, Ainz looked up at the sky, after which he could not restrain himself - "AHCHOO!"

* * *

**Skill**: Natural Born Genius

**Skill** **Strength** **Level**: 100

Quite an interesting skill that is responsible that allows the usage of magic and special abilities. It is very interesting in that it is one of the "game-breaker" skills, opening up the use of all types of magic up to the eighth tier, ignoring any other requirements, and special abilities that are usually limited for certain classes or races. Although the strength of the abilities that can be used with this skill is not great compared to that of a player of the hundredth level, the vastness of the arsenal and its usefulness in various conditions makes this skill difficult to overestimate.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**And in the end ****\- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. And we are going to the end of the Singularity pretty fast there. That's pretty much all.**


	59. Chapter 59

The Witch could only teleport to places that she has been to before. And because of the sudden betrayal of the Roman camps there were no other safe haven for her to teleport to, so after a second where the light of the teleportation blinded her, she arrived in the clearing where she first appeared in the Singularity. Together with Ainz, Mashu, Medusa, Cainabel, Jeanne... and Cu Chulainn.

A second later, her black blade fell out of her hands and the Witch fell to her knees.

A moment after, she raised her hands to her face, trying to hold back her tears and to block her ears.

In the darkness of night, after the bright moon is hidden behind the clouds, even for a Servant it would be very difficult to see their surroundings. It is the perfect place to hide, not that the Dragon Witch is in any condition to mind such things.

"You killed him," a voice that sounded eerily like the Witch's voice resounded mockingly in her head.

"There was no other way!" - The Witch tried to argue back - "It was the only way!"

"Yes," the voice agreed easily. "For you."

"The Avenger, the Servant of Revenge, The host of hatred" - the voice enunciated mockingly - "How sad it is to be a Servant who draws strength from hatred towards herself" - The voice chuckled - "A Noble Phantasm that becomes stronger the more your allies dies - the ability to become the monstrous destroyer of France, to be the Betrayer."

"Shut up!" - The Witch squeezed her head harder - "You're not even real!"

"Oh, believe me, I'm as real as you are" - the Witch in her head grinned - "I am your skill, an undeniable part of you. Memory (Oblivion) Correction. My only purpose is to never let you forget."

"I did what I had to!" The Witch squeezed her head harder.

"Of course," the voice sounded pleased. "Because you betrayed him. You killed him in an act of betrayal. Now he hates you. You know this, otherwise you would not have become stronger. You have achieved this... "

"Shut up, shut up, Shut up!" - The Witch squeezed her head even more, hoping that the pain would drown out the voice in her head.

The voice laughed - "They all hate you, despise you, and fear you. That was the goal, wasn't it? The Servant who receives more power the more they are hated... "

"SHUT UP!" - The Witch was not in the state of mind to determine if she had shouted it out loud or not, but the voice became silent for a second, but it was not to last.

"But you hate yourself the most" - the voice said mockingly - "For all your powers, for your behavior, and for your betrayals... But you desired these, didn't you? After all, self-hatred will work just fine..."

After that parting remark, the Witch was finally left alone. Her mind was her own again.

But a part of her knows that it will make sure that the Witch does not forget these events.

Never.

* * *

Jeanne took a step back from the blade pointed at her chest.

The blade in Altera's hands did not even move an inch when she took a step forward toward Jeanne.

"We... Can we discuss this?" Jeanne tried to smile.

"No," Altera issued an instant verdict.

"NO TALKING WITH TRAITORS!" Only the presence of his commander restrained Spartacus from rushing into battle.

In reply Mashu lifted her shield and Medusa behind her grabbed her faithful chain daggers.

In response to such actions Spartacus roared, showing off his Berserker nature, while Jing Ke ran her finger along the tip of her blade, checking its sharpness.

In the stand off only Altera herself remained stationary, the tip of the blade of which continued to practically rest against Jeanne's chest.

"Surrender," Altera dropped only one word as a reply.

If they were against only Spartacus and Jing Ke they would have dealt with this situation easily, but against Altera...

Jeanne felt a wave of goosebumps slowly rising up her back.

"Will we survive if we comply?" Jeanne glanced at Altera.

Thinking for a second, she slowly shook her head, - "No."

At least Altera said it honestly. Jeanne smiled at this fact, even if the situation is not really one where smiles would be abundant.

"Then we will resist," Jeanne nodded.

"I know," Altera answered coldly.

After another second of silence, Jeanne jumped back, summoning her weapon directly into her hands - her battle banner.

Mashu rushed forward, trying to protect Jeanne from Altera. Medusa threw herself forward abruptly, throwing a dagger at Spartacus who was rushing forward toward Mashu.

Altera managed to move before everyone else.

"Kha!" Jeanne suddenly felt a sharp blow knock the wind out of her lungs. She had barely enough time to put her weapon across her chest to block the blade of Altera, so that she would not die instantly.

A sharp kick blew Jeanne away.

Mashu rushed forward, trying to block Altera's path, but after a moment her instinct howled and she managed to put the shield forward just in time to block Spartacus' fist. The blow was so strong that she instantly felt her hands go numb for a second.

"TRAITORS! WHAT YOU ARE, IS A LOT OF TRAITORS!" - Spartacus' next blow threw Mashu away a good couple of meters, almost sending her flying but she still has her feet to the ground.

Medusa's blade failed to reach its goal. Almost piercing Spartacus' distracted back, it was repulsed by a short blade thrown by the Assassin.

"Attacking an unsuspecting victim," Jing Ke recovered her thrown blade, looking straight into the eyes of Medusa still hidden behind her glasses, "I have a question. Which of us is the Assassin?"

Medusa did not answer with anything in reply, only rushing forward to deliver the next attack. Jing Ke sighed and rushed at her.

* * *

Ainz moved through the clouds at his maximum speed now that he was not limited in speed by the other Servants and the need to stay together with them. Paradoxically his immense speed caused no noise or any other discernible effect to his surroundings in passing, so even if an onlooker was to look up at the sky they would only see a comet slipping through the sky. Which could easily be mistaken for simply a trick of the eye, after which they would simply return to their business.

Ainz was quite satisfied with such conditions.

The earth rushed past under his feet, merging into a single endless carpet of greenery, periodically interrupted by villages located in random.

Ainz is flying toward the sea.

Of course, in a past life, he did not see the real sea, except for the huge puddles filled with acid and waste left in place of the dried seas and devastated ocean. So he wanted to look at the one present in the Singularity, untouched by civilization and heavy industrialization, but in this case it was not the only reason he was flying toward the ocean at his top speed.

"A Mysterious island" - Ainz strained his eyesight - "An Island that was not mentioned in history... Hmm, let's see what such a place holds..."

* * *

Jeanne avoided the next blow of Altera, avoiding the blade a miserable fraction of a centimeter. The sharp whistling air next to her head reminded her of why even Cainabel had paid attention toward Altera.

"This is bad..." - Jeanne dodged yet another blow - "We are in a severe disadvantage..."

Altera attacked again and again.

It seemed that from the very beginning of the battle she was not troubled by Jeanne's resistance, just continuing to attack time after time, like a machine or a tool performing the same movements with mechanical precision. Punch, punch, punch - parry - and the next series of punches.

Altera struck again and again, rushing forward while paying no heed to Jeanne's defense or possible counter, not that one would be coming soon.

Jeanne could not even counterattack. It took all her concentration to simply dodge Altera's flurry of attacks, her life hangs on a tightrope.

Jeanne wanted to take a look at how the other Servants were faring with their opponent, but the inattention caused the next blow to hit her abruptly in the stomach and threw her back forcing her to abandon any ideas that would in any way distract her from the oncoming assault.

"Teleportation..." - another thought passed through Jeanne's head, but this to was brutally interrupted by the next blow.

Somewhere near Jeanne a loud sound barely resembling a human growl resounded, after which Mashu flew by after being thrown away by Spartacus' blows.

Teleporting away from this battle was a one-time trump card and if Jeanne wanted all of them to survive, then she had to keep it until the last decisive moment.

Jeanne could have used it right now to retreat, but with Altera's incessant attacks she could not communicate to her allies of the retreat. If Jeanne teleported and Medusa and Mashu failed or were slow to follow her, then they would be doomed to death. It was bad enough fighting Altera one-on-one, being outnumbered would be a death sentence

Jeanne slashed forward causing Altera to step back, after which she tried to say at least a word...

A moment later, a blow from Altera's hand — not even from her blade — made her grimace. Only thanks to her instincts, once driven into her memory by Gilles, she was able to dodge, escaping from a blow that could doom her.

"Preserve your breath," Altera said calmly, without stopping her flurry of blows, each blow paced like that of a robot, unceasing "Every moment of your distraction can cost you your life."

Jeanne understood this very clearly.

"There is no way to defeat her!" - Jeanne retorted to herself while dodging the next attack, then again barely dodging the next one - "It's not even funny!"

Altera simply continued her flurry as usual.

Jeanne needed a second of reprieve, to teleport, to fly, to use her Noble Phantasm, to explain her plan to her allies...

Altera's strikes followed through methodically, knocking out any thought of doing anything but continuing the doomed defense.

From every attack that she barely blocked Jeanne's hands went numb for a second - although Altera's strikes were done as if with no effort, her attacks carried strength beyond the limits of what is bearable for Jeanne.

Jeanne dodged and blocked the blows every time by a fraction of a millimeter. Her breath was ragged, and with each dogged defense, Altera's blade moved closer and closer to her body.

Somewhere nearby a cacophony of noises reverberated, Spartacus' howls striking blow after blow toward a shield, the cry of Mashu activating her Noble Phantasm, the laughter of Jing Ke, the grinding of teeth of Medusa who faced another enemy relying on speed and agility. All this merged into a single background noise, hardly distinguishable by Jeanne who is preoccupied fighting Altera.

A blow, two hits, a parry, dodges, then another blow...

"You're getting weaker," Altera's voice sounded rather distant. "According to my calculation, you can continue to fight me for only two more minutes and thirty seconds, twenty seconds in case of unforeseen circumstances. It is inevitable, Give up."

While speaking, Altera has not stopped her onslaught, because of which, Jeanne could hardly hear what was said to her. Fend off, fend off, dodge, block...

Altera pressed on, striking blow after blow. If Mashu was the one fighting Altera then she would have lasted about a minute, Medusa - about two. Jeanne held on for four, and according to Altera, she could stand two and a half more. A kind of record of sorts.

Jeanne was the Saint of Orleans, the French Maiden, a strong Servant in her own regard. But Altera was one of the rare Servants that could even make Gilgamesh,the strongest Servant, to fight seriously.

A blow, another blow, another blow...

Jeanne was not sure how much time had passed. The flickering blows, Altera's calm voice, Berserker's screams, Medusa's attacks - everything merged into one sound in her head.

"Now I will lose and die" - an inappropriate thought came to Jeanne's head.

For a fraction of an instant, her standard flinched. An instant was enough for Altera.

A blade whose appearance was like that of a crystal pierced through Jeanne's armor. It went through her back by a good twenty centimeters.

Jeanne mechanically, obeying her instincts, once again struck with her banner, but Altera easily dodged the attack. She pulled her blade from the body of the defeated Servant, and then instantly turned to her next target.

Mashu continued to fight with Berserker.

Spartacus was strong, but he did not bother to defend himself at all and his blows were predictable allowing them to be blocked by Mashu. Even though she could block it, every blow almost forced her to drop her shield from the strength of the Berserker. But now his body was covered with wounds. His left hand hung lifeless, broken by a successful counterattack, but there was still a smile on his face. A huge, unnerving smile, which did not at all mesh with his eyes full of hatred.

However, Mashu resisted.

"Medusa!" Came the cry of Jing Ke nearby and Mashu smiled. Medusa have took off her glasses and now Jing Ke is definitely...

A second later, all her instincts, driven into the subcortex by her cruel teacher in the form of Arthuria, howled, forcing her to turn into the direction of a new, unexpected attack.

The impact of the crystalline blade was so strong that even putting a shield on its path Mashu was thrown a dozen meters across the ground, almost forcing her to drop her shield from the force of the blow.

A second later, a new apprehension of danger made Mashu turn around, saving herself from Spartacus' attack.

After another moment, a sharp pain pierced Mashu through and through. With her head bowed, she saw Altera's blade come out of the center of her chest.

After another second, Altera sharply withdrew it causing Mashu to fall down limblessly.

Few shields could protect against the avatar of destruction itself.

Medusa won the confrontation with Jing KE. After her cursed gaze took effect, Jing Ke became slower every second. A blade, bound by a chain, pierced Assassin's body, casting it away.

"Damn Medusa..." Jing Ke only managed to place a weak defense when the blow of Medusa threw her away.

Now Medusa...

The crystalline blade entered her body a second later, cutting off her line of thought.

Medusa just looked at Altera, who was directly in front of her, after which she was literally shaken off the blade, as if like a piece of trash.

"They are defeated," Altera said calmly, after which she aimed the blade at Medusa, "They must be killed."

"Is this how my journey ends?" Medusa grinned languidly. Even her cursed eyes could not affect Altera. It's as if it doesn't matter how much she weakens her - Altera will still have enough strength to overcome any resistance - "It's a pity... I hope the resurrection will not be such a problem."

Altera brought the blade forward.

Clap.

It was not a very loud sound, so it would be difficult for almost any Servant to hear it. But not to Altera.

Instantly, the girl turned toward the sound, failing to plunge the blade into Medusa, leaving its point a few centimeters in front of the Servant.

Another clap. Then the second and third.

Someone clapped their hands slowly, as if from enjoying a good performance right in front of them.

Then the slow sound of footsteps - a young girl was walking, barely at her teen, seemingly barely approaching the end of her second decade.

"I forgot how wonderful it can be - to look at how someone besides me humiliates weaklings who think too much of themselves," Cainabel's voice had never sounded so pleasant for Jeanne, Mashu or for Medusa.

For the first time in the entire battle, Altera did not act aloof. Slowly she moved the blade away from Medusa, not taking her eyes off the new opponent.

"A good decision," Cainabel smiled, slowly stepping her way through the ruins that remained after the battle of the Servants, "I was instructed to help in this trifle. Hmph, at the very least it allowed me to gladly look at how you easily tear them apart - but my Lord, for a strange reason, appreciates these girls. And I would like to please my Master with a good job."

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Spartacus was ready to engage, but looking at Altera's hesitance was enough to drill through even Berserker's mind that the one that had just appeared was not one that he could simply bulldoze over.

To this question, Cainabel rewarded Berserker with a look with which a genius, a particularly cruel one, would look at a retarded person - "Have you not been taught not to interfere into the conversation of your betters?"

"Even dogs know when they should be silent," Cainabel grinned. "You were once a slave, then you should know what it feels like to be a dog. You should at least have a dog's obedience, of course you do have none of its loyalty."

"WHAT DOES A TRAITOR KNOW ABOUT LOYALTY?" - however, like any Berserker, Spartacus had quite a temper. Instantly he rushed forward.

A small umbrella appeared in the hands of Cainabel a second later, its tip easily pierced Spartacus' body, as if there were the vaunted strength of the Servant did not exist at all. A moment later, using just the handle of the umbrella placed on Spartacus' neck, Cainabel tore off Berserker's head with one swing.

Altera just continued to stare intently at the new opponent.

"Ah, the smell of fresh blood..." - Cainabel sucked in the bloodied air joyfully, almost licking her lips with anticipation, "How nostalgic..."

A second later, Jing Ke, who had just sat quietly in the corner covered with debris that fell on her after the blow of Medusa, rushed away.

"The right decision once again," Cainabel slowly broke into a predatory smile while looking at Altera, "Otherwise she would have just died between you and me from an accidental blow - what fun would that be? Now I can find her and kill her at my own pace! I am glad for your last gift to me Jing Ke."

Altera continued to examine Cainabel with her gaze, "You... Even this body hates you and considers you disgusting."

"What a compliment from Attila herself, the avatar of destruction!" Cainabel grinned even more, her smile grew into the category of the unnatural, occupying a position from one edge of her face to another.

"Really, I'm upset," Cainabel then turned away from Berserker's fallen body, while ignoring Altera presence at all, "You deign to call yourself Ainz's Servants, worms?! What kind of battle was that?! One Noble Phantasm - and one from the most useless one at that! Nobody used their rings, no one thought out any tactics - you didn't even turn to Ainz to remove the restrictions! Medusa - you could have killed Jing Ke instantly with even a little help from Ainz! Jeanne - you could have thrown Altera away from you and retreat! And I don't even have anything to say for the useless one - she's simply hopeless…"

The mind of Medusa seized on this line of thought, - "Removing... Restrictions…"

Cainabel stopped for a second, after which she shook her head - "You didn't even know... Around me there are only idiots, idiots! But you, you useless piece of meat, you knew about it!"

At that moment, Cainabel glanced at Mashu, who had fainted from the loss of blood and then wrinkled her brows, - "I would personally kill you, if Ainz hadn't commanded me to help…"

After that, Cainabel exhaled and shook her head, "Damn you. Hey, worthless number two!"

Jeanne, who was able to remain conscious if barely, rose slowly, after realizing to whom the exclamation was addressed toward.

"Take these two fools and run to your little sister," Cainabel grinned.

"I will not allow it," Altera rushed toward Jeanne to deliver a finishing blow.

A second later, Altera's blade crashed into an opened umbrella. The blow was so strong that the ground cracked under the feet of the combatants, but Cainabel continued to hold the umbrella only with one hand, a little bored, as if Altera's attack was like an ant trying to move a mountain.

"And nobody was asking for your permission," Cainabel grinned, after which she easily threw Altera back.

Jeanne took several steps, after which she touched Mashu and Medusa, who had fallen unconscious, activating teleportation on all three.

Altera looked at Cainabel with a look that Romulus, Nero, or Jeanne did not even warrant.

With the eyes of a warrior looking for a path to victory.

Cainabel only smiled easily.

"...I have to fight in full force," Altera enunciated a second later. Slowly white lines, criss-crossing through her body in a strange pattern, began to glow, just as if she was an ancient mechanism that was slowly awakening from a slumber.

"You can try," Cainabel grinned, watching the Servants disappear in a flash of teleportation. "It would be problematic for me if the battle with you will be boring..."

"...But I will not strike first," Altera replied after a second, instantly rushing back.

Cainabel blinked before she heard a roar.

It was hardly possible to guess that such a bestial roar came from a human, but Cainabel correctly turned toward Spartacus' body, who was supposed to have already died. However, what she saw was not the appearance of the Berserker. Or of a human at all.

A monster, as if created from pure muscles, rose from in place of Spartacus.

The monster that Spartacus became on the verge of his death.

The beast opened its mouth, after which a roar burst from it. A bestial roar in which, nevertheless, one could hear a human voice.

"**CRYING WARMONGER**!" - The Noble Phantasm of Spartacus.

The whole history of Spartacus consisted of torment. A slave, gladiator, warrior, and finally, a rebel. Every time he was lashed for disobedience, when the blade of his enemy pierced into his flesh in the Colosseum, when his friends and allies died - in chains, in the arena, in battles with Rome - all that remained for Spartacus was only pain. And he rejoiced at this pain.

"Through our pain we will gain victory."

Spartacus did not bother to defend himself from attacks, for each of his wounds only made him stronger. For when he received a blow, he saw the enemy attack and learned to deliver new, more effective blows. Each time he suffered, his fury only blazed up even more - "Only through knowing my own pain, can I deliver it to my enemy."

And his Noble Phantasm was the quintessence of this thought.

"Only when we are defeated will we be able to cause a miracle and will be able to win the battle."

Every wound inflicted on Spartacus, every defeat, every near fatal blow was concentrated in him, mingling with his own strength. Then, on command, his Noble Phantasm used it all for just one final attack, capable of turning the tide of any battle.

The cry of Spartacus broke the silence of the night, tearing through the city like a single wave of pure power.

"Already the second Roman city today" - Cainabel grunted to herself, looking at the approaching wave of pure power - "Ainz is really magnificent. To bring the greatest amount of destruction under the guise of peace talks... Which is to be expected from him."

After a second, the wave of pure force reached Cainabel and passed through her, continuing to move on. Even Altera wouldn't be unscathed if faced with such an attack.

The wave of power flashed only for a moment, but its echo reached Rome, the Dragon Witch, even Ainz, who had finally reached the treasured lost hidden island off the coast of Italy.

A second later, when Spartacus' Noble Phantasm ceased and Berserker finally fell to the ground, Altera slowly approached the epicenter of the attack.

To discover Cainabel standing, still in her original spot. She appeared unbothered by the wave of pure destruction that just passed her by. Her hair was not even disheveled by the blast wave of attack.

"Hm?" Cainabel looked at Altera who had just returned and smiled. "Oh, that was it? What a pity, it seemed that your first blow was wasted…"

Altera froze while looking at Cainabel.

She squeezed the blade in her hands even more, and then asked at the creature in front of her with only one question, "How?"

Cainabel slowly sighed, as if she were a teacher explaining the lecture material to a dull student.

"You, Servants, have a very big opinion about yourself," Cainabel waved her hand in the air. "For this world, you are walking disasters, weapons of strategic destruction, military potential that can start and stop wars as they wish. You are the very embodiment of power."

"But where I come from," Cainabel sighed again slowly, and then raised her umbrella in the manner of a sword, pointing its tip at Altera, "I would have a dozen of you for a gold coin. I saw those who were stronger than all the Servants in this Singularity combined."

At that moment, Cainabel grinned. "They were my best slaves. True, in the battle they were of little use."

After that, Cainabel laughed, completely ceasing to pay attention to Altera. Altera, seeing this as an opportunity, rushed forward.

Altera's blade crashed into the fabrics of an opened umbrella. The favored weapon of the God of War, the blade of Mars, grated powerlessly against the ordinary fabric.

"Well, you are one of those who are predators among the herbivores that call themselves humans," Cainabel lightly struck her umbrella to the side, forcing Altera to step back, fearing a retaliatory attack, and then Cainabel sighed slowly, covering her eyes.

When she opened them, madness, joy and thirst for blood flashed in them - "Then let me tell you about the concept of an 'apex'.''

* * *

Medusa felt herself being dragged somewhere, after which she fell back into unconsciousness.

When she was able to slowly open her eyes, her wounds were no longer hurting and her eyes rested behind glasses once again. With a little twitch of intent, she was able to find out that the glasses on her face were not the same one that she got from Ainz.

A moment later after realizing this, Medusa closed her eyes with alarm. At this, after a second, she heard a small laugh.

"These glasses also block your mystic gaze," Ainz's voice sounded soothing as always, "True, as a a tool for translating they will be somewhat worse than the one I gave you before, they require a source of mana for them to work... But I think you can bear this expense."

Medusa slowly opened her eyes in order to look at the owner of the voice.

Ainz stood at the very end of the tent. Judging by several empty phials standing next to him, Ainz used several healing potions on her.

"I…" - Medusa's throat was dry, - "I…"

"Does it still hurt?" Ainz looked at Medusa, worried.

It was more than Medusa could bear.

"I will give it back!" Medusa could not hold back the tears slowly flowing from her eyes, "I will give everything back! The lost glasses... the potions... I'll get it all back!"

"It would be nice," Ainz sighed, and then shook his head, "But I doubt that you can do something like that."

Medusa freezed, she really could not do anything like that. She was not a Caster - and even if she were, there was little chance that she would be able to create such mystical objects.

"I'm... I'm sorry," - Medusa sighed, - "I... lost…"

"In fact, it was expected," Ainz sighed, "Cainabel paid special attention towards Altera, so I expected your defeat... True, I expected it to be not so one-sided..."

Medusa felt a lump rise in her throat, - "I... I couldn't do it…"

"You didn't know that I could strengthen you," Ainz sighed, "So it was my fault, actually... Cu Chulainn and Mashu were also present when I learned to limit the transfer of mana by the link, so they also knew... I guess I should have told all of you about it myself…"

Ainz sighed, - "I'm a pretty bad Master, probably…"

The Medusa instantly rose,- "NO!"

"Medusa?" Ainz glanced at the girl uncomprehendingly.

"It's all because of me!" Medusa clutched her head, "The defeat, loss, all because of me... Now you have spent an irreplaceable resource on me, also because of me..."

"Ahem," Ainz was embarrassed, and then looked away, "Well... You suffered because of my inactions, so it would be logical for me to make up for the damage... Besides, I really have a lot of potions and not so many Servants..."

The Medusa , unable to bear these kind words, burst into tears in full force.

"Oh…" - Ainz felt uncomfortable, after which, remembering one of the advice given by Bukubukuchagama, nevertheless took an uncertain step towards Medusa and hugged her, - "Everything is fine, everything is fine…"

Medusa hugged Ainz back while still sobbing.

'Oh, what, in that case, Yamaiko said…' - Ainz strained his memory recalling. Unfortunately, Yamaiko's advice in such situations was "listen to your heart".

'But what if I don't have a heart?!' Ainz remembered his real form of a lich.

He didn't really appreciate Servants except as a part of a collection. To sacrifice one or two was not scary or unusual for him. It would have been cruel, but Ainz considered them pawns, one that cnat can easily be revived even.

And yet, Medusa, who is clinging to him right now, was not a faceless pawn on a playing board. She was a living person — well, a Servant — who cried, laughed, rejoiced, and was sad. She was hurt, she was scared and she was lonely.

Ainz hesitantly raised his hand, and then ran her through the girl's hair.

"Well, well..." Ainz sighed again. For some reason, he was a little ashamed to do such a thing - "Don't cry. All is well, you are saved, and the potions and glasses... I don't think it's such a grave price."

Medusa sobbed, then slowly looked up at Ainz.

"Well," Ainz sighed, noticing that Medusa gradually stopped crying, simply continued on what he was supposed to do "By the way, here, um, someone wanted to talk to you when you wake up..."

"You are a mess, sister," a girl's voice reached Medusa's ears, forcing her to look at the entrance of the tent, not letting Ainz out of her hands, "Did we teach you this?! Crybaby!"

The girl of short stature turned out to be the one dressed in a white dress going down to the floor. Her hair is like lilacs, the same shade as Medusa's, tied in two girlish pigtails on the sides of her head long enough to reach the floor, and her eyes of turquoise, beaming with mischief.

"Euryale..." Medusa's voice slowly sounded.

"The only one in the whole world," Euryale grinned at the sight of Medusa in Ainz's arms. He, having seen this, instantly removed his hands from Medusa, after which, with some regret, Medusa also removed her hands in response.

"How are you..." Medusa glanced at Euryale.

"Details!" Her elder sister shouted in reply immediately, after which she looked at Ainz, "Although I'm surprised that your Master could reach us..."

"Ainz is a wonderful person," Medusa felt a surge of pride from the fact that her older sister had praised her Master.

"Hm, I already noticed that," Euryale sighed, and then sent Ainz a disapproving look, "He killed six manticores! All that was on the island!"

"Self-defense," Ainz sighed.

Medusa smiled, looking at this situation before a thought pierced her, "Yes! The one who created this Singularity is…"

"Baal," Euryale sighed, then nodded to Ainz, "We know that..."

"And that means..." Medusa blinked.

"Yes," Ainz nodded to her, "Cainabel, by my order, devoured my mana-construct and was able to analyze the imprint left by the Servants..."

Medusa opened her eyes.

"You... Did you think so far?" Medusa looked at Ainz with admiration.

"Ahem..." - Ainz looked away, "That was... A random bonus."

"Hm," Euryale grinned at these words, after which she instantly became serious, "Now we know for sure. Romulus, Altera and Nero are under the control of Baal."

* * *

**Yggdrasil Magic:** _A++ (Case)_

A simple reflection of the fact that Ainz have acquired mastery over the Yggdrasil Magic System, such a rank allows the usage of Tenth-Tier Spells. As well as his connections with **Yggdrasil**.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**And in the end ****\- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. And we are going to the end of the Singularity pretty fast there. That's pretty much all.**


	60. Chapter 60

The Servant of the Shield, Mashu, is currently lying on her bed trying to appear as small as possible. She is sitting down on the bed while holding her legs close to her chest and casting her eyes downward. Quite the miserable picture for a Servant, fitting for a failure like her

"Hey," A voice that she wanted to hear the least right now called out, "Mashu..."

"Senpai…" - Mashu wanted to call out to Ainz, she wanted to call out to her Senpai... And yet she was not sure that she was qualified to call him that. Her non-existent strengths and her lack of accomplishments made her woefully unqualified to call the Magician as a Senpai. She felt in herself none of the rights to try to even call out to Ainz in such a familiar way. However... She dearly wanted to.

Mashu did not lift her head when Ainz entered her tent, therefore she did not see the wry expression on Ainz's face, but she did hear his long drawn sigh and felt his presence when he sat next to her. She however could no longer try to pretend that it was simply a figment of her imagination, of her longing, when Ainz put a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of support .

"What happened?" Ainz asked the question well aware of the answer to it. Mashu was unexpectedly ambushed, lost her fight and nearly died, having received several wounds that could easily be fatal to a normal person. After which she was saved solely due to the intervention of Cainabel - the one whom she sincerely disliked and possibly even hated, but a person who could easily, insultingly so, defeat an enemy who had previously fought with Mashu on an equal footing.

"I lost..." Mashu lifted her head, faced Ainz, and answered with apprehension.

Yup, Ainz was spot on.

"Yes, that indeed happened...," Ainz sighed. Not that he has much else to say to Mashu without resorting to blatant lies - "But you should not blame yourself. You fought against Altera. I do not think that there would be many other Servants capable of facing her."

"I didn't lose to Altera..." Mashu replied glumly, lowering her gaze to the floor again, "I lost to Spartacus."

"Hmm…" - Ainz sighed, - "Spartacus was the greatest gladiator of Rome, he had dozens of years of fighting experience. After becoming a Servant his strength increased even more. In comparison you were a normal human before becoming a Servant... A month and a half ago? For such a short period of training, you have achieved enough power and experience that you could fight on equal footing with Spartacus. That is worthy of praise…"

Ainz sighed. A month and a half, hmm... If one were to compare that period of time in Yggdrasil a dedicated player could get to level eighty, if he played a lot and knew what to do, not least of course, is his build. The eightieth level and proper build would allow them to defeat Spartacus without any effort. But these were the rules of a game, where in a week a player could reach the fortieth level, and translating the fortieth level into reality... This would mean, at best, a nation-level threat, where a nation would need to deploy their armies to even stand a chance. To compare such things to this reality, where a person who wants to become twice as powerful requires years of training would be simply ridiculous. A month and a half of training, and from an ordinary civilian girl to a Servant who was able to restrain Spartacus and maybe defeat him, a somewhat strong Berserker. It was more than worthy of respect.

"But I could have won," Mashu shook her head, and then she closed her eyes.

"That is more of a philosophical question than a practical one," Ainz sighed. Yes, she could. Easily even, if Spartacus had simply stood still Mashu could have easily been able to defeat him - or if Mashu had a powerful offensive Noble Phantasm - or under a dozen other conditions. But this was simply an afterthought - an excellent training tactic, but far from the best thing to mule over for a person's emotional state.

"If I had turned to you for help…" -Mashu bit her lips.

"Such things happen," Ainz sighed once more, "In a surprise attack one could easily be overwhelmed, no one blames you for that..."

"I ..." Mashu was going to object with something, but she was silent for a second before blurting out everything at the same time, "I knew about the possibility of asking for help."

Ainz, hearing this, suddenly froze for a second.

"Hm..." he grunted vaguely.

Mashu... Didn't forget that she could do it?

It was a strange thought for Ainz.

"Then…" - Ainz felt uncomfortable, it was like he was accusing someone of a crime - "Then why didn't you do it?"

Mashu, looked at Ainz, and then turned away.

"I..." Mashu's timid voice slowly leaked out, "I... I thought I could handle it..."

Ainz paused for a second.

"Oh," - Ainz was silenced for a second, unsure of what reply he could give, - "That's why…"

This was an unexpected discovery, a quite damning one at that.

"This is not my first battle..." Mashu began to speak softly, " In the last Singularity, I also fought. Against the Witch... Against Chevalier... Against Fafnir... And we won."

"It was not easy," Mashu felt tears slowly building up, "But we won. All the time, I won and it seemed to me that it would always be so... That this is just an adventure for me…"

"Oh…" - Ainz sighed.

"Just an adventure" - so, that's why?

These words resounded like an accusation in Ainz's soul.

It's true for him as well... For him, it's also "just an adventure in which he goes through and wins in the end". In the first Singularity, he also felt like this, and in this one as well.

He is the Main Character, with all capital letters. He simply walks through this world, fights evil, communicates with interesting characters, solves puzzles and falls into the insidiously set traps of the villains... But he is the Main Character. He will pass all these tests in the end. He will make mistakes, he will lose people, but in the end - this is just an adventure for him.

He is strong, overwhelmingly so, and therefore he could afford to think like that - the extinction of humanity is just another "big questline" that he likes to complete, and the people around him are "NPCs" who also participate in his adventure. And their actions mean little in the general picture of the world.

It was... Natural.

For some reason, it was easy for him to consider all the people around him as "NPCs," what was happening around him simply as "story events", and the results as "predetermined", victory for him is natural.

"I..." Ainz said slowly, "I understand."

Mashu looked at Ainz. For a few seconds she simply looked at him, and then shook her head, "Senpai... I don't think you do."

"I ..." Mashu sighed, "I spent my whole life in Chaldea. I had never seen the world outside of it, and therefore, when I am here, in the Singularities, I... was ecstatic. The fact that I now have a life, a participant in an adventure of a wonderful world outside of Chaldea, not to mention meeting new people…. The thought that all of Humanity is counting on me, or that there are numerous dangers that could kill me…. none of that seemed important to me. It was just... an adventure, a wonderful experience"

"I..." Ainz slowly looked up, glancing up at the sky beyond the roof of the tent. A clear blue sky, over which clouds slowly floated, and the shining midday Sun... And the huge ugly black hole in the very center of this sky, - "I understand you."

"You know," Ainz suddenly sighed, "We... are alike."

"Alike?" Mashu asked again, but Ainz just nodded, keeping his eyes on the roof.

"Yes..." - Ainz shook his head, "I always had few friends in my life... or at least those whom I could call friends, once upon a time…"

Memories of Yggdrasil's carefree days made him smile, "Once upon a time there were many of us. We laughed, had fun, went on crazy adventures... But one day…"

Recollections of the slow end to his guild slowly soured his smile. "One day... it all ended, I lost contact with them all... For a long time I was alone. I engaged in practically meaningless actions, as if to delude myself that now I was left alone... At some point, I just decided that it would always be so…"

"But then I ended up here," Ainz glanced at Mashu. "These Singularities... Probably one of the main reasons why I participate in these Singularities was because I wanted to relive the days of my past. Again another crazy adventure, another thing to complete, victory or defeat... it does not matter. I guess I also saw it simply as a " new adventure". And... I also did not pay attention to the things around me, I thought that now I am again the " hero" of my own story."

"Senpai", - Mashu sighed, - "But you are strong, you are smart, you thoroughly evaluate the situation and act for the good of everyone... Not at all like me…"

"You seriously overestimate me, Mashu," Ainz grinned, "I also make mistakes. I have made many in the past and will make many more in the future. My strength really means little in the end, there might be those that I could defeat, alone at least. I knew this for sure, there were those whom I could never beat in the past. And I'm not at all as kind and as benevolent as you might think…"

"It's not true, senpai," Mashu smiled. "You're just trying to cheer me up."

"Eh," Ainz sighed. It seems that he has already crossed the line beyond which now people will not believe that his "ingenious plans" are just a series of incredible events, accidents and coincidences. His "strength" was insignificant by the standards of Yggdrasil. He acted only for his selfish desires, not paying any mind to the people around him. Sacrificing his Servants right and left, using the justification that he is saving his trump cards from use simply "just in case".

Ainz looked closer at Mashu.

She looked at him firmly and confidently - not at all like when she was just sitting in her tent all alone. In her gaze Ainz saw determination, kindness, and something else.

Loyalty.

'I really want to ask Touch Me how I am supposed to deal with this situation,' Ainz laughed in his mind. Touch Me was clearly more suitable for the role of "heroic savior of mankind" than Ainz himself. If Touch Me were in the place of Ainz he was sure that Touch Me would have solved all the problems that troubled Ainz in an instant, he would have no problem interacting with the Servants and perhaps already would have resolved all the Singularities in the time it took Ainz to solve one. Yes, it definitely sounded like what Touch Me would do.

But Touch Me was not here, there was only Ainz. A cowardly, narrow-minded, uneducated clerk who did not care about the fate of the whole world at all, but a person simply going through his "adventure".

Ainz shook his head.

"It seems that you have cheered up," Ainz smiled at Mashu, after which she, as if realizing something, shook her head.

"And this is also all thanks to you,".

"You overestimate me way too much," Ainz sighed, and then rose from his seat. "It seems that Elizabeth is annoying Jeanne for some reason."

"Elizabeth?" Jeanne looked up.

"Yes, there were three other Servants on this island," Ainz sighed. "The elder sister of Medusa, Elizabeth Bathory, and another one... Which, I really haven't seen yet."

Ainz sighed, after which he nodded to Mashu. "Yeah, I think I should go."

Mashu just nodded at this, after which she looked into Ainz's eyes.

Alone…

This word clearly did not come to mind when looking at Ainz.

He was kind, funny, strong and smart. Servants were always gathering around him - of both genders, from some came blind adoration to him, from others - a gloomy recognition of his merits. And yet Ainz considered himself lonely.

Was it that "at the top you are always alone"?

Even if everyone around him supported him... No one could understand what he have experienced. No one could really understand his pain and his troubles. No one could stand next to him.

"Good champ, this Ainz-fellow," a voice next to Mashu made her blink and turn suddenly.

"Calm down, partner!" smiled the girl standing next to her, "I'm here to talk, smile and eat ~ woof."

Mashu blinked from the addition at the end, after which she stared at the girl.

Her pink hair, fashioned in a disheveled high tail, light brown eyes with a twinkle of mischief inside, a red kimono that ended much higher than her knees, a fluffy light brown tail, arms and legs, turning from the forearm into large fluffy paws covered with fur, rather similar in appearance to that of a pair of gloves. last but not least the slippers that the girl is wearing, and the red fox ears sticking out on her head did not at all make her look like a dog.

"Oh, what a forceful gaze!" The girl smiled, and then stepped back, "Tamamo! Nice to meet you!"

After that the very animated girl held out her hand as if asking for a handshake. Mashu, not seeing any problem with answering the offer, held out her hand in response, that is of course a mistake. The peppy girl then endeavoured to rip Mashu's hand from her shoulder, at least that is what Mashu assumed she is doing, with the speed and force that she is shaking her hand

"Tamamo... Tamamo-no Mae?" - after suffering through the very enthusiastic handshake, Mashu was able to question the new Servant, while rubbing her shoulder.

"One of..." Tamamo vaguely waved her hand in the air, and then immediately brought forward her hand with a cupcake held in it, "Cupcake?"

* * *

Altera struck blow after blow. Cainabel, continuing only to smile, blocked each one with unearthly ease.

Altera was not the most powerful Servant in terms of physical strength. Even Spartacus surpassed her in this parameter. Of course Altera was much faster, agile, and perhaps even more experienced. But not stronger.

If a battle is simply a contest of parameters, then it is no surprise that Cainabel is able to deflect blow after blow from Altera. But this is not Altera's full strength, it would be a disgrace for the Scourge of God to not have any cards to play to balance the battlefield. Using any one of them would be devastating against any other Star Emblem was one of them.

The Star Emblem, Mark of her origin. A small "gift" from her "progenitor". The chains linking her current body to her real one.

Altera's whole body was covered in strange white lines, covering it like a circulatory system originating from her heart. Of course, among the Servants, this small quirk of her appearance was barely a trifle when compared with the strange appearance of the other Servants who had horns, wings, four additional legs or even snakes instead of hair. However, unlike these examples, the symbols on her body meant something. And they meant a lot.

Magi had the "Magic Circuits," a second nervous system responsible for channeling their Mana. In some ways, the lines on Altera's could also be considered as her "Magic Circuits' ' created only to strengthen her body. Of course comparing the two of them is like comparing a major highway to that of a dirt path, perhaps they serve the same function but they are world aparts in quality.

Using this ability, Altera could surpass Spartacus in terms of physical strength as much as Spartacus exceeded the strength of an average person.

This made the fact Cainabel continued to easily repel Altera's attacks so unbelievable.

Altera dealt out another series of attacks.

Two, four, six, twelve, twenty...

The blade in her hands flashed so fast that if Altera had been fighting against the great swordswoman of the accursed Excalibur - Arthuria - she would stand no chance against the onslaught of attacks. Even the King of Knights' stalwart defense would be pierced, and her death would soon follow. However, Cainabel, yawning, continued to repel her attacks, continuing only to look at her with a faint patronizing grin.

"Fight it all you want. In the end, your fate was a foregone conclusion the moment I decided to have fun with you."

Cainabel did not speak, but she accurately conveyed all the emotions that she felt with just one grin.

Altera continued to fight, striking blow after blow. Cainabel fought back with her small umbrella, easily deflecting her attacks into different directions.

Each strike of Altera failed to reach its goal, biting into the Cainabel's umbrella instead. Even assuming that her umbrella was actually a powerful artifact, similar to the blade of Altera herself created from the scales of an ancient dragon from the Age of Gods, this would not explain how she could withstand her attacks.

Altera's mind, created only for battle, analyzed Cainabel's every action looking closely at her face, she looked relaxed, at worse disdainful.

"Are you tired already?" Cainabel glanced back at Altera's next blow with a false sympathy. "I don't blame you. It has been quite a while and I'm slowly getting bored…"

Seven minutes. For seven minutes, Cainabel continued to fight Altera. There was not even a drop of sweat on Altera's face - her other skill, Natural Body, provided her with endless endurance - as befits the perfect avatar of destruction. However, for the entire duration of the battle, Cainabel didnt even change her expression. Is it possible that her stamina was endless too?

Altera concentrated on the battle.

"Well, little tin toy," Cainabel called out, completely unhappy with the ongoing battle, boring almost to tears, "I thought you could amuse me. Has my mind failed me? Oh how shameful it is!"

Altera studied Cainabel's every movement.

Her blade struck forward again, striking the umbrella that arose in its path.

Altera's blows did not become weaker, this Altera could easily determine. Her Natural Body was one of the skills that defined her as one of the strongest Servants. This skill meant that "whatever conditions surround her body — every physical trait of her body will always be perfect." In other words, whatever that is countering her strength it was not a debilitating effect.

"Hmm, you know... Even Spartacus achieved more in this battle than you do," Cainabel smiled, looking at Altera's cold focused gaze, analyzing her every move, "At least he seriously tried to hurt me... Oh, wait, is this really all that you can do?"

Cainabel's taunts passed over Altera's focus.

Cainabel did not hold the umbrella in her hands in the same way as people who relied on their strength would hold it. She repulsed her attacks head on, but instead of putting her strength into blocking the blow, she instead received only a tenth of it. But where did the remaining nine-tenths disappear to?

After easily blocking yet another of Altera's attack, Cainabel lifted her left hand to her mouth, yawning. Cainabel's disregard toward Altera actually causes her to yawn in boredom, closing her eyes.

"Oh, it's getting boring..." Cainabel sighed and looked at Altera, "Don't you think so?"

Altera answered with yet another blow.

Her attacks were as strong as it always was, but only a part of the power of her blow was repelled by Cainabel. In such a case, there was only one possible reason as to why Cainabel was able to easily repel Altera's attacks.

"Protection from physical damage," Altera emotionlessly said, and then abruptly leaped away from Cainabel.

Cainabel, watching this, only shook her head.

"That is your skill," Altera finally said, looking straight into Cainabel's eyes. "Like Magic Resistance, your skill weakens physical attacks."

"Hm," Cainabel sighed, after which she looked patronizingly at Altera, "It seems that your head was not just decoration after all. What a twist…"

As before Altera simply stayed silent against the insult causing Cainabel to simply shake her head in response.

"So?" Cainabel planted her umbrella into the ground and leaned on it like that of a cane. "So what if your brutish head managed to figure out one of my skills. Nothing you can do, nor any of your skill will be able to capitalize on it. Hmmmm.…"

"Or is there?" Cainabel suddenly stared at Altera with interest, "Oh, that would be an interesting thing to see!"

No, Altera did not have a skill that would bypass Cainabel's skill. But now that she had an understanding of Cainabel's abilities, strategies that could be are available to her .

Altera slowly raised her blade.

"Well, are you already resorting to your Noble Phantasms?" Cainabel sighed, looking at the gesture, "Oh, this Singularity was such a big disappointment..."

A second later, Altera rushed forward. Cainabel bored out of her mind, stopped leaning on her umbrella.

Altera's approach was so fast that an ordinary person would not even notice the moment of flickering - however, for Cainabel, this 'battle' seemed trivially slow. Altera finally reached a striking distance.

"Maybe I should finish this farce already and return to Ainz?" - Cainabel sighed again waiting for Altera to reach her. Altera's blade was swung and Cainabel moved to intercept, but in the instant before impact Altera suddenly jumped and instead struck from overhead.

Cainabel disinterestedly moved her umbrella to block from the new attack vector, rendering the feint moot.

"You racked your empty head for so long - and you could only come up with this plan?" - Cainabel sighed in disappointment - "Jump and hit me from above, what an unexpected strategy..."

However, instead of attacking Altera instead used Cainabel's umbrella as a platform to jump even further away.

"Hmm, running away?" - Cainabel looked disappointedly at the girl - "Run, run... I can just teleport to you wherever you go - so you should know that such a course of action was doomed from the very beginning..."

However, Altera was not thinking of running away. In the blink of an eye, she found herself next to Spartacus' dead body. A moment later, her hand touched the dead Servant.

After a moment, Spartacus' body, torn to pieces by his last Phantasm, suddenly jerked to life.

"Oh..." - Cainabel looked at the phenomenon a little more interestedly - "Necromancy?"

The body of Spartacus, torn into two, barely able to keep itself upright, slowly rose from the ground. The smile that Spartacus always wore on his face was still present even in his death. Of course the fact that half of his face is missing due to his Noble Phantasm made the visage very ghastly indeed.

"Hm, no..." - Cainabel blinked. "That is not necromancy... Something else..."

Spartacus' body slowly rising from the ground then turned towards Cainabel, presenting the dead Sevant's half-grin to the bored Servant.

"An interesting skill..." - Cainabel studied the movements of the dead Spartacus - "This is... A special ability - but it did not create undead... This is something else..."

Spartacus, as in dead as in life simply rushed forward toward Cainabel with Altera close on his heels.

"Even so 2 on 1 or perhaps 1½ on 1, this is an insignificant advantage - nothing more" - Cainabel easily blocked Spartacus' charge. Even his strength as a living Servant was unlikely to overpower Cainabel - not to mention his current miserable condition. His blow powerlessly crashed against the Cainabel's umbrella. Of course, she could simply ignore the dead Servant's attack and simply let the ineffectual attack land on her body - however, she was simply too proud to let what to her is less than worms to touch her dress.

Altera was counting on this fact.

In an instant the ground under Cainabel suddenly shifted, allowing Spartacus' attack to struck Cainabel. Spartacus' head left his body not a moment later. And a moment of distraction is all that Altera needed.

Altera's blade pierced Cainabel's torso.

"You do not hide your character or intention," Altera answered as coldly as she had always done before. But for the first time in the long battle, something else is present in her voice, Joy. The joy of victory.

In the battle with Altera, Cainabel demonstrated her skill - protection from physical attack. And yet - she continued to block attack after attack with her umbrella. Though with no hurry and even lazily, but, she defended herself. Because her defense against physical attacks could not absorb the full force of Altera's blow. She used the umbrella because some of Altera's strength could still break through her skill and perhaps even injure her. In other words, all Altera needed to do to win was to distract her, to cause her to misplace her umbrella. For example, by using it to discard the dirty corpse of Spartacus that is falling towards her. Cainabel did not bother to hide her character especially her disgust toward 'lower' lifeforms. She could not allow the dilapidated corpse of Spartacus to touch her, her pride wouldn't allow it. She would not deign to use her own hands to touch such 'filth', her umbrella instead would suffice. Of course Altera would not miss such an opening.

"Your skill could not absorb all the damage from my attacks," Altera said again, "and it's easy to provoke you. You never considered me as an opponent, my attacks are not dangerous to you. But , your arrogance is your doom. Rather than let a 'worm' touch you, you let your only source of protection be let ajar. A moment of distraction sealed your fate. I win."

After a second, Altera pulled her blade out of Cainabel's body.

Altera could not defeat Cainabel in a head on battle. But, all she had to do to remedy the situation was use tactics. And Attila was nothing if not a good tactician.

Altera shook Cainabel's blood off her blade, and then glanced at Cainabel's body, which remained standing.

"Oh, are we giving each other advices now?" Cainabel sighed, looking unconcernedly at the hole made by Altera's blade in her chest, "Then let me give you one."

In a blink of an eye Cainabel reached Altera and struck with her umbrella. It took all of Altera's speed and instinct to block the attack. To Altera's surprise the ground under her began to crack and she was barely able to receive the attack.

"Before you start gloating on the corpse of your enemy, make sure that they are dead first!" At the surprise in Altera's face, Cainabel smiled.

Altera's gaze focused on the huge hole in Cainabel's chest, but Altera did not see a drop of blood flowing through the wound.

"Hm, surprised?" Cainabel smiled, catching Altera's disbelief , "Oh, it's just one of my skills. After all, what kind of Divine Ancestor would I be if I could not control my own blood?"

In the corner of her eyes, Altera spotted movement.

Slowly, as if in contradiction to the laws of gravity, blood is flowing on the ground. A single stream of blood flowed from the body of the deceased Spartacus toward Cainabel. Having reached a distance of several meters, as if a snake sensing its prey, the blood slowly rose from the ground, after which it rushed forward to Cainabel.

Aletra, wary of a possible attack, leaped away. But the stream of blood ignored Altera and rushed into Cainabel. The stream of blood then congealed in the hole in Cainabel's torso and slowly the hole disappeared. Even Cainabel's ruined dress was fixed. After a second it was as if the gory wound was never there in the first place.

"Hmmph what low quality blood" Cainabel sighed, completely oblivious to Altera's shock. She cast a glance at Spartacus' body, which had turned into a withered mummy, "But I guess it will do..."

Altera looked at Cainabel warily. Cainabel just smiled in response.

"Oh, dear child," Cainabel showed a smile. A real, friendly smile - "Did you delude yourself into thinking that you have a chance of victory?"

After the remark Cainabel's smile continued to grow in intensity. Slowly the smile began to distort Cainabel's beautiful face, slowly turning it into the visage of a monster. The beatific smile turned into the jaws of a monster.

"All that you can achieve in this battle is to shed more blood," Cainabel's youthful voice slowly turned into the low guttural voice of a monster, "And I do love when blood is spilled!"

Cainabel's jaw then became distended, then it fell open showing row and rows of splintered teeth. The opening extended to her very innards, no perhaps into the unknown darkness of a strange and terrible world. All similarity to that of a human is completely lost.

Altera felt another new emotion.

Fear.

For a second, the avatar of destruction, looking at her inhuman opponent, felt fear.

The creature before her was more dangerous than Altera could ever imagine. More dangerous than Romulus, more dangerous than Altera herself, more dangerous even than her master, Baal... It was an alien creature similar to the horror from the depths of human fantasies, taking shape only to invade a hundred new nightmares generated by its thoughts, actions, forces... Appearance.

Altera squeezed her blade, and then pointed it forward. It could exist no longer.

"**Photon Ray**," she said instantly, "**Sword of the War God**."

A second later, what was the crossguard of her blade unraveled, as if the weapon that had previously disguised itself as a strange, soldered blade from multi-colored crystals, unraveled into its true form.

Perhaps, if one would give this form a scientific description, the most appropriate word would be that of a "railgun" or perhaps a "drill".

Photon Ray - Sword of the War God. The personal blade of Ares, the Greek God of War. One of the very first Noble Phantoms ever created in the world. Even the writer would hardly have the vocabulary to describe how perfect this weapon was.

It was the first Divine Construct. It was a blade that embodied a God. It was a blade that embodied War.

Every drop of blood spilled. Every blow of a soldier's blade. Every step taken by an army. Everyone who died from a blade. Every order of the general. Every facet of a war. Past. Present. Future.

Invested in the power of one blow, bringing the combined strength of all the wars, battles, victories and defeats that have ever taken place. In other words, the absolute power of destruction.

Unfortunately, unlike many other heroes who received divine blessing, strength, weapons - this blade Ares did not give to Altera. Altera had to take it by force.

Although Altera considered Ares as her, if not friend, then colleague - the God of War on the other hand did not appreciate his defeat by Altera's hand, because of which he prevented the use of the full strength of his blade in Altera's hands. However, even without utilising its full strength, it was still a weapon capable of destroying a civilization, cities, countries - like war itself. Few Servants could survive this attack.

Of course, few are nowhere near to none.

A second later, Altera struck. Moving at a speed exceeding the limits of what is possible. Altera broke through the sound barrier in such an insignificant fraction of a second that even a scientist studying this phenomenon would deemed such a value as instantaneous, in an instant Altera reached Cainabel.

* * *

"Auch!" Elizabeth swayed for a second. A wave of tremors passed across the island where she was, distracting the girl for a second from her acquaintance.

"Hm…" - however, an instant later the wave ceased, after which Elizabeth turned her attention back to Jeanne, who before that stoically endured all the problems of communicating with the enthusiastic Lancer, "So... You were saying that Kiyo is now in Chaldea..."

* * *

Altera slowly lowered her blade. The force of her blow passed across the earth, spreading like a blast wave. The remains of the city that were still around after the Spartacus' Noble Phantasm were now swept away and scattered, like a sand castle washed away by a tidal wave.

Altera closed her eyes and sighed. There were no limits to her physical endurance, but even the mana that Baal gave her had a limit.

Altera slowly opened her eyes.

"Is that all?" Cainabel smiled. "I'm not impressed." There stood Cainabel but a few steps away from Altera. She was now back to her original appearance, but not because she was forced to revert her transformation due to damage sustained, her dress isn't even ruffled by Altera's full strength.

There was no obstacle in the path of Altera's blow. It would seem that Altera should have congratulated herself on this - her attack was carried out at such a speed that Cainabel could not respond to it at all, but Altera did not feel any joy. Not because she did not feel emotion.

But because her blade did not touch Cainabel's body.

Her blade passed over a few centimeters from Cainabel's body, without even touching her dress. It was as if an invisible force field had prevented Altera's blade from touching her.

"Flashy," Cainabel grinned. "But unproductive."

Altera felt a new emotion wash over her.

Despair.

For the first time in her life, she felt something alien.

Despair.

Slowly, Altera lowered her blade and raised her gaze.

The gaze of her unblinking red eyes stared into the unblinking red gaze of Cainabel.

"How?" She asked.

"Hm," Cainabel just grinned in response, and then shook her head, "Just because you were able to grasp a function of my ability doesn't mean that you had uncovered it in its entirety."

Cainabel sighed, and then slowly extended her hand toward Altera. In any other circumstances, Altera would have instantly reacted to this gesture, but not now. Now, she doesn' have an inkling on what to do.

Cainabel only laid a hand on Altera's shoulders, almost in a sincere and amiable way, - "Let me explain one crucial thing. You Servants, no matter how alien your appearance, are still only the products of human influences. Their emotions, personalities, aspirations and thoughts. You are poisoned by humanity from the very beginning - defective dolls of humanity's faith. And all people have one disgusting thought."

Cainabel smiled beatifically at that moment, and then shook her head, "We are weak individually, but together we make the mountains crumble and drain the seas. The obstacles that were insurmountable for us yesterday will be destroyed by us today - by diligence, by labor. We will be the winners at the end."

"Indeed," Cainabel grinned. "If you punch a wall with a fist, you will only damage your hands. But if thousands of thousands of people stand in your place, continuing to hit the wall, then one day it will crumble. Even one sub-atomic particle can give rise to a chain reaction, giving rise to an incredible explosion. This is what all of humanity thinks."

"But what if you are even less than that?" Cainabel sighed. "If you are less than even an ant. If you are smaller than a molecule. If you are less than a quark. If you are so small that you simply can't influence even the smallest part of the barrier?"

Cainabel grinned. "My answer is that: No matter what the wall will remain."

"By repeating your attempt you will not succeed," Cainabel sighed, shaking her head, "Neither doing this a thousand times, nor trying for hundreds of years, nor bringing thousands of thousands of followers with you. In the end, you will encounter an obstacle that you cannot overcome. And, the best part?"

Cainabel stopped, enjoying the words that she was about to say before staring straight at Altera - "You will not overcome it. And I am such an obstacle."

"Yes, you correctly guessed that all the attacks that you strike against me lose some of their strength," Cainabel smiled, "But you misunderstood why that such a thing happens. There is a certain threshold of power below which no attacks will affect me. None. Regardless of the abilities or strength behind them. Regardless of the legend that reinforces them. It makes no difference, whether it is an attack by a young man blazing with anger and nobility or a hired killer hiding in the shadows. None would reach me simply because their existence is too insignificant to affect me."

"Of course, you might think that Noble Phantasms are excluded from this rule," Cainabel sighed, as if a teacher that was preparing to teach a frustrating student, "But this is not so. It is subject to this barrier twice. For the first time - there is a judgement of its "rank". The legend, mysticism, magic behind it's existence. A Phantasm must be of a certain rank in order to even try to reach me. The second time - is in its strength. Even the greatest legend will not touch me if it is divided among hundreds. And you know what?"

Cainabel sighed, - "You failed in one. But that was enough."

Altera lowered her blade. Her gaze fixed on the ground.

"Oh, no need to be so distraught," Cainabel laughed, enjoying the effect. "You are not the first nor will you be the last to break your teeth trying to bite me. You have simply become one of hundreds of thousands. Although, I have to thank you. The bright flash of light distracted me - what was I thinking? To think that I began to transform in such conditions! Oh, what shame, what a shame…"

Cainabel shook her head, after which she smiled at Altera, "Although, admittedly, your skill intrigued me a little. At first it seemed to me that it was necromancy but then you did that trick with the ground... What an interesting skill. I'm sure that My Lord would have liked to see it."

"Hmm, maybe in this case we can make a deal?" Cainabel looked at Altera, and then took a step back, shaking her head in mock thought, "I can introduce you as my new... Pet doggie. I am sure that My Lord will allow you to run alongside me. If you don't bite, of course."

Altera froze.

A new feeling.

Another feeling she had never experienced before.

She walked toward her goal. Killed. Fought. Won. Lost. And she got up and went into battle again.

But she never experienced this feeling.

This determination.

Altera looked up.

'If I passed one barrier out of two, it means that the Phantasm itself was too weak... My Noble Phantasm parameter is one of the highest, then the problem lies in the strength of the Noble Phantasm itself. It means... that I have to resort to the second one."

Cainabel saw the determination in Altera's eyes. Frankly, she was expecting it, but one could dream... Altera was not bad at all... Keeping her as a tame dog could even be fun.

A second later, chains of bones pierced the ground beneath Altera's feet, breaking through the ground like snakes woven from bones, instantly wrapping their arms around Altera's body.

Altera jerked forward intending to break it, but a new set of bone snakes burst from the ground, then another and another.

"_Chains of Unlife_," Cainabel declared, looking at the trapped Servant. Altera could easily break one chain, two, three, even from a dozen... However, the Yggdrasil spell reformed over and over again, creating new chains. Ten, twenty, thirty...

After a few moments, the chains wrapped around the whole body of Altera, depriving her of the ability to even budge her body. Cainabel looked at Altera almost regretfully.

"I didn't even fight with the hundredth of a thousandth of my strength" - Cainabel shook her head - "Why are you all so stubborn and stupid?"

After a second, all the chains on Altera suddenly disappeared, turning into pure mana. After another second, the mana from the chains suddenly began to be absorbed into Altera's body, restoring her strength.

"Oh, again another interesting skill" - Cainabel correctly understood the reason for the chain's disappearance.

"**Teardrop…**" -Altera reversed her grip on her blade, pointing the hilt of the blade at Cainabel. She just sighed.

"You don't learn, do you?" - looking at the red crystal slowly glowing in the hilt of the blade, Cainabel grabbed her umbrella. It seems that this is the end...

Altera understood that these were her last seconds. Even if she manages to kill Cainabel, her second Phantasm will strike at her as well. There was no path to salvation.

"**Photon...**" Altera looked Cainabel in the eye.

After a second, Cainabel was blasted away.

Altera, the perfect war machine, capable of waging any battle no matter the the environment... She experienced yet another new emotion.

Surprise.

Altera blinked in surprise at the blade that had knocked Cainabel from her place.

It was a huge, two-handed blade made of black metal and decorated with gold. However, what was even stranger is that this huge blade was held with one hand.

Holding the blade was a man three meters tall, dressed in ornate armor made of black metal and gold, a man with bronze skin and red pupils on a black sclera.

"Sorry for the wait!" Boudica's voice made Altera blink and look away. Next to the huge Servant was her deputy, Boudica, smiling at Altera.

New emotion. A whole whirlwind of new emotions.

Joy. Relief. Hope.

"Oh, you've got no tact at all!" - however, Cainabel, for whom the blow of the new Servant was akin to a light slap in the face, again made herself known. Rising slowly from the ground, where she had been thrown back to, Cainabel shook her head.

A new emotion, though now familiar to Altera, rose again in her. Despair.

"Why did you come here?" Altera glanced at Boudica. It was a lost battle and Boudica should not have...

"Where else?" Boudica was indignant for a second at Altera's question. "We are allies. Yes, and probably... Friends. So, leader?"

Allies. Yes. Logical.

Friends... Illogical. Absolutely illogical. It makes no sense in these conditions. The battle was lost.

New emotion.

Gratitude.

Altera felt her lips tremble.

"Is that a... Smile?!" Boudica looked in horror at Altera's face.

Altera, realizing what had happened, fixed her expression, returning to cold professionalism once again.

"Distract her," Altera answered coldly, "I need time... then run away."

"Oh, it's vomit-inducing," Cainabel said slowly, after which she looked at Boudica, then at the new Servant, "Oh, what a pity that I will not be able to enjoy killing you separately... But such is life."

"And when you already made such an effort to get me to kill you," Cainabel sighed, then slowly extended her hand forward.

Altera felt goosebumps running down her back.

So many new emotions in this battle. So many new sensations...

"Then let me show you a trick," Cainabel sighed. "My first Phantasm..."

Altera got ready to strike. Boudica pulled her blade from its sheath. The new Servant braced his hand on his sword for a new strike. Cainabel only grinned even more.

"**Lord…**" - and in an instant when the battle was to go to its final phase, Cainabel suddenly froze in place. She bowed instantly.

The unexpected actions made Altera wary of a surprise attack.

For several incredibly long seconds, Cainabel was silent before she stood up.

"Hmm, you can live," Cainabel said aloud, after which a moment later she disappeared in the radiance of light.

Altera was silent for a second, trying to comprehend what had just happened, before She slowly allowed her lips to form a smile

When Cainabel teleported away, her hair was a bit disheveled.

* * *

**High Tier Immunity**

Perhaps this could be called one of the defining principles of Yggdrasil instead of a skill.

"There are obstacles that are simply impossible to be overcomed."

It doesn't matter how strong, smart and prepared you are - some things simply cannot be done. If you attack someone who is immune to physical damage - even if the parameter of your physical attack is off the charts, and the enemy is only a weak ghost - if he is immune to physical damage - then you will not inflict any damage on him. Simply because these are the rules.

As applied to the owner of this 'ability', this set of circumstances will be interpreted differently.

This is a certain principle of the existence of life "power is everything." It is possible to be smart. It's possible to be clever. It is possible to be prepared. But in the end, it all comes down only to power and to whether or not you possess enough power . "Might makes right" - and nothing more nothing less.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**While I usually just calmly observe or take a hint or two from some criticizing comments - there is one thing I want to say to Shahzeb. If your comment truly represents what you know and think about Overlord LN - you have absolutely zero understanding and knowledge about Overlord. **

**And in the end ****\- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. And we are going to the end of the Singularity pretty fast there. That's pretty much all.**


	61. Chapter 61

Cu Chulainn felt... disgusting.

"...Wow, did I get drunk again yesterday?" - Cu Chulainn frowned as bright lights flashed through his eyes. The ringing noise also didn't help. The Hound of Ulster tried to pulp his head with his own hands hoping that the pain would make the world before him stop spinning.

Of course,Cu Chulainn did not feel much better from this, but the contact between his cold hands and throbbing head granted enough relief that he could open his eyes and figure out where he ended up.

"Gray interior... Bright lights... Inexplicable metal buzz of machinery..." - Cu Chulainn grimaced, closing his eyes again - "Yeah, I'm definitely back in Chaldea..."

"Another question..." - An unidentified voice near causes him to start questioning his situation, or more importantly... - "Why am I back in Chaldea?"

Cu Chulainn slowly tried to stand up from what he would later identify as a cot, after which he felt himself falling sideways in his disorientation. Cu Chulainn tried to grab hold of something nearby before he would fall down, but this was not required -, thin hands grabbed him before he reached the cold pristine floor.

"Thank you," Cu Chulainn muttered, trying to cope with his nausea, and then slowly turned his gaze to his savior, "Da Vinci."

Da Vinci just smiled with such a bright smile that Cu Chulainn felt himself involuntarily almost vomit.

"Uh…" - Cu Chulainn slowly rose to his feet, - "I'm back in Chaldea... Why?"

Da Vinci, staring at the phenomena in front of her, after a second shook her head, "Oh yes, the problems with the re-summoning..."

"In any case," after that the genius shrugged, "Rather than asking me that, you should be one to answer that question. We were able to reconnect with Ainz and he had said that you had died and you need to be revived."

"Oh…" - Cu Chulainn shook his head - "I... died…"

Trying to remember caused a burst of nausea to surface, causing the Caster to sway in his feet a bit.

"Let's go, poor fellow," Da Vinci sighed somewhere over his shoulder, leading Cu Chulainn to slowly move toward one of the walls, after which, she literally forced him to sit on a chair set located prudently next to him, "Water?"

Cu chulainn did not deign to answer the offer with any verbal answer, instead he simply took the offered bottle and chugged all of its content down. After a second of bliss he returned the emptied bottle to Da Vinci

"Better?" Da Vinci looked at Cu Chulainn interestedly, not sympathetically, but rather curiously, as if she was a scientist curious about the result of their experiment.

Cu Chulainn again did answer verbally but instead twisted his hand in the air indefinitely as if he was trying to tell a story with his limbs.

He was killed... Then they summoned him back ... And now he is again in Chaldea...

Cu Chulainn concentrated on recalling the events that he remembered.

Arriving at the new Singularity... Nero... Romulus... Then...

Damn it, if only the world before him would stop spinning so much!

Cu Chulainn sighed, then as if he was collecting the remnants of his will into a fist concentrated even harder.

An his Noble Phantasm… then the second one... Then...

"The bitch killed me!" Cu Chulainn shouted so sharply and so loudly that he almost regurgitated what he had just drank before by the force of the expelled air alone.

"That was to be expected," Da Vinci sighed nearby, "I don't think that you are so unlucky that you would have died by slipping on the ground and hitting your head on a stone... But still - a little specificity would not hurt. By who exactly?"

"The Dragon Witch," Cu Chulainn said more calmly, slowly getting used to the spinning world, "The Witch killed me..."

"Oh?" - Da Vinci looked at Cu Chulainn and smiled. "Was your romantic skills that bad?"

"Ugh," - Cu Chulainn frowned, - "No. We were fighting somebody. I then used my Phantasm... And then Romulus used his... I had calculated that we would most likely lose... And then the Witch suddenly attacked me from behind and most probably killed me."

"Hm?" Da Vinci lifted her head, "I don't know what your actual relationship with her was, but I don't think she would have decided to just kill you on a whim. Perhaps she had activated some kind of skill in this way?"

"What?" Cu Chulainn sighed, then covered his eyes. Scathach had taught him to calm his body and mind in all situations by meditating... He dearly hoped that this advice would help him again.

"I'm not sure," Da Vinci shook her head, "Servants are always a box of surprises in terms of skills and abilities. Although - isn't she from the Avenger class?.. Surely this is somehow connected with her actions. But so far I do not have enough information to fully compose the whole picture."

"So far?" Cu Chulainn picked up on the implication, calming his breath, "Do you think that she will kill someone else?"

"I'm not sure, but I will not deny that the possibility exists," Da Vinci shrugged her shoulders at the question, as if speaking about something trivial.

Cu Chulainn winced at this, "Could at least warn me about it..."

Da Vinci shrugged. "Maybe she didn't have the time, didn't consider it necessary, or maybe she needed your reaction. As I said before- Servants are always full of surprises."

Cu Chulainn did not say anything more, instead focusing on regaining control of his breath.

Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.

When he opened his eyes again, the world revolved around him much more slowly, not optimal.

"Mm, Da Vinci," feeling himself gradually regaining control of his faculties, he glanced at the girl. "Why was it you that summoned me? Isn't it usually done by the chief and Roman?"

Da Vinci shook her head at the question, and then nodded. "Yes, but I personally volunteered to do it myself."

"Any particular reasons?" Cu Chulainn looked at the girl suspiciously.

"Aren't you glad to see me?" Da Vinci looked at Cu Chulainn in a faux offended maner, "I even brought you water!"

"Yeah, sure, thanks for that," Cu Chulainn frowned. No, the world had not yet stopped spinning, - "And?"

"I wanted to take a look at the process of re-summoning a deceased Servant in person," Da Vinci smiled. "Of course, at the same time, also to check your condition and check something that I'm curious about."

"Check what?" Cuc Chulain sighed.

"As expected - you got a couple of scratches on your spiritual core," Da Vinci sighed, "But nothing serious. Although for a couple of days there would definitely be some kind of side effect… like that debilitating headache that you're feeling right now."

"Great...," Cu Chulainn was able to simultaneously express both irony and joy with these words. Yes, two days in such a condition is not good at all, but it's a better outcome than actually getting any permanent damage.

"So, if everything fits into my theory. You can die once more without any particular consequences," Da Vinci nodded to herself, muttering something under her breath, "Although the damaged core... I wonder if it can withstand something like that..."

"Hey doc," Cu Chulainn raised his voice, drawing Da Vinci's attention, "What about what you're 'curious' about?"

Cu Chulainn was not particularly interested in the answer. If he received "nothing special" in response, he would be completely satisfied with leaving it at that and then stumble back into his room to try and relieve his killer headache. But instead... Da Vinci only sent him a big smile.

"Oh, I was checking about some of the information I learned about Ainz," Da Vinci smirked slyly.

And suddenly this topic became more interesting to Cu Chulainn.

Gently leaning his head against the cold wall, he glanced at the girl, - "Would you care to elaborate please?"

Da Vinci smirked, - "It seems... I managed to unravel some of the mystery of who Ainz is and this led me to one possibility…"

"Could you start from the beginning?" Cu Chulainn sighed at the somewhat non-sequitur answer, covering his eyes.

"Hm," Da Vinci pursed her lips. "Do you know about Pseudo-Servants?"

"A Divine or particular Heroic Spirits, which was summoned then shoved into a human body so that they can be summoned as a Servant, using the human as a vessel," Cu Chulainn sighed, then suddenly frowned, "So you think that Ainz..."

"No, he is definitely not human," Da Vinci shook her head, "His body, more precisely is not human. I just thought... What if the process of "possession" can be applied in a broader sense? For example - to put a person inside the Divine Spirit, just as the Divine Spirit is to be placed inside a person?"

"Hm," Cu Chulainn sighed, considering the theory. There was definitely a grain of rationality in it, but there were also conflicting factors - "Divine Spirits can easily suppress the personality of the vessel it inhabits. That is the principle of creating the Pseudo-Servant is based on. To suppress the will of a Divine Spirit... I'm not sure how strong a being needs to be then."

Da Vinci, hearing this, lifted a finger up, like a teacher, opening his pupil the veil of secrets over this world - "Humanity!"

"I'm not sure that there would be anyone capable…" - Cu Chulainn began to object, but after a second, the girl's finger was suddenly pressed to his lips.

"Tsk!" Da Vinci scolded, after which she removed her finger and blurred into a smile, "I'm not talking about a man, but about Humanity, as in a whole."

It took Cu Chulainn a few seconds to realize what Da Vinci meant.

"You mean that Ainz is an embodiment of Alaya?" Cu Chulainn blinked. That thought was... new to him.

"Not really," Da Vinci answered evasively, "But something like that. Someone who can take control of the body of a Divine Spirit must have at least a similar level of strength... But this is a question for another time…. long story."

Cu Chulainn blinked at the revelation that was just revealed to him.

Ainz is an embodiment of Alaya. The collective unconscious of all of humanity in all forms that have ever existed throughout history?

It sounded... Not as crazy as it should have been.

Cu Chulainn shook his head.

It sounded even... Reasonable, to some extent.

This would explain Ainz's quirks in his perceptions on certain things.

His definite humanity while at the same time his exuded alien-ness? Alaya, the embodiment of humanity possessed both of these qualities. Who knows humanity better than its collective embodiment - and who, at the same time, can be so alien to humanity as its own eternal alter ego?

His appearance and his motivation? Alaya has always existed alongside humanity - this is humanity itself embodied. And he always has a reason to fight for humanity.

His strength and his passivity at the same time? Alaya embodied something immeasurably more powerful than any of their Divine Spirits or Servants. But at the same time, as an abstract super-essence is supposed to be, she rarely acted directly. Fearing to upset the fragile balance of forces that sustained it also of its inability to calculate the proportionate strength of any retaliatory strike. Possibly destroying not only the threat , but also part of it as well.

This would also explain why he relied on Servants instead. Heroic Spirits, even when they were still living Heroes, carried a part of Alaya within themselves, she could not simply ignore something like her own children. And the use of Servants in this case was more than enough to solve any problem or threats. Ainz used the Servants to solve his problems because his direct intervention was simply too dangerous for this world.

Cu Chulainn shook his head, casting such thoughts away from himself, after which he looked at Da Vinci.

"It fits quite well, doesn't it?" Da Vinci smiled but immediately frowned "But no, as I said before, Ainz is not Alaya. Rather, it is something that fulfilled its function... In another world, in another universe and, if at all possible to say, in another Root entirely…"

Cu Chulainn blinked.

Another Root? How was that even possible? The Root was... The Root. The basis of the existence of all things, the infinite number of worlds, the infinite number of variants of all worlds. The Root embodied everything - how was it even possible in this case to have a "different everything"?!

"Oh, there's no need for such surprise," Da Vinci, noting the confusion on Cu Chulainn's face, smiled at him, "Not every infinity is infinite enough to contain another infinity."

Cu Chulainn looked at Da Vinci in a blank stare.

"Oh... how should I put it..." - Da Vinci thought for a moment, and then snapped her fingers, reaching a conclusion, "Look, I have a paperclip on my possession. And this clip can be anywhere in this world. On my desk, in the drawer of the Chief's desk, wallow in an ancient temple, lie on the surface of Jupiter or fly somewhere in space in the Andromeda galaxy. In other words, there is an infinite number of positions of this paper clip can be. And that means - there is an infinite number of parallel worlds, where in each parallel world this clip is in its own unique place in space and time. Not to mention the fact that there is an infinite number of duplicate worlds."

"So with everything," Da Vinci sighed, "There are an infinite number of worlds that differ by only one indicator - the position of the paper clip in space. There is another infinite number of worlds that differ in one other indicator - for example, the amount of hair on the head of a Tibetan old man in a distant mountain village that is not even on the maps. What will happen if we combine these two indicators?"

Cu Chulainn closed his eyes and groaned. Ughh riddles...

"Two infinities?" Cu Chulainn looked at Da Vinci.

She sent him a sarcastic smile.

"Hey, I'm a sage, not a philosopher!" Cu Chulainn replied to Da Vinci.

"Strictly speaking, this is impossible, but in essence - you're right," Da Vinci sighed. "What I am leading to is that infinity is a rather relative concept. Infinity can be compiled by comparing only one indicator. And in the Root is stored more than enough of such indicators. But what if some of them are... Immutable?"

Cu Chulainn sighed.

"Okay, okay, you win," he waved languidly. "I will consider the possibility that there is something even greater than the Root and the existence of other Roots..."

"Good," Da Vinci smiled easily at these words, after which she nodded, "But still, I'm not here to make you question your worldview."

"Really?" Cu Chulainn sighed.

"Yes," Da Vinci unexpectedly answered him, "I do it on Thursdays, and today is Tuesday. By the way, you can have a cup of tea with me on a Thursday."

Cu Chulainn stared at Da Vinci, but he couldn't determine whether or not she was joking, as a result of which he rolled his eyes.

"Well, okay," Da Vinci smiled, and then nodded to herself, "I originally came here to talk with you about something."

"Yes, you did say something like that…" - Cu Chulainn sighed, after awhile he steeled himself enough to lift his head from the cold wall. His vision finally stopped doubling and only a dull aching pain remained that reminded him that he had died in the Singularity.

Da Vinci just smirked at him.

Cu Chulainn stared at the girl.

She stared back at him in response.

Cu Chulainn continued to watch.

Ten seconds, twenty, a minute... Cu Chulainn fianlly understood why Da Vinci was silent.

"You cannot be serious..." the guy shook his head.

"What?" Da Vinci grinned. "I just love it when people say it."

"Oh…" - Cu Chulainn exhaled, and then looked at Da Vinci - "Oh great genius, share with me your brilliant thoughts!"

"Hm," Da Vinci shook her head a little, "Too much sarcasm for my taste, but as you ask, so be it..."

After that, Da Vinci took a step back with her hands on her hips, and then announced, "What if we take Ainz's method and apply it to the Servants?"

Cu Chulainn blinked. Then again. Then, just in case, a third time.

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Cu Chulainn looked at Da Vinci with a blank stare. A Divine Spirit... Even if there was some Servant capable of competing with them by skill or force... But Cu Chulainn didn't think there is any Servant capable of overpowering one. Except Cainabel, of course, but making Cainabel even stronger? Even more? What for?!

"Not that long ago I became interested in one interesting little object from Ainz," Da Vinci smiled, "Data-crystals."

Cu Chulainn blinked. Again, a change of subject...

"Are these the things used to summon Servants?" Cu Chulainn closed his eyes, then leaned back on the wall. The cold helped him withstand Da Vinci's inane chatter.

"Yes, but in what way?" Da Vinci smiled, "I studied their structure and, in essence, they are... Hm, okay, we can talk about that later."

Da Vinci shook her head, returning to the subject at hand, "Essentially, the Servant already exists in the Throne of Heroes. The pseudo-Throne of Chaldea is capable of summoning this Servant. The data-crystal is then used to create its "body", its Graph. Data-crystals come in various forms - however, they essentially work the same way. The crystal is transformed into pure mana, then the mana is used to create the Saint Graph according to the characteristics of the summoned Servant. And so… what will happen if in that process we used not a data crystal… But something more?"

"For example…" - Cu Chulainn tightened his fist, as if preparing for a threat before awareness pierced him. He opened his eyes wide, looking at Da Vinci, "You cannot..."

Da Vinci just smirked, "Well, do we need to use the Pseudo-Grail for something else?"

Cu Chulainn looked at Da Vinci angrily, "This is just insanity! What will happen to the Servant if you use this method on them?!"

"They will become much stronger," Da Vinci shrugged. "The only question is in what way?."

Da Vinci shook her head, - "Servants are not the Heroic Spirit and the Heroic Spirits are not Servants. Servants is the idea of a Hero, of a myth, of a legend, of history and of an event. Servants, incarnating under the influence of data-crystals, take the form which was laid by people's belief in them. But what if you give them an unreasonable source of power, do not let them make a wish and simply use it as a supply of mana to create a new body? Oh, the new Servant will be much stronger... But that is the problem. A New Servant. What a Servant will look like, incarnating not in the form of a Servant, but in the form of a certain prototype of this Servant. As an example, you."

Cu Chulainn glanced at Da Vinci, demanding clarification.

"You are the embodiment of the Celtic sage, merged with Cu Chulainn, as the most famous representative of the Celtic heroes," Da Vinci smiled, "And you are the embodiment of Druidism and the priest of the Celtic gods. If I give you the power of the Grail... There are many options. Maybe you just get a lot stronger. Perhaps you will come closer to that part of the legend that spoke of the "gods" - and the spirit of some Celtic god will awaken in you. Also another way to get stronger."

"Or," Da Vinci shook her head thoughtfully, "Just maybe, the most important part will be of "Celtic" origin. Perhaps you will turn into a kind of prefabricated image of the "Celtic magician". As an example, in this case, you will have access to all the magic of all the heroes that ever existed that are considered to be "Celts" … in the minds of people at least."

"But in return — "I" will have to disappear, giving way to the "new" Servant," Cu Chulainn shook his head.

"Don't worry, we can keep your identity," Da Vinci smiled. "For the most part."

"For the most part?" Cu Chulainn looked at Da Vinci inquiringly.

"I cannot make any definite promises," Da Vinci shook her head. "Such a change will definitely leave its mark on the personality of any altered Servant. But Dr. Roman and I are sure that we can reduce such changes to a minimum... And of course there is the possibility that nothing will happen and there will be no personality changes. It will be you just with better Parameters, maybe even more or better ranked skills. In the extreme you may even get a new Noble Phantasm due to the influx of power."

Cu Chulainn unimpressively looked at Da Vinci, - "Since when did you turn into a devil offering people such dubious deals?"

"Immediately, if I got the opportunity," Da Vinci smiled.

Cu Chulainn shook his head, "If there is an order for it... I will obey. But to just jump into it for the sake of satisfying your irrepressible curiosity - no, thank you."

"Oh, I expected the refusal," Da Vinci smiled. "In any case, I don't have any Pseudo-Grails yet."

"But!" Da Vinci suddenly raised her finger in the air. "In that case, we need to figure out the name before Ainz returns! A good name is half the requirement for success of any project!"

"Half the success..." Cu Chulainn sighed. "Do you really want Ainz to acquiesce to your offer?"

Da Vinci just smiled at it, - "Better think about the name, and not over such frivolous things."

"Why are you even worried about this?" Cu Chulainn shook his head, "Ainz probably would be stuck in this Singularity for a long time."

Da Vinci only mysteriously smiled, mirroring the visage of her famous painting, the Mona Lisa, her most famous creation, - "Oh, in this, my friend, you are mistaken…"

"Ainz wanted to listen to the proposal of all the camps, to engage in peaceful negotiations to resolve the conflict - now after the attack he still needs to start building bridges again…" - Cu Chulainn began to list, - "This would take a long time."

"The things you described - yes, that would indeed take time," Da Vinci smiled, "But, it seems to me, you are confusing Ainz's thoroughness with passivity. He really tried a peaceful resolution to the conflict - and, as the chief said, this did not work out. I think that after that debacle Ainz will instead go on a very... decisive action."

"That's why!" Da Vinci raised her finger up, "Hmm... What do you think of "palingenesis "?

* * *

**Skill:** Pioneer of the Stars

**Skill Strength Level:** 100

Another one of Da Vinci's many unique skills. The description of the skill's capabilities is quite simple - "a skill that allows the accomplishing of the impossible." However, from the point of view of Yggdrasil's game mechanics, this skill is much more complicated.

This skill allows the possessor to use any inaccessible game mechanics for a player. In other words - although the ability to create food from recipes that restore health or improve parameters one must have the class of "cook", the owner of this skill is able to use the mechanics that is inaccessible to any other player to do so. Another example is that of analysis of the level and classes of opponents. There exist a myriad number of spells or even class specific skills that allow the player to accomplish this task, but the owner of this skill is able to automatically determine the level of his opponent and even part of his classes without any specialized method or classes. This ability to use the "impossible" from the point of view of an ordinary player explains the overpoweredness of this skill.

Of course, there is a certain threshold of the "power" of the abilities that cannot surpass a specialized player - but the very ability to use abilities "blocked" for a player gives this player a huge advantage in almost any situation. In the end, it's "a skill that allows you to accomplish the impossible."

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Cainabel is a beast right? - No, she is not, neither here, neither in the YGGDRASIL.  
**  
**Geez how many skills does Ainz have? - Technically - lots of it. In reality - even more so.**

**How high Cainabel's high tier immunity - Higher than Ainz's**

**what is this mana construct he is talking about? - You will not believe it... He's talking about table he created with his magic at the gathering of the 3 camps.**

**What is the differences between magi and magician? - Magi is the one using magecraft; Magician uses True Magic**

**I wonder if Da Vinci can replicate some of the Ainz stuff? - She could replicate _some_ of his stuff, but not with ease**

**Also, I could not resist this joke...**

**There is only 2 genders: 1 - It was honestly cathartic to see Cainabel destroy such annoying stupid and arrogant characters who think they're tough shit with big brains.; 2 - I like this story but Cainabel takes away all the fun from it.**

**And in the end ****\- ****shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. And we are going to the end of the Singularity pretty fast there. That's pretty much all.**


	62. Chapter 62

Sitting on a beach near the edge of the island looking at the waves ceaselessly crashing before it, Ainz was deep in thought.

Slowly, the waves continued to roll one on top of another, crawling onto the sandy beach with all the noise that accompanied its passing.

This rhythmic tidal sound was quite relaxing. Pacifying. Refreshing even to his troubled mind.

It's funny. A really funny thing to consider.

The singularities were the "events" - in game terminology - through which he progressed through the "story". In fact, it was but a test of his skills as a "player" - "can you defeat this monster?", "can you solve these riddles?", "Will your allies survive?" Game conventions, the elusive moving plot. A linear progression of "events" steadily becoming more challenging in turn. For him, as a "player", there was no point in caring of the outcome of this "event", except whether or not he would "lose" or "win". The things that a "player" cared about were from the category of "what resources can I find there?", "What kind of opponent will I meet there?", "Will I like one of the newly introduced NPC's?". At least it should have been, if it were a game. From the player's point of view, Humanity's continued existence, this all represented nothing but a big "event" - one of hundreds of similar ones. "Humanity was destroyed" - an interesting approach to the narrative, but in the end - just a meaningless part of the "lore" that builds the next "event".

But if you were to look at such an "event" not from the perspective of some outside "player", but from the point of view of the "NPC's" living in this world? What was he supposed to feel? Horror? Determination? Anger? Apathy?

Did it make him a bad person that before his conversation with Mashu he had not even tried to look at the situation "seriously"? Should he have been trying to understand the point of view of those living in this world? Or should he discard these thoughts and not bother with such "trivial" things? What would his guildmates say?

Ainz was not sure.

The waves beneath his feet slowly crept onto the coastal line, leaving only wet sand.

Sitting on a small rock, legs dangling, looking at the surf, Ainz was currently lost in his head. All the time it seemed to him that the correct answer to all these questions, one that would solve all his problems and worries all at once, was close by, but he couldn't grab hold of it, and the answer remained within his reach, but infuriatingly remained completely unattainable for Ainz.

"I wonder if philosophers who ruminate about the meaning of life feel this way." - Ainz stared at the wave breaking over the sands gently rolling through, after which he shook his head and looked away.

To discover Cainabel, who is currently walking towards him.

"My lord," the girl bowed, after which, glancing at Ainz who was glancing at the ocean, quickly followed the direction of his gaze, and smiled. "Are you contemplating the beauty of nature?"

"Not really," Ainz sighed and looked at the glittering sea. The waves slowly overcame the preceding one, calming Ainz, - "I'm just looking at the sea... A lot of time has passed since I last saw it."

There were seas in Yggdrasil of course, but Yggdrasil in the end remained but a game.

Although recently, Ainz was no longer sure what he could consider but a game, and what was reality.

"Hm, really," Cainabel glanced at the sea, then smiled to herself. "To be honest, I also haven't seen the sea for a long time."

Cainabel, as befits her in-game status as a boss, had her own "dungeon" - her permanent residence, the _Blood Gardens_. From the very beginning of the "event" and its existence to the moment when the "event" along with it ended, Cainabel was always in the "dungeon" and never left its premise. Naturally, being stuck in her location Cainabel could not see the sea.

'Funny,' Ainz smiled. 'Another creature from and 'event' now going beyond what was supposed to be just a game.'

Ainz looked at the sun slowly rising from the horizon.

This evening it would all be over. Final preparations were made, plans were hashed out, everyone received the plan according to their final instructions, and now all that remained for Ainz, who was not subject to the need for sleep, was to wait for morning to arrive.

"Cainabel," Ainz looked at the girl, who then bowed in response, showing him a willingness to listen, "Don't play around with the enemies anymore."

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel smiled, "I will finish in three strikes."

"What if there are two enemies?" Ainz smiled at Cainabel's reply.

"Three strikes for all of them," Cainabel smiled back, "Regardless of the number of enemies."

"Hm," Ainz grunted, turning away, "I hope you understand that your third Phantasm is still banned?"

"If I had to use it against such trash, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself," Cainabel shook her head.

Ainz just nodded.

There was silence for a second, broken only by the sound of the surf.

"Don't worry, my lord," Cainabel smiled. "Your attack will be as unexpected as it is ruthless."

Ainz sighed.

If only that was what occupied his mind...

Ainz sighed, and then rose from his seat.

"I'll go and walk a bit," he nodded to Cainabel, and then walked away, watching the waves slowly continue to roll on and on...

* * *

Medusa glanced at her sister.

Medusa remembered Euryale just like she currently is - "the ageless goddess of love and youth." Unlike Medusa, who was created "defective" from the very beginning, Euryale and Stheno were two natural goddesses, forever young, forever loved, forever beautiful. Since the past, none of that has changed even slightly. It was funny then that despite their youthful appearance they were also the elder sisters of Medusa.

"Euryale," Medusa got out of bed, looking at the girl. Judging by her inner clock - it was only early morning - "Anything wrong?"

Euryale just threw a big grin her way. "Oh! Is my little sister not glad to see me anymore?"

Medusa did not particularly trust her smile. Yes, Euryale was her older sister, but it was impossible to call her anything like "reliable". Like many other older sisters - her attitude to the youngest was loving, but sometimes very cruel in her own way. In other words, although Medusa was considered in some sense to be a "bloodsucker" according to her legend - which of whom was about drawing blood in case it was not entirely clear. Perhaps, if you follow the logic that being deceived was also being sucked, then for all the time that Medusa trusted her and was eventually deceived - she would now have been left without blood at all.

Euryale, as if seeing through Medusa's private thoughts, only allowed an even greater smirk to form than usual, after which she shook her head, - "Don't worry. I would not do anything to discredit my reputation while there are so many other Servants around here anyway."

Medusa shook her head at that. From the very beginning, Euryale shunned the Medusa's allies for some reason, especially Ainz, although she tried not to show it.

"Sometimes, when I'm next to him, I have a feeling that he is ready to atomize me" - Euryale gave just such a ludicrous answer when she asked why her sister seemed so put off by her Master's presence. Medusa was deeply perplexed when she received such an answer - Ainz could, given the right target, really be frightening... But only for those who did not know him or his enemies. In fact, Ainz was a truly wonderful Master. He loved his Servants and he really appreciated them. In addition, he was a very peaceful person - so much so that Medusa could predict that if a Holy Grail War happened near him that her Master would not be chosen as a Master at all. He was just too pacifistic for such a conflict.

Medusa then tried to imagine what could anger such a kind person, and then shook her head. Nothing she could easily imagine.

"Strange," Medusa shook her head, looking at Euryale, "I always thought you loved being the center of attention and gossipping. Instead, you are avoiding people - how unlike you."

"The Servants around me are not at all to my liking," Euryale grimaced. "One that is holier-than-thou, one that reeks of blood and death, one naive girl and last but not least a crazy monster. Not the best of companies to make acquaintances or for small talk."

"And I thought you would like to talk with someone like Jeanne," Medusa smiled. "You have not run away from such a source of a debate before."

"I neither have the time and patience to indulge in such activity right now," Euryale shook her head, and then sighed, "Medusa. I actually came here to ask you about something."

"Isn't it about one of your brilliant ideas?" Medusa rolled her eyes. How many times has she suffered because of the actions of Euryale...

"No, this is definitely not one of my cunning plans," Euryale sighed, then nodded. "Let's go. I need your help with something."

Medusa looked at Euryale, after which she nodded. Euryale remained her elder sister anyway, so all that remained for Medusa was to follow her instructions and hope that this time Euryale would not let her down.

* * *

Mashu winced while halfway in a dream.

"THE TIGER GOES HUNTING!" she wanted to protect her ears from the scream of Tamamo.

"STOP! YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THIS!" - of course Elizabeth's cry somehow was even louder.

Mashu slowly inhaled, then exhaled, opening her eyes.

Outside the walls of her room, provided to her by the owners of this island, the assault to her senses that happened again and again like clockwork happened again. Tamamo and Elizabeth showed their true level of maturity by playing tag.

On the one hand, this annoyed Mashu, but on the other hand, she was grateful that there were two such child-like Servants on the island. Being together, they occupied each other's attention and time, grouping together and staying on the periphery of perception, doing their own things. On the other hand, Tamamo periodically tried to involve someone new, like the new Servants that she just met, in her game - usually giving out the argument that "the wild predator needs a new victim!". While Elizabeth, as expected, screamed, shouted and cried with wild abandon - destroying the morning calm and the quiet sleepy peace for all those present.

"I'm not surprised that her Noble Phantasm is a scream," Mashu grimaced, and then reached out for her glasses, getting up from the bed.

Mashu was still grateful to the three inhabitants of the island for the bed and a roof over her head. Medusa, however, only wondered how Euryale was able to create something like this. A question which Euryale dismissed out of hand, saying that a girl had to have her own secrets. However, given that Euryale was a goddess, something as paltry as creating shelter should really not have caused any reaction in Medusa or Mashu.

Mashu, finally fully waking up, reached for her clothes. Of course, she could summon her combat uniform, as the other Servants could do, but she was not particularly accustomed to this method, preferring to do it the old-fashioned way - just as she always did.

Leaving her room and into the open air Mashu looked at the collection of small buildings around her. A second later, Mashu suddenly looked at what was happening in front of her in surprise.

Inside a small room that functioned as the kitchen was Jeanne and the Witch - however, Mashu's surprise was far from connected with this fact. What was surprising was the fact that the two girls, represented periodically by the flickering flame and a spreading mouth-watering smell, indicating the nature of their preoccupation.

The two irreconcilable enemies... are cooking.

Struck by the scene in front of her, Mashu froze on the threshold of her room, looking at what was happening, not daring to break the illusion in front of her.

"Oil!" The Witch ordered while trying to wrangle the kitchen knife to cut some vegetables.

Mashu was not even sure what was more surprising - the fact the shelter has a kitchen and even food, or what the two girls are trying to cook in these conditions. And if the first could still be attributed to the fact that Ainz somehow has a whole kitchen from his stocks or even created it with magic - which would explain everything. "Ainz did it" - the best explanation for everything happening that happened. Then the second thing still worried Mashu's mind.

"Which one is the oil?" Jeanne tried to find the right one among the bottles. To her credit, it was worth saying that the bottles were not packaged at all according to the sensibilities of the modern world, so her confusion was understandable.

"There must be a label or something!" The Witch, armed with a knife and glaring at the unfinished food as if it would leap and attack if she cease to pay attention to it, cast a glance at Jeanne.

"I can't read!" Jeanne tried to convey her despair in her least panicky voice. She failed badly.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Jeanne?!" Mashu leaned against the wall, watching what was happening. She wasn't planning to intervene - she was too busy with… other things, yes, things. For example, by watching what was happening.

Jeanne and the Dragon Witch tried to work together - moreover, both were so immersed in their occupation that they still did not notice the leaning girl.

The occasional flickering of a knife in the hands of the Witch, who is currently trying to chop a piece of meat as if it is her worst enemy, was almost fascinating.

"They have no idea how this is done, right?" - Mashu shook her head.

It's not that Mashu herself was much better at it, but while looking at the problems of others it always seemed that you would have done better.

"What kind of beast is this?" The Witch carefully examined the future dish.

"Ainz insisted on using the killed manticore," Jeanne sighed, and then looked at the future breakfast with disbelief, "Although I wonder if a Manticore is edible..."

'I tried to find an adventure - and now the Saint of Orleans and her evil alter ego are cooking me a manticore breakfast…' - Mashu shook her head. Oh yes, it was definitely not how Mashu imagined her adventure... But, it's not like she is opposed to experiencing it...

"Okay, it's seemed we can handle it," after these words, Jeanne still threw the future breakfast into the pan and turned to the Witch, beaming with a huge smile, "You and I are a good team."

"Yeah, of course," the Witch only snorted, and then took a step to the stove, "Well, what's next... Water!"

"Oh," Mashu startled. Water with hot oil is always bad...

A second later, having received a bottle of water from Jeanne, the Witch, not particularly restraining herself, poured a deluge of water into the pan. A second later, the future breakfast responded with exploding blobs of fire that flew out sharply towards the Witch.

"Option..." - Mashu finished the thought to herself.

"SOMETHING IS TRYING TO BURN OUR HOUSE!" Tamamo's scream was the last straw. The Witch, turning around at that moment, abruptly rushed to the entrance.

"I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU NOW!" - Having rushed out from the kitchen, the Witch instantly rushed away.

"They are trying to kill us!" Judging by the intensity of the voice, Tamamo immediately tried to run away, but was not quick enough to escape, "Ay!"

"Ah!" Elizabeth's voice echoed right next to Tamamo, "And why me?!"

"Got in my way!" The Witch's voice answered her instantly.

After that, Mashu took a step out of the shadows, revealing herself to Jeanne.

"Jeanne," the Saint, when she heard Mashu's voice, was startled and turned to face her, after which, instantly assessing the condition of the girl, she smiled.

"How was your sleep?" The girl smiled, after which a moment later the next breakfast hissed again menacingly, almost without water or oil.

Mashu, finding the lid with her eyes, moved towards the pan, ignoring the sprays that were flying from it, and even wishing that she was now in her combat uniform, after which she slammed shut the pan with the future breakfast, "It was nice... But what happened here?"

At these words, Jeanne scratched her head, - "Em... Breakfast?"

Mashu then looked at the mess created by the gale forces of the two girls and shook her head, - "I already understood that. And for what reason?"

"Ainz said that after killing the manticore he had thirty tons of meat…" - Mashu blinked. Thirty tons... Oh ho ho...

"I wanted to try to cook something," Jeanne shrugged uncertainly once more, "Well, try that is..."

Mashu blinked.

"But as Servants we don't really need to eat, no?" Mashu tried to ask a question.

"Indeed," Jeanne nodded slowly, "But... I still wanted to try to cook something..."

Mashu blinked again.

"Alright ..." Mashu sighed. Not that Jeanne had previously shown a love of cooking, but no one had specifically forbidden her to do it, - "And it seems... You have... Some difficulties…"

"Something like that," Jeanne hung her head, after which she looked at Mashu, "Can you help?"

"I'll try," Mashu nodded. Not that she was much better at cooking than the two...

Having taken a step toward the stove, Mashu carefully examined the cooking space, - "I know where the meat came from, but what about everything else?"

"Ingredients from Ainz, he said that he doesn't have the need for them anyway," Jeanne looked at Mashu warily and with some envy, expecting that she was about to do something incredible, "The kitchen was made by Euryale... Medusa was still surprised that Euryale was able to create something like that…"

"I understand her surprise," Mashu nodded, looking at the very modern kitchen. Strange, usually Servants were more or less adapted only for the time at which they were summoned from - or to the information through communication with the Master. But this could only be true for Servants summoned into a Holy Grail War, where the grail would provide the connection and knowledge - so Mashu couldn't say anything confidently on this account, so, most likely, there was nothing to worry about.

"Well, what are you trying to cook?" Mashu asked Jeanne the important question.

"Initially, it was supposed to be a stew with vegetables..." the girl replied with uncertainty, looking at the cooked meat.

"Okay," Mashu sighed, after which she looked at Jeanne, "What spices do we have?"

"Ainz handed out a couple of bottles," Jeanne nodded toward the ominously gleaming phials. This did not inspire confidence - but it was Ainz, he probably knew what he was doing - "He said that he wanted to check something…"

"Um, okay," Mashu nodded, then pointed to a bottle. "What is that?"

"I don't know, probably the sauce," Jeanne sighed, after which, taking it, she moved to the stove, "How much to add?"

"I don't know, try to..." - after a second, the prepared food exploded with another gout of fire, "So we found another bottle of oil!"

Splashes of boiling liquid and fire escaped into the air and Jeanne only miraculously managed to push Mashu away from them, receiving in response the flame destined for the girl.

"Water!" Jeanne rushed instantly.

"Stop!" Mashu tried to shout, but it was too late. The battered piece of meat barely hanging on to its edibleness exploded into a veritable cloud of piping hot steam and fire. Due to her proximity to the stove, Jeanne was covered head to toe in the blinding steam. Due to the force of the explosion and her lack of vision Jeanne fell down with a scream to the ground. Trying futile to hold on to her balance by trying to hold on to something, she instead found purchase on the discarded kitchen knife. Of course the kitchen knife barely scratched the Servant, but the surprise was more than enough.

"The Lord allmerciful!" The girl exclaimed loudly, the closest thing she got to a curse, while Mashu coped with the fire.

"Don't worry, everything is fine, we did it," Mashu gave the breakfast the last honor, covering the rest of the brave breakfast that had been finally burned. He really resisted heroically till the end, - "Simply... Probably, it will be necessary to try again... Given all the mistakes…"

"Yeah," Jeanne, still lying down on the ground, slowly got up, and then looked at what was supposed to be breakfast.

Everything burned to the ground, as if the Lord himself had directed his anger at this unfortunate place... The kitchen. Where Jeanne tried to cook.

"Oh…" - Jeanne shook her head. No, she did expect that she would be proficient in this matter on the first try, but... But she at least expected better.

"Don't worry," Mashu tried to encourage Jeanne, "Just a little bit more practice..."

"Yeah," - the girl looked at the fruit of her labors, and then at Mashu, - "Only... First, we need to clean up…"

"Oh, right," Mashu smiled right away, "Senpai asked me to meet with him and can't linger here..."

"You can't do this to me!" Jeanne looked at the girl imploringly.

"Hmmm, what's that?, I need to help senpai!" Mashu instantly disappeared behind the door.

Jeanne, having to clean up the mess that she had to clean up, sighed and sent a prayer to the Lord, asking Him for strength and patience.

* * *

Ainz was deep in thought, he barely paid any mind to the world around him.

What should he do? What not to do? Why does he have to do it? And should he?

"Ah!" The figure crashing into him made him emerge from his thoughts.

"You'll kill me like that someday," Euryale, whom Ainz accidentally knocked down while thinking, rubbed her bruised back, on which she had landed on a second earlier.

"Ah, I'm sorry," Ainz smiled at the girl, while crouching down, after which he held out his hand, helping her to stand up, "Are you hurt?"

"No..." - After a second, the girl sighed, after which, looking around Ainz, she made the most lovable face that she could. And, perhaps, this was enough to melt the ice on any heart in the world - Euryale, the goddess of youth and love and the embodiment of it, knew perfectly well what she should do to be considered cute, - "But you can help me?"

Ainz looked at the girl, blinked, and then shook his head, - "No. Sorry, I'm a little busy."

Unfortunately, Ainz was perhaps the only existing exception to this rule. The charm of Euryale simply did not affect him.

"Ah?" - surprised that for the first time in her life anyone could ignore her, Euryale looked at Ainz in surprise.

Ainz, having walked around the girl, moved on.

His mind, pulled out of its train of thought for a second, returned to its activity.

Servants are just copies of real people. And yet they were not robots. Just like that, Ainz could not discount their existence.

Mashu, Cainabel, Jeanne, the Dragon Witch...

Medusa…

Ainz sighed and shook his head.

His gaze suddenly stumbled upon Cainabel. She moved quietly walking around the house, surprisingly Ainz noticed that Cainabel's path would lead her to collide with Mashu, who was just exiting the house.

"Ah!" As soon as Mashu dodged to not crash into Cainabel, Mashu swayed, almost fell over, flying unexpectedly out of the house. Cainabel calmly opened her umbrella just before Mashu could fly into her, because of which the girl almost fell down. Fortunately, Cainabel was able to change the position of the umbrella, grabbing Mashu before she fell, with the handle of her umbrella. Unfortunately to Mashu she didn't do this out of pure altruism - but because Cainabel found it funny to put the handle of an umbrella under the girl's neck and jerked sharply, causing the girl to cough.

"Be careful," Cainabel sighed, after which, watching Mashu continue to cough, she smiled, "If such a small bug like you continues to get under my feet, you might get trampled upon."

"I-kha-kha-not a bug-kha..." Mashu objected to the girl, trying to cope with her coughing fit.

Ainz, looking at this, thoughtfully shook his head.

Possibly, he did not need to particularly care about such a thing. They were just NPCs in the end...

But still…

"Cainabel," Ainz took a step toward the girl, after which, receiving an inquiring look in response, he sighed, "Be polite."

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel smiled, bowing instantly.

"And apologize to Mashu," Ainz gave another order.

"Oh…" - Cainabel, it would seem, did not expect such an order, but when she received the order, she instantly obliged, - "I'm sorry, Mashu. This will not happen again."

"Aha-kha... I hope so," Mashu frowned at the vampire, while still rubbing her neck.

Ainz, stopping in his tracks, sighed.

"So, are all the Servants ready and assembled?" - After a second, he asked Mashu.

"As best as they possibly can," the girl sighed, then looked at Ainz, "Senpai?"

"Cainabel?" Turning to the vampire, Ainz asked a question. Although, what she's supposed to do has already been finalized, so Cainabel only smiled and bowed, - "In a couple of hours."

"Good," Ainz looked at the unknown black hole that continued to hang in the sky, and then sighed, "In that case... Get ready."

Mashu and Cainabel nodded gravely to him.

Ainz looked up at the sky.

Maybe he did not understand himself, the world around, or the people...

But he had a job to do.

And he was going to deal with it - with all his capabilities. Fast and efficient.

He understood this perfectly.

Mashu, looking at Ainz's stern expression, only nodded gravely. Cainabel smiled predatorily.

It's time to end this Singularity once and for all.

* * *

**High Tier Immunity:** _B_

Simply put, this skill can block any attack or ability of rank B or lower. Noble Phantasms, spells, skill - there is not much difference for this skill's effect. As long as this skill is active, no effect of rank B or lower can affect the owner of this skill. The attacking ability itself simply does not reach its target, disappearing before its effect could have an effect. However, this skill is not able to cancel the effect if the target is not on the owner itself - although this ability can block any effect over an area around the owner of the skill, leaving several meters of land and air around the owner of the skill under protection. Of course any effects that do not directly target the owner of this skill don't get cancelled out, for instance a buffing skill by a close combatant who is close to the possessor of this skill. While any effects under its threshold is nullified completely it does not mean that any attack over it would be suppressed as well. Any attack of sufficient potency and rank would affect its target fully and would as if this skill does not exist at all. Of course any additional skill that would defend the possessor of the skill from attacks would then come into effect, for instance, Magic Resistance or its Physical counterpart.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Wait, doesn't that mean Ainz will be more OP than he already is? - Ainz can't undergo Grailing.**

**Da Vinci or Demiurgus, who is smarter? - Da Vinci is more versed in magic-related stuff, but Demiurge can beat her in undercover operations or battle planning with ease.**

**And in the end - shameless self-advertising! - at my Pat reon there are 6 chapters right now, for 1$. And we are going to the end of the Singularity pretty fast there. That's pretty much all.**


	63. Chapter 63

Zhuge Liang did not feel at ease following Romulus.

Oh no, he had no doubt that Ainz's camp was on the strange island. But he doubted that the need to attack this camp existed at all.

More precisely, he was completely sure that there was no need to attack Ainz's camp. In the current situation, he was completely sure that Ainz remained, perhaps, the only ally that Zhuge Liang had in general in the current situation. Besides Alexander, of course...

Looking at Alexander, Zhuge Liang moved near him, he clenched his hand into a fist until his knuckles were white.

For the sake of Alexander... He needed to not to give any signs that he is aware. Do not give out his plans. To show Romulus that still did not know about everything.

Why did Ainz say that the attacking Berserkers didn't belong to Altera's camp? Perhaps he wanted Romulus to tell Zhuge Liang that this was not so? Why was it necessary then to talk about it initially? It made no sense...

Zhuge Liang did not understand why initially, but then Romulus sowed the seeds of doubt in his head. Probably, in the future, these seeds would have sprouted, but the Nero's murder broke any plans Romulus held for Zhuge Liang. And perhaps Romulus' Master's too.

Romulus blamed Ainz, but it was at that moment that Zhuge Liang felt the... incorrectness of his reasoning?

Caesar was saddened by the death of Nero, Leonidas was... Leonidas. Alexander did not understand the intricacies of politics. They would believe Romulus' accusations. However, Zhuge Liang felt someone put too much emphasis on Ainz's accusation. Looking at Romulus, Zhuge Liang could not believe that he could come up with such a plan. No, Romulus was not stupid per se, but such tactics did not fit in with his usual demeanor...

Zhuge Liang felt the attention of Romulus' touch him, and tried to exhale, relieving his tension. Politics was not his greatest strength.

"What are you thinking about?" - the voice of Romulus touched his mind.

"Trying to predict the location of the enemy" - Zhuge Liang answered, trying to sound as convincing as possible - "I'm used to a battle between armies, not a battle between only several fighters."

After the sensation of connection disappeared Zhuge Liang released the tension he held internally, and then focusing on Alexander's gaze.

The boy's gaze was focused, his hand rested on his blade.

Zhuge Liang had to find a way to escape from Romulus' control.

At least for the sake of Alexander.

* * *

"They're here ~ woof," Tamamo almost blurred into a cheerful smile, watching the figures appear on the horizon.

Mashu only tightened her grip on her shield, watching the appearance of their opponents. Caesar, Romulus, Zhuge Liang, Alexander and Leonidas.

Five opponents.

Exactly as it was predicted.

Ainz has already disappeared, like Cainabel, having set off to fulfill his part of the plan. Mashu, Jeanne, the Dragon Witch, Tamamo and Elizabeth remained on the island to fight with the attackers while waiting for the return of Cainabel or Ainz.

Medusa and Euryale disappeared somewhere - but Mashu was not worried, realizing that they would return soon. After that, with their return the defenders will be in a numerical advantage. This should, if not outright outweigh the scales in their favor - given Romulus' presence - then at least equalize the scale.

Mashu exhaled, closing her eyes for a second.

"Do not be afraid," Jeanne's voice sounded supportive. Mashu felt a hand on her shoulder, a supporting presence, - "Everything is fine. Cainabel and Ainz will be here soon. I do not think that there's anyone that could hold them for a long time."

Mashu agreed with this sentiment, so finding calm in this thought, she opened her eyes, smiling at Jeanne in response.

"Hm, so this is how the last battle begins?" The Witch smiled, throwing a cry to her opponents, as soon as they got closer.

Nobody answered her back.

A moment later, in the hands of Romulus a titanic spear appeared. Probably, even for Romulus himself, it looked huge, cumbersome - not to mention someone more human-sized then him - but his sweep was so quick that the Witch barely managed to evade - and then to get away from the next blow.

"So, we are starting without banter?" The Witch cast the last battle cry, "Good."

After which she instantly leapt to the side, rushing away from Romulus. The blow of his monstrous spear was parried by Jeanne.

The Witch's blade collided with the blade of Caesar who was nearby.

"Get out of the way!" Romulus waved his spear, trying to throw Jeanne away, but she, dodging, only attacked again.

"No," Jeanne glanced at Romulus, and then extended her hand forward, "**Forget the Witch! Fight me!**"

The Command Spells on her hand echoed with fervor, after which the first one disappeared, after which, due to Romulus's overwhelming hatred for the Witch, the second.

"Only two Command Spells..." - Jeanne bit her lip - "In the Holy Grail War, I would get two for each Servant..."

The skill God's Resolution was still an incredibly useful ability, but it's limitations meant that this ability could be used only in the rarest and most urgent of conditions.

The invisible power of the command spell gripped Romulus, forcing him to remove his attention from the Witch and toward Jeanne.

"Fine, first, I'll deal with you," Romulus intercepted the spear, "Then - with the rest."

Jeanne squeezed the blade in her hands tighter.

Romulus was the strongest of all the attacking Servants. Of all those present, nobody could defeat him in a one-on-one battle - Cainabel and Ainz were absent at the moment. Therefore, Jeanne, the one who was the only one able to, at least, fight on equal ground with Romulus was the right decision.

The Witch had a good chance to defeat Caesar, while Leonidas was too focused on defense, so Mashu, who was also focused on defense, was the best choice in the battle against him, leading the situation to a stalemate. As for Zhuge Liang, Euryale reasoned - and Jeanne had to agree with her - that the best thing that could be done with Zhuge Liang was to keep him at a distance. Tamamo agreed to do this - and then Alexander would remain against Elizabeth. After the start of the battle, Medusa and Euryale were supposed to attack Alexander and Zhuge Liang, taking the two of them out of the battle - after which the rest would join the fight against Romulus. By this time, Cainabel and Ainz had to be back, so they would be able to finish what the others had begun.

Jeanne prepared her banner before rushing forward.

Only…

Where, by God, are Medusa and Euryale?!

* * *

Teleportation definitely made life a whole lot easier. Ainz considered this fact obvious - that in the game, and in reality, such magic really helped people save time on a lot of things. In the game, such magic was also a good substitute for fast travel mechanics.

But in reality, it turned out to be even more useful than in the game.

Unfortunately, after the complete destruction of Rome, the landmark that Ainz could use for direct teleportation ceased to be relevant - so Ainz had to teleport to the hill he first appeared in, after which - with "Greater fly" ensured that his delay in the plan and absence at the the final battle was for a good reason and would be a short one.

The Barrier.

Ainz was not completely assured that he was the strongest - however, if you look at the past Singularities, he received enough evidence to believe that he was most likely to be able to cope with something or someone acting as the "final boss" of this Singularity. Or at least he hoped to be able to escape with important information.

Using the more advanced flight magic, Ainz's speed could hardly be calculated within reasonable limits.

He moved fast.

Very fast.

The vestibules of Rome appeared before his gaze after only a couple of minutes. And with it the Barrier itself.

It seemed that it was not at all affected by the destruction of Rome, continuing to stand in one place, silently, looking at the destruction around it with silent disapproval.

Ainz exhaled, then dived from the height of his flight. From his sharp landing, the charred black earth, which still remained in place, cracked, causing clouds of dust to fly in all directions, after which Ainz stood before the Barrier.

"Hmm," Ainz looked at the light pillar rising to heaven. Unfortunately, it was impossible to make out anything behind his pinkish-violet glow... It's a pity, but Ainz did not count on such a stroke of luck.

"What to do..." - Ainz looked thoughtfully - "But if it could resist such carnage... Probably the best thing to do is to use... "_Anti-magic field_"!"

A second later, a colorless, almost transparent wave slowly rose from Ainz's figure, rushing in all directions. The ephemeral wave didn't even raise any dust, but after crashing into the column of light shining into the sky, it unexpectedly showed its true nature, biting into the magical barrier, passing inside it like oozing water falling into the sand. After a second, a crack was heard, after which a scratch appeared on the surface of the previously monolithic barrier that had withstood the Noble Phantasm of the Witch as if nothing had happened. Quickly, with further ringing sounds, cracks began to grow along the barrier, turning into cobwebs, before with a loud clang of broken glass, the monolithic mass suddenly fell apart, crumbling with a hail of fragments.

The fragments of the barrier managed to melt before they could even touch the ground, so, after a second, Ainz entered the place enclosed by the barrier.

"Here" - Ainz looked around - "It is empty?.."

The inside of the barrier was an untouched wasteland, inside which grass grew, untouched stones lay and... Was there nothing more?

Ainz looked around carefully.

"How..." - Ainz frowned. "Is this possible?"

A second later, the ground under his feet flashed with many patterns, lines - after which the lines, similar to chains, collected from many words, bound him, connecting with each other, wrapping around his wrists and ankles like snakes. A second later, Ainz realized that he was immobilized.

"How?!" - Ainz glanced at the lines encircling him - "A trap?!"

Traps, tactics based on deceiving the enemy, using magic sigils to gain an advantage - all this was common in the world of Yggdrasil, of course... But the spying spell activated his defense, sending the counterspell here to this location. Why did this happen? Has the enemy escaped from behind the barrier just recently?

A second later, Ainz felt his barrier against observation activated, after which an explosion thundered not far from him. The counter-spell attacked the place from which the spying spell had been used... But there was no one in this place.

"It was not a living person who used the spells against me!" - Ainz realized this instantly - "It was a stationary spell that worked without a caster!"

In Yggdrasil, such magic did not exist - or at least, Ainz had never heard of it... But he had to guess that it was possible in the new world!

Ainz tried to pull his hand, but, as expected, this did not work.

"My physical strength is not great for the hundredth level..." - Ainz glanced at the fetters holding him back - "However, given my magical defense... This spell must be at least eighth rank..."

"_Anti-magic field_"! " - the rising wave instantly crashed into Ainz's fetters, however, after a second, powerlessly crumbled - "So, this is a spell above the eighth rank..."

The trap was made soundly. For the Barrier's attack, behind which, as Ainz was convinced, the enemy was hiding - which was confirmed by the explosions aimed at the one using the scrying spell - only the best forces should be used. However, they would inevitably fall into the trap if they were immobilized - if the spell used for the trap was higher than the eighth rank, then even Jeanne could not get out of it so easily...

If they were immobilized - they would be completely defenseless.

However, to take advantage of this opening, someone was needed...

"Ha!" Ainz didn't even feel the force of the blow, instead he simply heard a scream. Fortunately, the curse restricting his movements did not restrict his ability to turn his head, so turning, Ainz saw the one who attacked him.

Most likely, the attack attempt was aimed at blowing his head - however, instead of such a thing happening the attacker was only thrown back, holding her hand.

"Fuck, you are strong!" The speaker was... Euryale?

Ainz strained his eyesight - the girl who spoke was terribly similar to Euryale, but was very slightly different. Facial expressions, look, slightly different clothes...

"Hm," Ainz looked at the girl. "So you should have ended my existence here?"

"In a way," the girl, continuing to cradle her hand, slowly rose from the ground, looking at Ainz, and then broke into a smile, "Stheno, the third of the Gorgon sisters."

'Hm, yes, there were indeed three Gorgon sisters…' - Ainz thoughtfully tried to remember - 'Who told me this... Tabula, probably?'

"However, it's strange... My attack didn't affect you at all," Stheno frowned, "Usually it's easier..."

'Most likely, her strength is lower than B rank…' - Ainz looked at the girl, and then thought - 'But to get out of these shackles... It is problematic - if they are above the eighth rank, then I can't just break them with the_ Anti-magic field_... How can I then free myself if I can't use higher rank magic in this body?"

"Hey," Stheno glanced at Ainz. "Do you want to know what the plan was?"

"I won't refuse," Ainz said calmly. While Stheno spoke, he could calmly consider his escape plan.

"Hm," Stheno allowed a smirk, "Honestly, I didn't want to give up all the reins of rule to Euryale, but the Master quite correctly decided that it would be easiest to hide an Assassin with the high-class Presence Concealment class skill, so that later he could kill everyone who decided to attack the barrier."

"Master..." - finally everything fell into place in his head - "Baal!"

Why did Euryale agree to help Ainz, although in the past Singularity the Servants easily rejected his offer to join hands? Why did she avoid Jeanne - the Servant that could identify her Master - or the fact that her parameters were also hidden, like those of Nero, Romulus and Altera? How did she manage to create many things that she should not have been able to? Baal!

An unexpected discovery forced Ainz to be quite surprised, and then thought, "But... What about Medusa? Your sister?"

"Hmm..." Stheno exhaled. She herself clearly did not like this topic, - "Listen... I did not want to do it, but... The situation is that we have no choice. Thus, we can hope at least that in the end the Master of the Master will leave us alone."

Master of the Master... That means ...

Ainz's line of thought suddenly broke.

Like his connection with Medusa.

* * *

Altera was waiting. Altera knew that her adversary, Cainabel, would return again.

The grail was successfully taken... Of course "taken" meant that it was already used up as a way to "control" an enemy Servant while strengthening him. However, neither Cainabel, nor her Master, Ainz, knew this. And even if they suspected such a thing had happened, they should at least check it.

Altera's Master believed that her strength was enough to distract Cainabel from the final battle. At least hold her until the Master finishes his preparations.

Altera did not mind her fate. She was a distraction — but, after all, wasn't that why she existed?

An Instrument of war. An Unfeeling machine of destruction. Attila.

Altera looked away.

The huge figure of Remus towered above her. The Servant, Avenger, only gave her a look and smiled supportively.

Boudica beside him was whistling a song.

Jing Ke enjoyed her last bowl of sake, looking at the bright blue sky.

Altera was not opposed to dying in a useless battle...

But didn't it bother her that her allies would die in the same battle?

Altera looked at the three Servants.

"Meditating, commander?" Boudica smirked, and then reached out.

"No..." Altera turned her gaze to the girl.

In a way, Boudica was her right hand.

Of course, the powerful Attila, the Scourge of God, had other commanders in her life. Generals, advisers, subordinates... But Altera always saw in them only as an instruments of war. The same as herself. And they obeyed her because of her origin, position, strength...

Boudica was not related to her. She was her right hand because...

Why?

Altera did not know why.

"Don't worry, Altera," Boudica smiled at her, "No matter how this battle goes... I'm glad I had such a commander."

Altera felt something turn inside her from these words.

"I'm glad," did anyone ever tell her that?

Altera felt regret cut through her soul.

After all, Boudica remained to fight in a doomed battle. Surely she herself knows this... But still she chose to stay. Why?

Altera looked away.

"Hmm, on such a day it's best to admit all your feelings, right?" Jing Ke grinned, then rose from her seat. Slowly she moved toward Altera, "Of course, the end turned out to be spoiled... But for all the time - thank you for-KHA!"

Jing Ke swung forward, spitting out blood, but did not fall, lingering on an umbrella that pierced her body. She looked incredulously at the weapon coming out of her chest - after which, after a moment, she fell to the ground.

"First strike," Cainabel smiled. None of those present noticed her appearance at all, which seemed to please Cainabel greatly. Spreading her lips into a smirk, she took a step forward, stepping over the body of the already dead Jing Ke, whom she managed to pierce through her heart, - "What a heart-breaking dialogue... Mind if I cut in?"

* * *

Medusa followed Euryale, descending after her along the steps roughly carved into the floor of the cave.

"Euryale," Medusa called to her sister. "The battle will begin soon. We must move to the rest of the Servants."

"Yes, just a little longer," Euryale exhaled, continuing to move forward.

The Medusa frowned - at such a depth, with such huge walls made of solid stone, her connection to the rest of the Servants refused to work - maybe the battle on the surface had already begun and now they were doing a useless thing...

"What do you want from me, anyway?" Medusa looked at her sister in confusion.

"Nothing. You can just stand and do nothing," Euryale exhaled, then frowned. "Almost here."

Euryale moved forward, following her guided route, periodically turning back and forth before Medusa, following her, entering a large circular room.

"What is…" - After a second, Medusa cut herself off.

Her perception could determine that there was a Servant in the room.

And not only the Servant.

The look of the girl - Nero - was practically lost against the backdrop of a mass of flesh rising from the floor and to the highest ceiling, shuddering and flowing like water, consisting of clean bare muscles, tentacles and huge, red eyes that opened and closed of their own free will.

"What... What is this?!" Medusa instantly felt the daggers slipping into her hands... Then a moment later she staggered, feeling sharp pain. Turning, Medusa saw her sister, Euryale, piercing her body through and through.

"Eury... ale..." Medusa staggered a moment later, falling to the ground.

"It took you so long..." the creature's voice sounded discordantly soft and calm.

"I hate you," Euryale, with whose hand her sister's blood continued to drip, cast a glance at the creature. "You promised that in the end you could give us the Shapeless Island."

"Oh, I always keep my promises," the mass of flesh slowly continued to flutter, so that it was not clear where the creature's voice came from, "Don't you trust me?"

"No," Euryale clenched her fists.

"But you still obey," the mass of flesh did not change in its vomit-inducing movement, continuing to change every second, however, the sounding voice now conveyed joy, "Oh, I love command spells!"

"Command... Spells..." - Medusa's mind, disappearing every second, clutched at reality - "Baal... Master..."

"Ainz..." - with that thought, Medusa, Rider, closed her eyes.

* * *

"Medusa is dead," Ainz said aloud.

Medusa is dead.

Another of his Servant died.

A slight delay in the plans. An additional factor for future Singularities.

There was nothing to worry about.

He has Servants who had died before, and he was not even particularly worried about it, sending them to slaughter.

And so, Medusa died.

"Yes," Stheno sighed, "Euryale killed her."

Euryale...

The older sister of Medusa. Her family. Killed her.

Ainz blinked.

"Your sister," Ainz looked up at Stheno, "Your sister is dead. And you knew about it. You helped in making it happen."

Stheno, having heard this, only frowned, "You understand nothing..."

"No," Ainz blinked. "I understand it perfectly. You killed your sister."

Medusa was glad to meet her sister. Maybe they did not have a perfect relationship, maybe they had problems in life, but despite this, they were still a family. They loved each other, supported each other, were close no matter what.

Like Ainz Ooal Gown.

And now she was killed.

By her own family.

If one of his Ainz Ooal Gown... would kill... not knowing about the resurrection... The one with whom he went through thick and thin... The one with whom he was with all this time...

The suppression of emotions was ready to react, but...

Ainz stopped it.

A new emotion rose in his soul.

No, not completely new... But the one that he had already forgotten for all this time.

Anger.

Oh, so interesting…

Ainz looked at his fetters.

The bonds suddenly trembled.

"What?" Stheno looked disbelievingly at Ainz. "What is happening?"

Slowly, Ainz's body broke under the weight of the released power. Useless flesh crumbled into pieces. Beneath it came his real body.

The fetters slowly touching his body turned black. Pure negative energy seeped into them like rust, causing them to creak and crumble under their own weight.

In preserving the conditions of his puppet body, he could not use magic above the eighth rank?

Hmm... In that case - Da Vinci will have to work hard making him a new one.

The spell that had been holding up to it was instantly swept away by an invisible wave that struck in all directions.

"_Greater anti-magic field_" is a convenient thing.

Ainz stepped forward. Stheno, looking at the body of a recently caught enemy being destroyed, how spells powerlessly approaching in strength to True Magic fell, took a step back.

Ainz was...

Angry.

And that meant that a certain Demon King - and a couple of Gorgon sisters - would very much regret their small plan.

* * *

**High Tier Immunity:** _B (Case)_

A similar ability is practically necessary for any high-level player who prefers not to die due to the actions of a group of more organized low-level players. Most often, players get a similar ability when they reach a certain level - although there are of course exceptions. Ainz, for example, received a different ability - preferring to get this one instead by completing a quest chain, as a result of which his High Tier Immunity was slightly lower than for players who received a high-tier immunity of the eightieth level and above - that is, of rank A - an ability that bosses of Yggdrasil often possess.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
**

**And hey - Singularity ended! On my Pat reon though, so 6 - chapters for now. And the 5$ vote is opened yet again. For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, to the point of end of this Singularity. For 5$ you also can vote for different topics - such as "who gonna be summoned by Ainz after the end of the Singularity", or "what to do with the Grail", or "interludes about whom should I write". Yeah, that's all ****I wanted to tell you about.**


	64. Chapter 64

Ainz felt the chains holding him in place fall.

Anger... What a strange emotion.

Ainz was not angry when his Servants were killed. He was not angry when his Servants did stupid things. He was not angry when he fell into a trap and was not angry when he committed his own mistakes.

Until this very moment, he had experienced many emotions - interest, joy, fun, satisfaction, insecurity... But he never felt anger before.

Probably if Medusa had been killed by someone else - Romulus or Altera - Ainz would not have been so enraged by something like that. But Medusa was killed by her own sister.

Her own family…

Oh, that thought hurt Ainz very, very deeply.

"What, who, what the fuck is going on here?" - watching Ainz's shackles slowly fell through the body of the strong, healthy male magi. The body was slowly being destroyed, as the body of a skeleton came through the disintegrated flesh - it continued to move somehow as Ainz slowly moved forward. Stheno retreated, her eyes wide, watching the skeleton of a creature slowly moving forward, Stheno was looking for some weakness, some vulnerability, a path to victory...

Bone stakes suddenly struck from under the ground and pierced her body, pinning the goddess like a butterfly on a pin.

A muffled scream escaped Stheno's throat at the pain and surprise, but Ainz paid it no mind and slowly took a step forward, then again and again.

The body of the magi was scattered like useless dust. With hands that exposed bare bones, the rib cage, behind which now only ribs remained, the face collapsed, exposing bare skull. Under normal circumstances, something like this would not have forced Stheno to even frown - there were many things capable of something like that. Some of these things were even subject to Stheno's whim herself. But right now, the figure that is slowly approaching Stheno looked like the inexorable messenger of death, moving towards its goal. No even worse...

Ainz looked as if Death herself had come down to earth to gather her harvest.

Stheno body's jerked in her haste to escape, causing pain to her broken body. But as soon as she managed to rip off her hand off a bone spike, a new one, which appeared on the ground very close by, immediately sprung up, piercing her hand again, causing the girl to swear in pain.

"There's no need to run," despite the situation, Ainz's voice remained quiet, calm, to some extent even soothing. As calming as the call of the grave for the dying, promising an end to their suffering could be, - "You can not."

Ainz moved with some measured severity, approaching Stheno slowly, as if savoring the time.

Stheno was a Servant. Of course, in reality itself, being one of the Gorgon sisters, she was not a fighter at all. But after the changes introduced by the Grail, Stheno could call herself a Servant that is far from the lowest rung. Her abilities responded to her, rushing instantly ahead with streams of pure magic, taking the form of lightning, flame, ice - all that could delay the monster moving towards her.

Instantly, a wave arose at Ainz's feet, similar to the one that destroyed Baal's trap, after which all of Stheno's attacks scattered into particles of mana before they could even reach the target. Ainz continued to move slowly and inevitably, not even pausing in his steps.

"Stheno...", taking the last step and reaching his target, Ainz walked up next to Stheno. The body of the goddess was planted on stakes, so that she could not even jerk to the side to dodge any possible attack - "Tell me, Stheno... Will Medusa cry about your death?"

Stheno felt a fit of anger at Ainz's words.

What did he want? To lecture her on the importance of love? To make her feel remorse for what she did?!

Stheno knew that she had to follow Baal's commands. She knew what the Master of Baal had in mind. She knew that they had no other choice. She knew that she had committed a grave sin. And she knew that only through this action can they achieve salvation - if not humanity, then at least themselves.

"Haaaah…" - Ainz breathed out calmly, but at the same time with an exhausted air to it, - "Well, I will repeat the question…"

After this, Stheno suddenly felt something touch her mind.

"Charming spell?!" - Stheno felt a fit of panic - "Baal said he was a necromancer! Necromancers don't use charms!"

The very idea that Stheno could be charmed - just as she herself had the ability to charm men with ease - was absurd!

But Stheno felt Ainz's curse latch onto her mind, slowly drying up any desire to resist answering.

"Will Medusa be saddened if I destroy your body and soul forever?" Ainz asked a question.

' Destroying the body and soul?!' - Stheno's mind made a somersault in her head, but her charmed body only answered calmly, "Yes. Even after what happened, she will be saddened if Euryale and I disappear forever. Can you destroy the body and soul ?"

"Hmm…" - Ainz did not answer this question, only sighed thoughtfully, - "It's a pity... I won't be able to punish you with your death... In this case, it's best to just make you regret what you've done for now…"

After a second, the effect of the charm disappeared. Ainz held out his hand, and then calmly placed it against Stheno's stomach.

Is he planning... To rape her?!

"Hm, I must admit, I have pushed back a little from my own principles in this world..." Ainz sighed, after which Stheno suddenly jerked. A painful cry burst from her mouth at the moment she felt the touch of cold bones of Ainz's hand. It felt like corrosive acid had touched her body in the place where Ainz put his hand in. "I usually collect information thoroughly... But there was Da Vinci in this world - I trusted her capabilities. And there was an adventure to be had - and I immediately went along the chain of "quests", rejoicing at the excitement. I completely forgot that I also have to come up with some experiments myself."

Stheno throat burst into screams as the strength of the corrosive acid like sensation suddenly increased, after which it began to slowly spread through her body.

"For example..." Ainz looked up into Stheno's eyes. And despite the fact that now his face was a naked skull with two flickering lights deep in the eye sockets, anyone could still see that anger burned in those two lights. However, Ainz spoke quietly, calmly - and this action was most terrifying - "How do Servants respond to negative energy? And how much negative energy can the Servant withstand before dying?"

* * *

Zhuge Liang avoided the blade whistling towards him, and then further retreated back the moment when the ground next to him exploded from the force of Tamamo Cat's next attack.

"Good reflexes ~ woof!" The girl emerging from a cloud of dust smiled at Zhuge Liang with a good-natured smile that was not at all suitable for the current situation that they're in. "In any other situation, I would like to play catch-up with you ~ woof!"

Zhuge Liang sent a spell - even though he was not the most powerful of magi in the world, he could still use his magecraft to attack - however, the opponent simply playfully avoided the projectile, - "What a pity that this would be impossible now ~ woof!"

"We shouldn't fight!" Zhuge Liang shouted. "I have information about Romulus!"

"Oh, a distraction!" His adversary only smiled at these words, "It won't work! Euryale explained to us that you will try to confuse us ~ woof!"

"Euryale?" Zhuge Liang rushed back, dodging the next blow, "Why is she..."

A jigsaw puzzle formed in Zhuge's head, "Your Master is also under the control of Romulus' Master!"

"It will not work ~ woof!" Tamamo let Zhuge Liang's words past her ears like water. "Play fair!"

"Listen, I want to help!" Zhuge Liang dodged another attack, and then avoided yet another blow, "Euryale is under control of the BHA!"

A strike with monstrous power behind it, which did not at all match the cute appearance of the girl who appeared in front of him, knocked the spirit out of Zhuge Liang, forcing him to fly away and roll several times.

"An opening!" - the girl rushed forward, striking, - "Caught!"

"Berserker!" - Zhuge instantly understood. The only way to put someone against Zhuge Liang who would not let him change sides in the middle of the battle is to put a Berserker against him, who will simply let his words slip through his ears! The Master of Romulus calculated everything!

"Got you!" Shouting completely childishly, Berserker hit the ground, causing Zhuge to roll, "Still want to chat ~ woof?"

"No..." Zhuge Liang's attempt to speak with Berserker was automatically doomed to failure. So all that he could do was to defeat Berserker as quickly as possible and escape to the one who would listen to his words.

Berserker smiled at these words, and then began to focus. Her gaze burned in anticipation and her huge fluffy tail dangled from side to side, like a rejoicing dog. Zhuge Liang exhaled.

If only it would have been so easy...

* * *

Cainabel appearing here was not a surprise to Altera. Her attack did not come as a surprise. The death of Jing Ke was not a surprise. Nothing surprised Altera.

However, the fact that Cainabel was not a surprise to Altera did not mean that she was ready to battle with her. It is very unlikely that anyone existed who was ready for such a clash.

And yet, Boudica was not taken aback.

"**Sword of Boudica: Sword Without Promised Victory**!" - the blade in the hands of Boudica flashed a golden light, "**Chariot of Boudica: Chariot Without Promised Protection**!"

The legend of Boudica. The unconquered warrior queen that led the rebellion against the unequaled might of Rome. Guided by her righteous anger, strength and help from those who swore allegiance to her, Boudica led her armies to Rome, inflicting more than one defeat on them. But, in the end, she lost - and died.

The legend of Boudica did not abound in adjectives like "invincible" or "overwhelming", it did not end in victory and was not a story about a great hero. It was just another historical fact on the page of history. A rebellion, several victories - and then a bitter defeat at the hands of the overwhelming enemy, whom she once swore to take revenge on. For the cunning of the Romans, who annexed the lands that were rightfully hers, for their humiliation, when after her coronation of her rights to the throne, she was only forcibly flogged as a troublemaker. And for her daughters who were raped to death. In the end, this legend did not have a hero achieving their coveted victory.

She tried - but lost.

The essence of the legend of Boudica.

Boudicca knew about it. She knew that her winning move would end in defeat. That her magnificent triumph is just a passing whim of fame.

And yet, still she continued to fight.

"For even if I am destined to fall at the end, my battle will not be in vain."

The Britons who followed Boudica did not gain any recognition from Rome - instead, their rebellion was brutally crushed, and all the instigators were slaughtered.

"We will lose in the end - but our struggle was not in vain."

Boudica's life, after all, could easily be described by the word "defeat" or "failure".

"But we fought for a just cause."

That was what was in Boudica's mind.

Perhaps in the end we will die. Perhaps we will become a symbol of a failed struggle.

"But we fought and therefore we will not be forgotten."

Therefore, her blade did not promise victory - in her legend there was no place for such a thing. Her shield did not promise protection - because in the end she could not protect anything - neither her family nor her followers.

She could only give them strength. The power to fight back.

And so Altera and Remus felt a surge of strength.

"Because in the end, even knowing about our defeat, we will fight."

Cainabel knew what this Noble Phantasm meant. Even if she was not a creature of this world, the Grail from the strength of which she was embodied in this world, gave her knowledge. However, she wasn't one of those who would cherish a hero who would march to their premeditated death - therefore, instead of congratulations, laughs burst out of her throat - "Noble Phantasms that promises nothing... What a fitting ability for such a failure of a Servant - when even your greatest strength is just a parlor trick that can't even guarantee the effect…"

However, Boudica's Phantasm acted as it was necessary.

"**Teardrop Photon Ray**," Altera's words, reinforced by Boudicca's abilities, instantly took shape, "Star of Tears, War God's Sword."

The true form of Altera's weapon, the blade of Mars itself. Although Boudica's blade was indeed capable of attacking the target compared to Altera's own power, it was all too insignificant in the end. Besides, judging by the current rank of Boudica's Phantasm, she also couldn't reach Cainabel. This situation required particularly heavy artillery.

For example, the manifestation of the Divine Power of Mars itself, the God of War.

Photon Ray - this was not the most suitable name for a blade, suggesting rather thoughts of weapons described by science fiction writers. However, such a name had its own rationale.

Using the power of her own Noble Phantasm, Altera was able to summon all the power of Mars for a brief moment, bringing to reality the power of God of War himself, striking with his blade at the chosen target. However, the times of the Age of Gods, when the figure of Mars himself rising from the horizon could raise its blade and bring it to the ground, have passed, so the power of Altera's Noble Phantasm has acquired a different form. A form of destruction, a form similar to the blow of the God of War, a form more suitable for the modern world.

And what could be more modern than a barrage of an orbital ion weapon?

In an instant the strike with all the power of Mars himself tore the earth, blasting its target with the likeness of a nuclear explosion, striking a defenseless target, trying to defend itself from the force of nature that is a God - and annihilating the target completely with a slight superior laugh from the God of War.

But this was not the end of their assault.

"**Magna Exitium Magnum**!" Remus' Noble Phantasm followed.

Cainabel possessed monstrous parameters, powers, and even if she was wounded gravely by Altera's Full-strength attack - there was nothing that Altera and Remus could do to finish her off. All that remained for Altera and the Servants with her was to strike at their full strength from the very beginning. Using the Noble Phantasm of Boudica, Altera and Remus had to strike with their full power. And if someone possessed the power necessary to breach through Cainabel's defense, then Altera and Remus were definitely the first candidates anyone would choose for this.

Remus was killed by his brother, Romulus, when they created their blessed Rome together. Neither in history nor in legends were the accurate information been preserved about the reason for such acts - someone had said that they argued about the location of Rome. Someone else said that they fought one another because they did not find a way to share their future power. Truth, as in many cases, was lost in the tides of time and, frankly, was not so important in the end.

Only the facts were important in the end. Romulus killed Remus and built Rome on the ground stained by his blood.

Romulus represented his Rome, the whole civilization of Rome like a big tree - growing upward, stretching its branches - civilizations, leaves - people, and fruits - the movement of mankind forward. But, like any tree, Rome demanded food for its growth. Life-giving water. And that source was Remus' blood.

Blood from his body, on which Rome grew. Rome, from which was the backbone of the history of mankind, of civilization. Rome, whose influence made its way into a thousand different layers of every occupation, empire, and science - from Roman law to Roman numerals, Rome sprung into thousands of branches, which turned into a thousand pillars holding civilization.

And now Remus demanded a tribute for the blood on which these civilizations grew on.

In other words, it was a Noble Phantasm that became stronger the more advanced the world around Remus was. Rome was the cradle of the civilized world, and therefore its overgrown branches only fed even more the greatness of Rome. The greatness that Remus would use against the enemy.

In the time of Antiquity, in the time where Roman achievements was commonly known, this Noble Phantasm was comparable to the power of Remus' brother, Romulus. However, if instead the reality around Remus was different, if civilization had moved forward - every invention, every outstanding mind, every painted masterpiece, every stone laid in a building would be an additional force for this Noble Phantasm. For this Noble Phantasm brought down the power of civilization itself on the one who dared to encroach on Remus - the one on whose blood the greatest empires grew upon.

A blow from Altera's blade could level a mountain to the ground - but the blow from Remus would turn the remaining wasteland into the deepest canyon on earth. Even Cainabel could not have brushed aside such a blow.

The strength of the two Noble Phantasms, strengthened further by Boudica, struck Cainabel, instantly turning the ground around her to dust and destroying the earth, leaving a crater kilometers in depth. A deafening roar capable of killing a person arose - however, despite this - there was no dust after an attack of this caliber. Where Remus' blow broke the ground asunder, Altera's blow burned out everything that could fly into the air.

Therefore, blinking several times, trying to calm her head from the roar, Boudica looked at the place where Cainabel was standing upon.

At this place there was only a multi-kilometer deep crater. And there was no Cainabel at all.

"We…" - disbelievingly, Boudica asked a question, - "Won?"

Cainabel was nowhere to be seen.

"We... Won," Boudica muttered again, after which she turned to Altera, with a smile so brittle as if still afraid to break their hard earned victory, "We won-KHA!"

No wonder she was afraid.

Boudica fell to the ground, leaning on it with all her limbs. A second later, she vomited.

However, it was neither her breakfast nor bile. An unstoppable flow of blood escaped from Boudica's mouth.

"Boudica!" Altera rushed to the girl, but Boudica's body jerked again, after which her body literally exploded in streams of blood. Every pore of her body, every hole - nose, eyes, ears - oozed blood, draining the girl severely every second. After only a few moments, her body, drained and bloodless, fell to the ground, moving for the last time. All the blood that came out of the girl's body suddenly began to boil, after which it slowly began to stretch upward, ignoring the laws of physics.

"Not bad," Cainable's voice, from nowhere, sounded pleased, "But do not forget. Noble Phantasms are not only for you. **Lord of Blood** \- a much simpler and more sonorous name - don't you think?"

The mass of blood rose, and then sharply acquired colors, turning into Cainabel, with her appearance just as she looked before.

Altera felt her heart stop for a second.

"**Lord of Blood**," Cainabel smiled. "A Noble Phantasm that, quite prosaic, only strengthens my existing abilities with regard to blood control. Simple, but very useful."

Cainabel glanced at Altera, then at Remus.

"You can try this attack again," Cainabel shook her head. "If, of course, you want to. In my opinion it turned out somehow stupid and boring…"

"Although," Cainabel suddenly looked at Remus, "You... An interesting ability... I would even say ... One I'm familiar with..."

Remus only gripped his weapon tighter.

"Oh, don't worry, I will still find out everything when you fall," Cainabel shook her head, and then raised her umbrella, "Well..., no one thinks that the time has come for a second bout?"

* * *

Despite his weak looking appearance, a huge bag of fat hanging on the belly, and a full-cheeked good-natured face, Caesar fought with the ferocity of a lion and an agility which could not be seen in much more athletically built Servants. The Dragon Witch repulsed each of his attacks, but even so, Caesar was not an easy enemy.

"Why?", Striking another blow, Caesar only asked a question.

"Why what?" The Witch didn't really like to talk during battle, but because of the situation, the inability of Caesar to reverse the outcome of the battle made her answer.

"Why did you kill Nero?" Caesar spoke coldly, concentrating on attacks and parries, and still spoke calmly, as if not at the center of the battle.

"This shit again," the Witch only snorted in response, "No one killed her, but you can believe anything you want."

"You killed Cu Chulainn, your own ally," Caesar objected calmly, "Destroyed Rome, killing tens, hundreds of thousands of people. You are a murderer."

"It was necessary," the Witch answered sharply, while inflicting a dangerous attack. However, Caesar was not easily defeated, fending off the blow.

"Necessary?" Caesar said, clutching the blade in his hand, "How many times have you justified yourself with these words? Is it necessary to kill an ally so as not to die herself?"

"Shut up," the Witch dealt another sharp blow, "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh, it seems to me that I am," Caesar countered another dangerous attack. "I see right through you. You hide behind your rudeness and nihilism because you yourself see that you are a traitor."

"Shut up, I said!" The Witch struck another sweeping blow, trying to force Caesar to shut up, but he parried the predictably directed blow.

"So if I shut up it will change the truth?" Caesar looked up at the Witch. Cold, condemning, as if piercing through her with his eyes, - "Will it change your actions? You even hate yourself for your deeds and think that the fact that I shut up will fix it?"

"SHUT UP!" The Witch rushed forward, opening for a blow. But Caesar did not seize the opportunity again, fending off the blade.

"You gain strength from hatred, but no one will ever hate you more than you do yourself," Caesar spoke calmly, seeming to completely stop paying attention to the battle, "Self-hatred is the only force that still holds you afloat. While everyone is striving for their own goals, you are striving for self-destruction. You act this way because you realize how low you fell. You savor your own disgust. You move forward only in order to find even more opportunities to prove to yourself how justified your self-hatred is…"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" - The Witch went completely on the attack, striking blow after blow.

'But he is right…' - a voice in her head, her skill answered her - 'Listen and you will easily understand how much he is right…'

"Shut up!" The Witch dealt another reckless blow, completely forgetting about her defense.

Caesar, of course, would take full advantage of this opportunity.

"**Crocea Mors**," his blade flashed with gold in his hands, "**Veni, Vidi, Vici.**"

Perhaps Caesar was not the most powerful swordsman in the world. But his mind and eloquence could not be underestimated.

* * *

Nero looked languidly at how slowly the blood stretched from the body of Medusa, pouring into the body of Baal.

"Oh, how nice it is to feel that..." - the column of flesh shuddered with pleasure. Nero would have vomited from the sight, if she still had the strength for such manifestations of emotions - "As if I was born anew!"

Nero could have asked many questions to her Master - why did he need the blood of Medusa, what the false Grail in Corfinius really was, what he planned to do now, or who the Master of Baal really was...

But these things in the end did not bother her.

All the power that Nero had, to questions and thoughts had disappeared. There was only a miserable shell, devoid of any emotions.

"Nero, my dear," Baal smiled at her, "Are you sure you don't want to be summoned as a Rider? Believe me, if you were summoned to such a class, then your potential would increase... Tremendously."

Nero shuddered. Despite the fact that her emotions had completely left her - this thought still made her body, now looking like an empty shell, shudder.

"No," Nero answered again.

Nero knew that Baal was trying hard to force her to be summoned as Rider, and in fact her opinion meant little. However, if Baal had forcibly tried to transform her into a Rider - without any desire to obey, she would have attacked Baal - and it was not known who would be the winner in that battle...

Her body now obeyed him because of the power of Command Spells. It was worth summoning her as a Rider - even this barrier could not hold her for long.

A traitor, a destroyer of Rome, an unfortunate emperor who himself incurred all misfortunes and loneliness at the end... Does she want to be remembered as the destroyer of the world too?..

Nero did not entertain herself with the thought that the destruction was done by the hands of other Servants. You cannot blame the blade that cuts your body. Blame the enemy that holds the blade.

But she held this blade herself.

"Oh, well, you understand that only in case of our victory can I return everything to as it was before?" - Baal used the same arguments, slowly undermining her conviction - "Or do you think that Ainz will be able to wave his hands and magically return everything as it was before?"

Nero was no longer sure what she had to believe. Visions of destruction, the words of the Servants, the actions that unfolded due to her one act... Baal hoped to show her how this world actually rotted and how flawed the people are in it - but could only show what mistake she herself had made.

"Servants, Servants, Servants..." - Baal muttered quietly - "Oh... You do one thing, and the result is completely different. I wanted to drive one into a rage, but instead drove her into depression. What are you..."

Suddenly, Baal's speech was interrupted and Nero shuddered.

Echoes of pain, inhuman pain came to her through her connection, pouring out of Baal, just as wine would pour out of an overfilled bowl.

The column of flesh that is Baal's flesh shuddered.

"What... What was that?" Euryale glanced at Baal, but instantly her body was bent over when a wave of pain swept through all her nerve endings again, "What is it?!"

The column of Baal's flesh froze.

For the first time in all the time that Baal was, no one received an answer.

Baal froze for a second, after which he mumbled quietly, almost inaudibly, "Oh..."

Nero looked up, and for the first time ever, in the mass of seething flesh could be traced... Anxiety. Fear.

"Oh-oh-oh..." - the column suddenly shuddered when a crushing burst of pain caused Nero to fall to the ground - "Stheno... Ran into some problems..."

"Stheno?" Euryale looked up.

"And..." Baal continued his thought, after which he was suddenly startled with such force that the ceiling of the cave, to which the column of flesh reached, trembled. In the voice of Baal erupted... Horror - "We, would be going too as well..."

* * *

**Master of Many Resistances**

Although Ainz has many of his own weaknesses - fire, holy magic and bludgeoning weapons - he has even more defenses. Some of them were provided by his race and classes - protection from dark magic, cold or poison. Part by his own power - like Ainz's Immunity to Attacks below a certain level, there is additional protection against non-magical weapons. Part of it is also from his equipment, like various kits that protect him from his weaknesses - such as fire damage. And part - due to quests he had completed - such as protection against arrows. Such abilities are not strong enough to deserve their own separate skill like Immunity to Attacks, they are not extensive enough, but at the same time they exist and are quite numerous, therefore they were assigned to a separate skill uniting such abilities.

In other words, this skill rather than a skill of its own is a kind of statement - "if this attack was used at least once somewhere in the world, then Ainz has a way to defend himself against it" - which of course has become a reality.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
**

**And hey - Singularity ended and even a bunch of new Servants was summoned! On my Pat reon though, so 6 - chapters for now. And the 5$ vote is opened yet again. For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, to the end of this Singularity and beyond. For 5$ you also can vote for different topics - such as "interludes about whom should I write". Yeah, that's all ****I wanted to tell you about.**


	65. Chapter 65

Zhuge Liang evaded another attack, then another, and another.

"You play pretty good catch-up ~ woof!" Berserker sounded delighted, an emotion completely unsuitable for the battlefield, "But... Honestly, this game is already starting to bore me..."

Zhuge Liang sent a couple of spells in response, and then retreated.

The situation looked... Pretty bad.

In battle, Zhuge Liang's abilities were… disappointing to say the least - his real strength laid in planning and commanding. Thus, if he had been summoned into the Holy Grail War - he would have a good chance to become a winner - avoiding conflicts, preparing his defenses, and manipulating other Servants and Masters to weaken each other, he could provide himself with very favorable fighting conditions.

Unfortunately - and perhaps fortunately at the same time - Romulus did not use his abilities in this manner, instead forcing Zhuge Liang to fight along with the rest of the Servants on the front line at the behest of his Master. This meant that the most effective aspects of Zhuge Liang's abilities remain unused - and the great commander was forced to show his as not-so-great-warrior side. It was... Sad of course, but on the other hand - who knew what could have happened if Zhuge Liang had instead come under Romulus' sway and contributed to the creation of an attack plan?

"You're open!" Berserker's next blow nearly killed Zhuge Liang, forcing him to fly to the ground, and then roll frantically, bouncing to his feet, to avoid the finishing blow. The ground into which Berserker's little girl's fist impacted rose like water, raising clouds of dust.

"She obviously has some kind of physical enhancement..." - Zhuge Liang automatically deduced - "Monstrous Strength, maybe?"

In any case, his knowledge of the Berserker's capabilities could not help him at the moment. The only reason Berserker was still not able to catch him was because she perceived the battle more as a game than a battle, at the end of which one of the fighters had to die.

Zhuge Liang sent a couple more spells, while doing his best to evade the attacks.

Somewhere nearby, Alexander cried out, after which the clamor of a blade colliding with Lancer's spear almost made Zhuge Liang turn toward Alexander's direction, checking to see if everything was okay with him. Unfortunately, Zhuge Liang doesn't have the chance as he was busy with much more important and dangerous things at the moment...

"Hmm, you won't fight back at all?" - he admits, this glib phrase of Berserker injured Zhuge Liang more than he would like to admit. Yes, he was not a warrior, but he was not so bad, - "You know, I'm seriously running after you here!"

What answer could Zhuge Liang give response? That he was fighting seriously anyway? Or that Berserker was not worth his full strength? Any of the two options led to defeat - the first to the moral, the second to the physical.

"Wow, you are starting to annoy me," Berserker snorted, and then rolled her eyes. "You know, I argued with Eli... Lancer that if I can defeat you, she won't sing for a week!"

Zhuge Liang frowned - Lancer, Eli... He probably knew her...

"And you know, I don't want to lose so easily on this issue!" Berserker smiled, and then leaned forward a little. Under normal conditions, this would mean that she was going to demonstrate a good cutout on her chest, but instead she hung her arms forwars, so that they almost touched the ground, bending her legs a little, which made her pose look like a wild predator, getting ready for the jump.

"A wild tiger goes hunting ~ woof!" Berserker smiled, after which the energy that sharply struck from her body marked the use of a Noble Phantasm, "**Opulence of Sun and Shine and Catnap**!"

"Catnap?" - Zhuge Liang was deep in thought for a second, after which he barely managed to put his hand up to block an attack.

Berserker's hands - Tamamo - was covered with a wool-like gloves, but if before her hand looked like it was covered with a large soft woolly glove - now her hand really was a huge paw of a beast, whose sharp claws, with almost no resistance, cut off Zhuge Liang's hand with a swipe .

"Oh shit!" Zhuge Liang swore quietly, throwing himself away to dodge the swipe that was barely slowed down by sacrificing his hand, "Tamamo Cat, one of the nine Tamamo, embodying her bestial essence..."

As if in response, Tamamo howled behind Zhuge Liang, rushing forward towards him, like a beast chasing its prey

"And how do you plan to get away this time, Zhuge Liang?" - Zhuge Liang gritted his teeth, and then rushed away.

Cainabel took a step forward, slowly pointing her umbrella forward in the likeness of a blade, first to Remus, then towards Altera.

* * *

"Who's next?" - despite the fact that she did not say such a thing - her manners, posture, and movements - conveyed her thought very well.

Altera squeezed his blade.

Her trump cards rained down one after another.

Yes, this time she managed to destroy Cainabel's body with the help of Remus, but what difference does it make if she was capable of returning from the disembodied particles by killing another Servant?

It was just... Pointless? Not fair?

Unbalanced?

Altera's last thought seemed oddly appropriate to her for some reason.

"Hm, has the little tin toy already broken?" Cainabel sighed regretfully, "What sadness... I was hoping you would have a couple more surprises - I was so interested in your skills... Hm, Civilization Erosion... A terrific skill that gives you almost absolute control over anything that you touched - just saturate the object with mana and you can manipulate it freely, changing it according to your desire and understanding…"

Altera felt her hand involuntarily clench.

In the last battle, Cainabel had no idea that such a skill existed never mind how this skill works.

As if having read reading the question that was written on the Altera's face, Cainabel shook her head - "Boudica knew about your abilities. And when I swallowed her, I got some of these memories. Just like I say - **Lord of Blood** is simple, but very useful."

Altera glanced at Boudica's body. The drained, bloodless shell, as if having lost all the colors of life, lay still, a reminder of the strength of the enemy in front of her.

Not far from her lay the body of Jing Ke. Flattened, it continued to ooze blood, a reminder of Altera's weakness.

Altera knew that she was an avatar of destruction. Battles, victories, defeats and death - all that was ordered by the Master will be done. But the rest... Her Servants... Boudica, Jing Ke, even Spartacus - the fact that he was a Berserker did not mean that Altera did not feel a sense of responsibility for him.

Altera felt a new emotion. The last one that she would be feeling, if she did have any say over it.

The desire for revenge.

Altera raised her blade. Sensing her intentions, Remus too raised his huge sword.

"Under normal circumstances, I would like to play with the two of you, maybe even use my second Noble Phantasm - just to enjoy your despair," Cainabel grinned "But I was instructed to deal with you quickly. So that…"

Cainabel grabbed her umbrella, and then opened it, protecting herself from the sun's rays, grinning - "So come on, don't waste my time."

Altera rushed, a moment later - Remus followed her. Cainabel simply smiled in response...

After a moment, a dozen lances hit Altera from all sides. Her reflexes did not fail her - the blade flickered in her hands, repelling dozens of attacks.

"**Lord of Blood** strengthens my control over blood, and its use is not only for regeneration," Cainabel shook her head, "Seriously, you should have removed or destroyed Jing Ke's corpse at least..."

Jing Ke's body immediately turned gray like Boudica's body when every drop of blood still remaining in her body was used as projectiles that struck Altera from all sides, turning her blood into hundreds of deadly projectiles. Cainabel sighed, - "The second strike."

Altera was able to repel every attack - hundreds of bullet-like drops of blood hit from all sides, but Cainabel did not even seem concerned. Altera wanted to throw an insult, as miserable as her condition is it's the only thing she still had. Perhaps by declaring that her vaunted second strike was useless...

However, before she could utter a word she instantly felt pain assault her body. A sharp pain that ended after a moment.

The image in front of her face changed rapidly - Altera suddenly saw the ground approaching, turning before her eyes, after which she saw the sky - and, unexpectedly, her body. Her headless body with Remus's figure towering over her body with his sword posed as if after a swing.

Altera wanted to move her hand, but found that her body no longer obeyed her commands. Altera's gaze fell on Remus holding the blade in his hands. The blade that chopped off her head.

Why?

Altera did not understand.

Was the brother killed by the insane betrayal of his own brother capable of this? To betray and stab Altera in the back?

"No," her mind suddenly came to the conclusion. Remus's gaze looked... Shaken. Unbelieving. As if he could not understand why he had killed his own ally.

"Blood control," Cainabel sighed. "Any living body contains blood. In other words - while I control their blood - I can control their body. Simple - and effective."

Cainabel's second blow was a distraction that allowed her to take control of Remus, after which he struck Altera with his sword, decapitating her.

How…

Low? Vile? Stupid? Effective? Cowardly?

Altera could not understand what answer she had to choose.

Consciousness began to leave Altera, measuring her last moments of life.

Battle, Cainabel, Servants, Baal...

All this mixed up in her head.

"But if I get another chance..." - Altera felt a last thought piercing her mind - "Could I do everything... Better?"

Altera's mind did not provide an answer to this question. Perhaps... It was for the better.

A moment later, the headless body of Altera collapsed, an end to her battles.

* * *

Alexander fought off Lancer's onslaught, parrying her spear, trying his best to swing his blade over and over again.

"I admit, I expected more from Alexander the Great!" Lancer dealt another blow, forcing Alexander to grimace.

"First, defeat me, and then brag!" Alexander rushed forward. Under his current condition, he was indeed summoned as a Rider - the most suitable class for him, but even so - he was summoned as a Servant in his younger years, because of which his strength was significantly affected. If he had his full power, then defeating Lancer would not have become an obstacle for him - as well as many other things. Even Romulus would have made room on his pedestal for him... However, in the current condition, his strength was much lower than he would have liked.

"Huh, as if it would be a problem!" Lancer stuck out her tongue. A completely childish mockery, however, Alexander, himself summoned as a child, answered her with a hail of blows.

"Missed, missed, missed!" Using her advantage in agility, Lancer dodged Alexander's blows, not forgetting to shout insults every time after evading each of Alexander's blows.

"Shut up!" - such puerile insults annoyed Alexander above all kinds of thoughtful speeches, "I am Alexander the Great, and I will be the winner in this battle!"

"Prove it!" Lancer, almost laughing, dodged the next blow.

Prove? Prove?!

Oh, someone will seriously pay for these words.

For a second, Alexander stepped back, bringing the blade over his head, "**Zeus Thunder**!"

Lancer, having heard this, instantly retreated, escaping from the wrath of Zeus, but the lightning striking from the sky drew an arc, crashing not into Lancer, but into Alexander.

"Ha, you missed!" Lancer grinned, after which she nevertheless readied herself for any attacks, "You couldn't even use your Noble Phantasm properly!"

Elizabeth focused her gaze to the place where Alexander was supposed to be standing, preparing for the figure struck by lightning and his own conceit would do after emerging from the rising dust, but instead...

"Your stupidity only shows your failure as a Servant," the voice that answered her belonged to Alexander — but it was... Deeper. Perhaps even older sounding?

The figure taking a step out of the dust cloud looked like Alexander, but also radically different from him. The boy who had walked out of the cloud was... Taller. His body, which had previously displayed a child's fragility, was now toned and athletic. His gaze, although not losing his youthful ardor, became sharper and wiser.

Alexander in an instant became... an Adult?

"Hey!" Elizabeth instantly called out to him, "That's not fair! I also want to do that!"

"Hmm, what happened to your ridicules?" Alexander readied his blade, "Or are you not so brave against adults?"

"Adults..." - Elizabeth repeated to herself, then her emotions instantly boiled, "Are you an adult?! Come here, I'll kick your ass now!"

"You can try it!" Alexander grinned. The lightning of Zeus, his Noble Phantasm, with each application would bring him closer to his true, adult form. Unfortunately, even this method could not give him access to his true Noble Phantasm - **Ionian Hetairoi** \- but it still strengthened his parameters pretty good.

However, before rushing forward - Alexander was distracted by a body that crashed to the ground right next to him. Glancing at it for an instant, he was able to determine that this body was his old ally - and perhaps even a friend - Zhuge Liang.

"Waver!" Alexander immediately rushed to him.

Zhuge Liang's condition looked... very bad. His left arm was missing, his right leg was practically turned into dust - Alexander saw bones peering out from under the flesh. His whole body was covered with bleeding wounds, which is why his stylish outfit - shirt, cloak - was all saturated with blood.

"Oh, Alexander," Zhuge Liang focused his eyes on Rider, "I didn't think I would see you."

"Waver!" Alexander rushed to the Caster, lifting his body. Zhuge Liang instantly grimaced in pain when Alexander's hands lifted him into the air.

"It seems that the games are over ~ woof," Berserker's voice forced Alexander to turn around to see the Berserker appearing next to Lancer, "And what about you?"

"Not bad, but now I'm offended by Rider," Lancer frowned, frowning. "He has the ability to become older!"

"Oh, an unusual ability ~ woof," Berserker answered with a smile, "Envious?"

"Not at all!" Lancer instantly went into denial, snorting and turning away from Alexander.

Waver on his hands was dying while his two opponents communicated completely unsettled by such things.

"Woof," Berserker unexpectedly yawned. "I must admit that I'm already tired. Let me take a little nap?"

"Are you crazy?!" Lancer gave her a new look. "We are fighting!"

"And I'm tired," Berserker objected logically, in her opinion, after which she began to look around, as if looking for a suitable place to sleep, "For now, deal with this, and I'll take a nap..."

Berserker went to bed. After nearly killing Waver.

Alexander squeezed the blade so hard he could hear his bones crunch.

He will kill them. Kill them all.

Alexander prepared to jump into the thick of the battle...

"**Luminosite Eternelle**!" - came from afar.

A Phantasm... The Noble Phantasm of Jeanne d'Arc. Just a Noble Phantasm aimed at strengthening their allies.

"Even though!" A moment later, Berserker turned her gaze toward Alexander, "It will still be possible to sleep later..."

"Yes, that's it..." - Waver's voice sounded almost resigned, "Failure after failure..."

Zhuge Liang, barely able to get up, turned his head toward the enemy, "Good... Okay, well, it's time to demonstrate some asian magic..."

Rising from his position, leaning on only the remaining arm, Zhuge Liang looked at his target, and then exhaled, "**Unreturning Army**!"

After a second, the power of the Noble Phantasm took shape.

Ready to rush into battle, Lancer and Berserker found themselves... Locked.

A moment later, the barrier that appeared on their path seemed to rewrite reality itself around them, turning the previously deserted plain into a canvas cut by hundreds of barriers, a kind of maze.

"What the hell?!" Lancer glanced at the wall that had arisen in front of her, after which she rushed forward. Instantly, she flew into one of the barriers that arose, forcing her to take a step back.

"You can definitely forget about them for ten minutes," Zhuge Liang breathed out, falling to the ground. Oh, how much he suffered at the hands of Tamamo...

"Waver!" Alexander, realizing that the opponents were neutralized for a while, rushed to his friend, "You..."

He probably should have asked "Are you alright", but Alexander could see very clearly that Zhuge Liang was, in fact, not at all alright, so he asked another question: "Will you survive?"

"I wish I knew..." Zhuge Liang started coughing up blood. Light puncturing in the lungs...

"Shit..." - Alexander swore to himself. Waver's chances of survival seemed ghastly.

"Don't worry," Waver coughed again, "Anyway, there's little benefit from me participating in battle..."

Alexander, taking care of Zhuge Liang's condition, struck him.

"Well, shut up !" Alexander immediately pulled Zhuge Liang toward him. "I'm the king who determines value, and I don't remember calling you useless!"

The pain from Alexander's blow made Zhuge Liang grimace, resonating with the pain of broken bones, but Caster grinned anyway, "Yes, yes... You're a fool, Alexander."

"A fool who did not give you the right to give up so easily!" Alexander glanced at Zhuge Liang, then at the opponents, "Do your barriers only affect the enemy?"

"Yes," Zhuge sighed, then coughed, "So you can..."

After a second, Zhuge Liang suddenly froze. His pupils dilated, after which Alexander felt how suddenly it became hotter.

"Oh..." Zhuge Liang muttered to himself.

"What the hell..." Alexander cursed.

**Luminosite Eternelle** \- Noble Phantasm of Jeanne d'Arc - affected not only their opponents.

* * *

Veni. Vidi. Vici.

Perhaps this was Caesar's most famous phrase.

I came. I saw. I conquer.

That is how Caesar remained in the memory of people. A magnificent consul and a brilliant strategist, a charming commander and an invincible conqueror.

Caesar was not glorified as a warrior - but as a commander, he always presented himself as a victor, a triumphant commander.

The Grail placed Caesar in the Saber class. As a Servant of the Sword, Caesar himself was far from being as effective in the battlefield as in a battle of minds. Unfortunately, fighting with swords it was difficult to prove oneself a commander.

However, people's memory remembered the words.

Veni. Vidi. Vici.

The idea of Caesar as an invincible triumpher. The idea of Caesar as a great winner. The idea of Caesar winning his battles.

And this idea has come its way into becoming Caesar's Noble Phantasm.

Crocea Mors, Caesar's blade, was quite ordinary during his lifetime. However, faced with the idea of people about the invincible Caesar, its essence was changed.

Veni.

The moment when Caesar took out his blade.

Vidi.

The moment when the name of the Noble Phantasm was called.

Vici.

The moment when Caesar's blow found his target.

Caesar's blade reflected his victories, his triumphs, the idea of his invincibility.

And Caesar, striking, released the power of this blade.

After the first strike, the Witch swayed, but immediately parried the next. More precisely, she tried.

It seemed as if space itself was bent at the moment when Caesar dealt the next blow, drawing away the Witch's blade. Then - again, the third blow of Caesar. And more - and more.

The power of Caesar's Noble Phantasm was great. Each blow of his blade signified yet another of his "victory". A victory that could not be opposed. Space itself and causality were twisted in such a way as to allow Caesar to deliver another blow.

The only thing that could be opposed to such a thing was the force of luck. Ordinary luck. Caesar, who died at the hands of his close friends, was vulnerable to the luck of the enemy, so only a small fraction of luck could turn the tide of the battle.

However, the Witch, a creature born of suffering and hatred, had a stunningly low rank in Luck - E.

Therefore, Caesar's blows rained down one after another.

Leg, arm, lung, liver, stomach, neck, second lung, heart...

Each blow of Caesar hit right on target, breaking through the Witch's defenses, striking her blow after blow, wound after wound. In just a few moments, the Witch's body turned into a pincushion - a mutilated, bleeding, in pain pincushion.

"Hah, so this is how I die" - the Witch thought instantly when a hundred Caesar's blades pierced her body from all sides - "What a shitty way to die..."

The endless hail of blows lasted only a couple of seconds - but during this time the Witch felt hundreds of blows that instantly turned her into a piece of meat that could hardly maintain consciousness. A moment later, the Witch fell, feeling her wound explode in pain at the same time.

"You deserve it," Her skill's voice spoke distinctly.

"Ha... Maybe I do..." - The Witch felt a grin crawl at her face through all the pain.

Caesar, having finished his last blow, looked at the Witch with cold eyes, after which he took a step towards her, stopping nearby, as if wanting to see how she would die from a hundred wounds inflicted.

"Ha... Well, you are a bastard, Caesar..." - The Witch grinned at herself, after which she closed her eyes.

To open them instantly again.

"**Luminosite Eternelle**!" Jeanne's voice came from afar.

The Witch looked away and saw her.

Jeanne d'Arc.

Her reflection.

She stood still, raising her flag.

Why did she decide to use her Noble Phantasm right now? Not earlier and not later?

Using it earlier, she could even try to stand on even ground with Romulus... Using it later - she could deliver an unexpected blow to a weakened enemy...

Why?

Suddenly, the Witch caught the eyes of Jeanne. Her gaze was aimed at... Her.

Jeanne looked at the Witch with concern. With fear. And hope.

Jeanne used Noble Phantasm to... Help her?

The thought itself was absurd, but at the same time it fit perfectly into the picture of Jeanne d'Arc, the holy savior of France, that could even support her dark alter ego when it could not cope in battle.

What a... Stupid thought.

But at the same time, the Witch suddenly felt like somewhere inside her... It became warmer.

The Witch grinned, after which she looked up at Caesar.

Even so, even being saved from death for a pitiful moment by Jeanne's Noble Phantasm, the Witch had no power to defeat Caesar. But she still had the strength to commit a last act of retribution.

The Witch abruptly rushed forward at Caesar, who did not expect such actions from an almost dead Servant, and then grabbed him with one hand. The second, having brought the sword behind his back, the Witch drove it into Caesar's back, piercing his body through and through. But she did not stop there, Caesar could still escape - even after being injured in this way.

The Witch pulled the blade toward herself, piercing her body, planting them both as if on a pin.

"What are you doing?!" Caesar glanced at the Witch.

"Great meanness," the Witch looked into Caesar's eyes.

Her mind touched Ainz's.

"Hey, Master," the Witch chuckled, "I need mana. All of it."

"Good, now" - the Witch felt in a second all her abilities increased, but...

"All!" - The Witch felt - "Everything, everything that you have!"

"But..." - The Witch felt Ainz's doubts - "It will destroy your body."

"I'm already a corpse anyway." - The Witch chuckled - "So... Little loss."

For a second, Ainz fell silent, forcing the Witch to sense that Caesar was trying to escape, but after a moment she suddenly felt how her body seemed to be plunged into an ocean.

In an ocean of power.

A moment later, the Witch sensed an endless sea of power pouring into her, destroying her body. Just a few seconds - that's her whole limit.

The Witch, however, did not need more.

"And also - tell Jeanne and Mashu to get away" - the Witch grinned for the last time - "I think… there will be quite a big firework."

With these words, the Witch sensed her body breaking down, after which she looked into Caesar's eyes.

"So much a traitor that she even betrayed herself," she said, after which, sensing how her time was drawing to a close, she pronounced the name of her Noble Phantasm, "**La Grondement Du Haine**"

* * *

**Master of Many Resistances:** _EX_

At this rank, this ability allows the possessor to prepare for almost all possible types of attacks and manipulations, ranging from banal arrows and ending with exotic protection against specific diseases, essentially gaining a resistance skill in these abilities of various ranks. The more specific a protection is required, the stronger the protection is created - up to obtaining complete invulnerability to a specific spell or type of attack, however, the larger the category of abilities to be protected from, the less effective this skill is. In other words, this skill can completely neutralize one specific ability - even of EX rank - or provide protection against almost all types of influences at the level of specific skills of rank E ~ D.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
**

**Answering some questions: how much negative energy CAN the servant withstand before dying? - Severely depends on a case. Very weak Servants can die within a minute. Very strong one - hours and even days. There are some exceptions though, of course.**

**in a hallway somewhere in nazarick there's almost 72 demon of Solomon or something right? - Luci*Fer started to make golems that imitated demons that were described in Lemegenton but became bored after making 67 of them and left them unfinished. We know almost nothing about them, except for the fact that they were made from rare-metals and Ainz planned to use them in the 1st Volume should NPC revolt, so they are certainly very powerful.**

**does this mean that Cainabel was destroyed by the blast and was restored through the use of her noble phantasm? - Her body was destroyed by the combination of both NPs.**

**I have one question can Merlin watch ainz or does ainz skills prevent it? - Merlin can't.**

**And hey - Singularity ended and even a bunch of new Servants was summoned! On my Pat reon though, so 6 - chapters for now. And the 5$ vote is opened yet again. For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, to the end of this Singularity and beyond. For 5$ you also can vote for different topics - such as "interludes about whom should I write". Yeah, that's all ****I wanted to tell you about.**


	66. Chapter 66

Hatred.

Hatred, the only thing that moved the one called the Dragon Witch forward.

Hatred towards those who once betrayed her. Hatred towards those who raised their sword against her. Hatred toward God that rejected her prayers when she was in the captivity of the Burgundians.

Self-hatred.

Her Noble Phantasm embodied this unending hatred. Every part of this power was saturated with her endless hatred.

"I hope you will burn in Hell."

The Witch denied God and His divine providence, but in the depths of her soul she still believed in a single thing .

"The Lord will punish everyone I hate."

Her Noble Phantasm was a manifestation of this belief.

Her execution was the moment when the Lord brought out all the flames of Hell, punishing her.

Her Noble Phantasm brought this moment to reality again - however, this power did not punish her, but the one to whom the Witch's hatred was pointed at.

However... There is a limit to what a person is capable of. Even the greatest of hatred is not able to let one go beyond the limits of the possible. Even the most endless of hatred will not make one able to do the impossible.

But the possibilities that an infinite mana could provide on the other hand...

Jeanne instantly teleported away along with Mashu, retreating from the battlefield. Because the endless hatred multiplied by endless mana would be able to give a very... Potent result.

Thousands of blades and thousands of spears bloomed on the entire island, striking from under the ground, randomly piercing the Servants on the island.

"**Thermopylae Enomotia**!" Leonidas' Noble Phantasm instantly took its place. Once three hundred Spartans took on their shields the blows of an infinitely superior enemy. The legend of the three hundred Spartans brought to the present the grandeur of their feat, embellishing and portraying their feat with a truly heroic scale.

But even three hundred great warriors could not restrain the infinite power with which thousands of blades struck in all directions.

"**Moles Necessrie**!" Romulus' Noble Phantasm, his infinite love of Rome took shape. But even Romulus' love could not save them from the endless hatred of the burnt saint.

The Dragon Witch smiled while looking into Caesar's eyes.

Endless self-hatred of herself. A betrayal strong enough, giving her strength, which killed even herself. And the endless Mana from Ainz.

These three converging factors turned the Witch's Noble Phantasm into the greatest demonstration of her hatred.

"For we will all burn in Hell" - the Witch grinned.

Then on the thousands of blades that bloomed in all directions, the endless fire of her hatred descended.

* * *

"Damn, damn, damn!" Baal panicked. Even hiding in the deepest cave, he understood that it was impossible to defend himself from such power so simply, even for him.

Lines of magic circles, dozens of spells, barriers rising out of nowhere - all intertwined in a single panicked response, a panicking Baal frantically attempting to defend himself from the Witch's hatred fire approaching him.

Nero only looked at the display of magic blankly. Dozens of barriers, spells, all things that Baal wanted to use for his salvation and her remaining miserable shell that could not even move.

"Do not attack me" was the order given by Baal using the first Command Spell that Baal used against Nero.

"Obey my orders" is the second order.

Looking at the hastily constructed barriers arise, Nero blinked.

After all... The order to "do not destroy my barriers" did not exist for her?

Nero blinked, then clutched the blade in her hands.

"Fuck!" Baal used one more spell, then one more and one more, trying to create as strong a shield as possible, the one able to protect Baal from outside interference.

Nero understood that she would die... But even so...

Better to die defending her Empire, her people. Better she would die as the Emperor.

Nero's blade instantly pierced one of the barriers that just arose.

"What?!" Baal froze for a second. Nero managed to deliver a few more blows, destroying the hastily built defense of Baal.

"You - motherfucking bitch!" Baal used the last order, "Do not move!"

Nero froze instantly, but... Even in her assured doom, she smiled.

Enough damage has already been done.

Now Baal's spells could not save him. His beautiful den that he had been preparing for so long was now useless.

"Teleportation!" A moment later, Nero felt Baal and what was left in the cave, his Servants, carried away. Without its prepared lair, Baal was several times less dangerous. All for the better.

"This is my limit," Nero said to herself, "I hope... you can fix my mistakes."

* * *

Zhuge Liang understood with perfect clarity.

This Noble Phantasm he can not not evade nor survive.

Dozens of blades instantly pierced his body, blades that dotted the whole island, blades which should not have existed, thousands of blades struck in all directions, piercing his body and the bodies of the other other Servants. Alexander, Tamamo, Lancer - all of them instantly were nailed in place.

Zhuge Liang realized instantly that salvation from this attack could not be expected.

He grinned for the last time and looked at Alexander.

"**Chu Shi Biao**," the name of his last Noble Phantasm was invoked in reality.

The name of his manuscript, the masterpiece which he once created. The object that made him set off on a long journey in which he will meet his death. A small manuscript that he left to his pupil, Liu Shan, a manuscript that details the thoughts of Zhuge Liang himself. He explained to the young monarch his vision of life and politics, a look at the people around him, and gave his advice and directions. In other words, it was a tool of creating an ideal government written by Zhuge Liang himself, which he left to his pupil.

Perhaps in history the small manuscript has remained a record that simply gathers dust in a distant archive - or, perhaps, lay in plain sight in a museum, covered in a huge glass cube. But as a Servant, this ability was much more significant.

For it was not simply a manuscript, a record of his thoughts. It was the crystallized wisdom of Zhuge Liang himself, which contained the path to victory and to rule, the key to solving any problem. And the Noble Phantasm of Zhuge Liang embodied precisely this concept.

The key to solving any problem.

"Ah?!" Alexander recoiled when his body was absorbed by a barrier that cut him off from reality, "Waver?!"

Alexander turned around instantly, but found that Zhuge Liang was still mounted on many blades.

"I apologize, my King," Zhuge Liang smiled, "But as the captain of this ship, I will go down with it."

"Waver, you moron!" Alexander rushed forward, but the barrier that just appeared was truly indestructible. Zhuge Liang just smiled at him.

The problem facing Zhuge Liang was not "stopping the attack." It was only to "protect Alexander".

Zhuge Liang exhaled and looked at the blades piercing him.

"I want to smoke..." Zhuge Liang chuckled at the thought. His last thought.

* * *

"Did someone placed a curse on me," Elizabeth's body jerked as blades pierced her body, after which she turned her gaze toward Tamamo. The Berserker, for some reason not at all worried that her body was pierced in many places, only raised one eyebrow.

"In the last battle, I also died because of the actions of my allies," Elizabeth sighed.

And the Witch's endless hatred took shape, and nothing remained.

* * *

The resulting whirlwind of flame reached thousands of kilometers, not at all discriminating between the innocent and the guilty, all would burn.

For the Witch's hatred knows no bounds.

The whirlwind of flame rose tens of kilometers, evaporating the clouds with ease, and it plunged into the water, instantly evaporating trillions of tons of water, instantly turning the sea into blasted wasteland. Stone, steel, earth - in an instant, everything touched by the conflagration turned to dust. An area containing hundreds of kilometers of land, water, air simply ceased to exist. The strength of the attack was such that the very word "fire" could no longer be applied to it - it was not a chemical reaction of the transformation of elements, but something else that could hardly be comprehended even by the knowledge of magic. Air molecules have been unbonded into atoms, atoms are divided into quarks, and quarks are disintegrated into nothing that evaporates in the blink of an eye.

The ocean and even the earth beneath it - everything ceased to exist in an amount of time so insignificant that even the greatest time keeping inventions of mankind could not keep track of such amount of time.

The resulting scorched wasteland did not even contain any air.

For my hatred is endless.

* * *

Ainz continued to place his hand on Stheno's stomach, watching the subject with the inhuman patience of the undead.

Stheno screamed. She screamed. And screamed yet again.

At some point, Stheno's screams stopped - her throat seemed to have rotted away. After hundreds of years of unchanging immortality, her body was mutilated like a long-decomposed corpse. Her flesh fell in pieces, turning to dust and scattering on the wind - but Ainz continued to look at the corpse. Calm and even, perhaps... Gleefully.

He was not going to stop.

Stheno could no longer scream - she only continued to wheeze, twitch languidly from pain, but Ainz was okay with such a reaction.

Ainz Ooal Gown.

His family.

If there were things in the world that he really cared about, then this was one of those things.

Ainz did not know what kind of family the Gorgon sisters considered themselves to be. But they considered themselves a family nonetheless.

And Ainz believed that there was not enough punishment for betraying your own family.

But this did not mean that he would not try to reach it.

At some point, Stheno finally stopped twitching - the negative energy from Ainz's hands finally reached her head, turning the beautiful face of the eternal goddess into a mutilated skull covered with dead flesh, but Ainz didn't stop even then. Perhaps it's true that Stheno was already dead - but if there was at least a infinitesimal chance that she might still be in pain, Ainz would continue torturing her. As long as any cell in her body is still alive, the punishment will not stop. As soon as Ainz brought his hand away, Stheno would instantly die. But Ainz did not want to end the torment prematurely.

For death frees you from suffering. And Ainz did not think that he had brought enough suffering to show Stheno how wrongly she had wronged her family.

Only when even the bones of Stheno turned into dust and flew away, scattering the ashes of the goddess away, did Ainz finally step back.

Stheno died a long time ago - there were few things that could kill a Servant from pain alone, but Stheno was able to find one. However, she was definitely not happy of her discovery.

Ainz sighed, after a moment of calm his mind was touched by a connection with the Witch.

Mana.

All the mana that he could give.

This was what the Witch wanted.

Ainz understood that such an action would kill the Witch, but she was already dead.

It was…

It's strange.

Ainz suddenly felt that his anger, the anger that had calmed a little from the death of Stheno, suddenly flared up in him again.

How strange.

The Witch did not have a family here, at least Ainz is sure of it. So she did not die at the hands of her family. So Ainz should have no reason to feel angry, however...

His anger flared up again.

Why?

Why did he feel anger from the death of the Witch?

She was not a part of his family, And she did not die at the hands of her family.

She was a Servant. And she just died, not even permanently.

But Ainz felt... Anger. A new surge of anger.

It was anger directed not at himself or at the Witch. It was anger directed at... the enemy. On the one who had killed the Witch.

Under normal conditions, Ainz would not even notice such a flurry of emotions - the emotions suppressed by his skill would destroy this impulse with ease. But right now, when Ainz refused to suppress his emotions, they provoked a new surge of anger in him.

Because someone broke his exhibit, his collection. Because someone had violated his plan.

But…

How strange...

Because someone killed his Servant.

Ainz felt an incomprehensible emotion. He felt angry over the death of the Witch, which means that he... cared for her? Worried about her? Thought about her?

Did he really care about the Witch? Was he really?

All this time, his suppression of emotions restrained his mind, but now, being free from it, Ainz felt that he... was worried.

For the Witch. For Jeanne. For Mashu. For Olga. For Roman. For all his Servants that remained in Chaldea.

It's just that until this moment he... Could not understand this.

Ainz blinked.

All this time, he could not look at his Servants like that, because his mind was controlled by his skill. Without the influence of emotions, he could not feel what he really feels, thinks, and senses.

And now... He could feel it. He understood this with all clarity.

Ainz blinked again.

The discovery came to him unexpectedly, forcing him to sway on his feet and blank out for a second.

When Ainz came to, he heard a very peculiar voice.

"Fucking Servants!" The voice was full of anger, but at the same time remained very soft and silky, "Why are you interfering?! All of you, pieces of shit! Why did all this plan go to hell because of you?!"

Ainz looked at the source of the voice.

A moment later, he could see something strange not so far from him... A column of flesh. A monstrous column of flesh that poured, flowed from one form to another. Periodically tentacles that easily formed into hands would form on the surface of the column. The shapes look… disproportionate, as if drawn by a child. The tentacles form hands that are currently beating a girl in red that are frozen in front the column of flesh.

Ainz blinked. "Is that Nero?"

Nero's form did not move at all, as if frozen in time, while the column of flesh pulsating to the beat of its angry cries continued to attack her.

Ainz blinked again, and then moved forward.

"Ahem," Ainz coughed loudly, attracting the attention of all the people in the clearing, "Although the barrier was a trap, in the end our last battle will still take place here."

The column of flesh, upon hearing the voice, instantly froze, after which dozens of eyes, which immediately surfaced on the surface of the column shaped flesh, opened, looking at Ainz.

"Ainz Ooal Gown…" - the eyes on the column suddenly blinked in unison, - "Why... You have not left yet?"

"Oh, Baal, I suppose it's your name," Ainz answered with all his possible politeness he could muster, "I had something to do here that occupied my attention..."

After that, Ainz's gaze suddenly stumbled upon a third figure, still standing next to Baal, completely lost against the bizarre background.

Euryale.

"And I suppose," Ainz felt an endless storm of hatred rising in him and was forced to activate his emotion suppression in order to not instantly cut the girl in front of him out of reality and utterly destroy her existence. He decided to do things as calmly as always, "That my business is not over yet…"

* * *

An unimaginable amount of air was instantly sucked into the vacuum created by Jeanne Alter's Noble Phantasm, creating a great shockwave, immediately throwing away everyone who was lucky enough to survive the conflagration to the sides. Mashu barely managed to control herself in the air.

"Flight!" Ainz's ring was immediately activated, stabilizing the girl's fall and allowing her to fly in the air and look at what had happened.

The last Noble Phantasm of the Witch completely vaporized everything around her, reaching even into the seabed, leaving a huge crater, which immediately began to fill with water. Mashu froze instantly in disbelief.

"This..." - Mashu cut herself short. She did not even know how exactly she should have reacted to such a thing. Her vocabulary was simply too limited to describe the level of destruction she had witnessed.

"Last... Blow!" Suddenly Mashu heard a scream, after which she turned to the source. Has anyone else been able to survive this?

Leonidas swung his spear.

Unlike Mashu and Jeanne, he did not have the ability to stay on the air, and therefore simply fell down toward the sea. However, this was the lesser of his problems.

Even protected by the power of his Noble Phantasm and the Noble Phantasm of Romulus, Leonidas, could only last a few miserable moments more. And even then, this was possible only thanks to the power of his Noble Phantasm.

Spartans die standing.

Therefore, although Leonidas' body was disintegrated, the last remnants of his Noble Phantasm still allowed him a final act. And therefore, waving his spear, Leonidas struck his target.

Mashu barely had time to put up her shield, but after a moment she discovered that she could not block the force of the blow.

The Noble Phantasm of Leonidas was created by his legend. The legend of the three hundred Spartans. However, this legend had a different part. Not that which concerned the death of the brave warriors - but that which concerned the cause of their death.

The Spartans accepted their last battle, allowing a larger army time to form and respond to the enemy after the onslaught of the enemy was delayed. And Leonidas' Noble Phantasm did not overlook this fact.

Therefore, after Leonidas took the enemy's blow on himself, a retaliatory strike always followed.

Leonidas retaliatory strike becomes stronger the weaker the onslaught of the enemy was - the exact opposite of Spartacus' Noble Phantasm. And the Witch's overwhelming might meant that Leonidas' retaliatory strike would be the weakest possible.

But even so, such a blow was too much for Mashu.

Mashu gritted her teeth, trying to hold on to her shield before...

Suddenly, Jeanne knocked Mashu away, after which the blow of Leonidas' spear crashed into Jeanne, who remained in place of Mashu. She shouted in pain, a splash of red dyeing her robes red. Still Jeanne would smile toward Mashu. "Are you not injured?"

"Jeanne! No. I'm fine" Mashu worriedly looked at the girl,

"Don't worry," she smiled, after which she looked at Leonidas, "This is simply the result of a death rattle, pointless in the end. My wounds are pointless"

Leonidas, whose Noble Phantasm ceased its function, instantly crumbled to dust.

Now there was only one enemy remaining. The most dangerous opponent that they could have.

* * *

Cainabel smiled as she approached Remus, while Remus tightened his grip on his blade. But after a second he felt his hand, as if by itself, slowly relaxing, dropping the blade from his hands. After which his body, no longer under his control, sank slowly to one knee, then to the second. After he was finally on his knees he, though without his control, slowly hung his head down.

"Hm, I expected more resistance from you, Remus," Cainabel smiled, and then took a step toward the Servant. Licking her lips, she looked at the headless body of Altera, after which she shook her head, as if saying to herself "job comes first," after which she returned her gaze to Remus, "Just think... How much the essence of the Servant has perverted you."

A moment later, Remus twitched, but instantly froze when Cainabel's control riveted him to his place.

"Or, rather, you are not the Remus I knew," Cainabel shook her head, "Romulusremus was a dangerous opponent... But not you."

"Your "Noble Phantasm '', - Cainabel was not too lazy to make movements with her hands, indicating quotation marks, - "I know this force. True, in another time."

"This is not a real Noble Phantasm of the 'real' Remus," Cainabel smiled, and then nodded towards the Servant, "Though you might not know this... But I remember very well the taste of Remus on my teeth..."

Remus jerked again.

"You are not a Servant," Cainabel smiled, "And not a being of Yggdrasil, although you carry within yourself the traits of both. Someone... Something tried to summon the 'real thing' from Yggdrasil…"

"But, alas, they couldn't do it," Cainabel sighed, "And you appeared. Someone tried to pull a part of the 'real' Remus from Yggdrasil, and then combine it with the Servant from this reality to summon, hmm…"

Cainabel leaned toward Remus, after which her tongue changed, turning it into the tongue of a snake - a long narrow tongue touched Remus's face, licking it.

"Someone who does not know the essence of Yggdrasil and yet knows about it's existence," Cainabel sighed and exhaled slowly, after which she looked at Remus carefully, "Maybe... You will tell me?"

Remus just stared at the girl hatefully.

"Hm, I didn't expect to hear an answer to my question," Cainabel sighed and looked at Remus, then smiled. Her smile, instantly stretching out over her entire face, opened, exposing a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"Oh, don't worry," Cainabel's voice changed to a low, hoarse one, "I will find out everything I need when I eat you."

"Bon appetit!" Cainabel grunted, then plunged her fangs into Remus' neck.

* * *

Romulus fell.

Unlike Jeanne and Mashu, he did not have the ability to fly, so he simply fell, looking at how the earth was approaching him.

How stupid...

Even being protected by two Noble Phantasms, even being one of the strongest Servants, he still could not survive the Witch's Noble Phantasm.

So stupid.

Even his mortal shell, which still supported his body, will just break when he impacted the approaching earth.

How stupid, stupid, stupid...

Romulus understood that he would die.

If he dies, then Baal and his Master will never fulfill their promises, Rome will never be saved. They will never allow his beloved child to raise their branches to the sun. They will never give Rome a chance.

Romulus felt a lump in his throat.

Rome was destroyed, burned, but it can be rebuilt. May be saved. Still may ascend again.

Perhaps the name will change. Perhaps none of the architecture of Rome may survive. Perhaps there may be no more Roman people or Roman culture that would remain.

But Rome will live.

But not now.

Romulus sensed the approach of the earth.

No.

Romulus squeezed his hands that were burned to the bones, hands that still obeyed him, thanks to his will, his strength, his being as the Servant.

No. He will not give up so easily. It will not allow his Rome to fall into the abyss.

Romulus focused all the power that he still had, after which he fed the last remnants of his will, his body, his own life, for his last attack.

**Magna Voluisse Magnum**.

For the tree of Rome will be eternal.

* * *

Mashu looked at Jeanne with incomprehension, not understanding what she had just said, and then she looked downwards at the ground below her.

There are trees.

What a strange and surreal picture.

Thousands, hundreds of thousands of trees, are growing from under the earth and water, breaking through the oceanic depth, spreading their leaves and branches.

A Forest.

What a strange picture...

Thousands of trees grow again and again, spreading far and wide, stretching their branches toward the sun, rising for kilometers in seconds. It was a beautiful view...

Before Mashu understood the horror of the situation.

Rising wooden titans gnawed into the ground, instantly destroying it, blocking the sea, replacing water and air, rising to a titanic height. What seemed like a forest consumed all the space around it.

With the speed of a growing fire, the forest consumed everything - earth, water, air - ascending upward, spreading further and further. In other words…

"This would have an apocalyptic result if we allow it to continue!," Mashu blinked at her own thought.

The word "forest" did not sound threatening and "trees" were not perceived as a possible source of the apocalypse by people. But the Noble Phantasm of Romulus meant exactly that.

Romulus and Remus, two brothers united by a single destiny, were both equal in strength. Even their Noble Phantasms were equal.

However, Remus' Noble Phantasm embodied "all that civilization has achieved." It was a blow that concentrated all the power of civilization. Romulus' phantasm denoted "an ever-growing civilization." He did not grow stronger depending on the civilization around him. He was the civilization.

Everlasting in all directions, devouring all in its path, unstoppable.

The Noble Phantasm of Romulus did not grow stronger because it was originally already the strongest.

The civilization embodied by Romulus absorbed any space, any matter, any particles, in order to grow further. Endless. Without a border.

In other words…

It was a Noble Phantasm, capable of absorbing the whole world.

Like civilization infinitely moving forward, Romulus' Noble Phantasm would spread endlessly forward. Romulus could stop this on his own accord, limiting the growth of civilization, but this Noble Phantasm did not require constant replenishment of mana to maintain its activation. It sustained itself from the processed everything that it absorbed.

Mashu froze in horror.

Chaldea could correct, change, erase part of history. Ruined cities, whole countries… all of these could be fixed. For cities and countries disappear all the time. But if the Noble Phantasm of Romulus engulfs the whole Earth...

The outcome of the Singularity itself will mean nothing, Earth itself would be no more

It was only a forest growing in all directions.

And also it was one of the most terrifying Noble Phantasms that ever existed in the world.

Mashu froze.

"That's what I mean," Jeanne smiled, and then reached for her sword. Slowly, she touched the sword, and then pulled it out of its sheath, "And that power... Must be destroyed."

"What are you talking about..." - Mashu turned her eyes to Jeanne and froze. Her sword was pulled from its sheath.

"Stop!" Mashu tried to rush forward, but it was too late.

"Blade of St. Catherine," Jeanne glanced at her blade, "**La Pucelle, Crimson Saint. For there is something that must be destroyed**."

* * *

**Master of Many Resistances:** _EX (Case)_

Unlike many other skills, this skill has no specific reason for existing, because this skill is a combined one.

In other words, part of this skill comes from the strength of Ainz himself, part from his legend, part from the battles he went through, part from the tactics he used, and part from his spells and equipment. In other words, this skill has no specific reason for existing — it has too many to list them all.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
**

**Answering some questions: to ****blackpackager - there are way too many errors in your comment to spend time correcting it. I can only say, that anything about Legementon\Masoleum\PA\AOG can be found out at the wiki.  
**

**How the hell Remus managed to strike Aptera without her noticing? - Too much of unexpected attack from behind, while she concentrated fully on Cainabel and defending from her attack - in a form of a hundred different projectiles moving with ungodly speed from all directions.**

**I assume that you trying to say that she doesn't need a physical body to survive? - She doesn't need her body to survive, true.**

**Is Ainz bi? - At the moment it's way to vague to talk about it.**

**I want to ask you question what cainabel rarity is ? - I mean, she doesn't exist in FGO, so I can't say.**

**Is the update 1 chapter every week? - It depends, one or two.**

**And hey - Singularity ended and even a bunch of new Servants was summoned! On my Pat reon though, so 6 - chapters for now. And the 5$ vote is opened yet again. For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, to the end of this Singularity and beyond. For 5$ you also can vote for different topics - such as "interludes about whom should I write". Yeah, that's all ****I wanted to tell you about.**


	67. Chapter 67

"The heavens declare God's Glory..."

There were two Jeanne d'Arc.

"The firmament shows His handiwork..."

In war it is not so easy to differentiate between the innocent and the guilty. Soldiers go to war for the ideals of their commanders, the leaders lead a meaningless massacre of soldiers for the ridiculous ideas of their own paradise - a paradise for all those whom they had already sacrificed in their war. A hero for some is a monster for others.

"Speeches poured forth during the day and knowledge during the night..."

The great Achilles was the symbol of power for the Achaeans and an omen of horror for the Trojans. Hector was the shield in the service of Troy - and the wall where innumerable Greeks died trying to pass. Both heroes were great figures - their friends and followers looked at them with admiration while their enemies tremble in their shadow.

"A fire has ignited within my heart and continuously burns to remind me..."

In a war, the hero plays two roles - the savior and the destroyer, the protector and the aggressor.

"This is where I meet my end..."

One who has been recognized as a saint cannot be evil, just as the sun itself casts no shadows. The very idea of holiness is built on this. The saint has no other side.

"My destiny now runs its course..."

However, all people certainly have a dark side. While a Saint is a source of light — no matter how bright a light is — its shadow will always follow behind.

"My life's dream has reached its conclusion..."

The Saint, Jeanne d'Arc, the maiden of Orleans, has only one side. A different side for her was unthinkable - this was the very essence of the Saint.

"Utilizing the last thing I have left at my disposal..."

But under the feet of Jeanne d'Arc, the commander of the armies of France, who fought on the front lines, hundreds of corpses reamined. Dead, twisted, corpses cursing her name. Jeanne d'Arc, a French peasant woman, still had emotions. She still suffers, have fears, and could feel hatred.

The Saint had nothing but holiness.

The Saint could not cast any shadow, but Jeanne Alter existed.

The girl had a shadow, the girl which would later become known as Jeanne d'Arc.

"I fight to protect the path He must walk..."

Probably because of this facts, Jeanne therefore considered the Witch to be her younger sister. Because she was not a reflection of her own self. Because she was a reflection of the girl who would one day become Jeanne d'Arc. A mirror to her younger self.

In a way, she was her younger sister. The one that still has fears. The one that felt hatred. The one who still possesses nervousness and acted both brashly and stupidly. The one that has not yet become a Saint, a figure that rejected everything that makes her human.

"Lord, accept my sacrifice..."

Jeanne Alter was closer to her human self than Jeanne herself. The Dragon Witch could act as a person.

Jeanne d'Arc, the Holy One, was a Saint who acted as the Holy One should.

"O' Lord, I entrust this body to you..."

For only a human is free. The Saint has only their purpose.

Rather, a Saint is the Lord's tool, a pawn in his big game, which must fulfill its mission. Even if it means that they will perish. It is no coincidence that most Saints are martyrs.

For this, the Saints are needed.

* * *

The blade that Jeanne unsheathed was of excellent design and craftsmanship. The gray-white blade with a twisted guard, that extends to the sides like a cross, and then converges again in the hilt, ending in a pommel in the shape of a frozen flower.

Although the weapon lacked overt ornamentation - it still remained elegant and more than suitable for battle.

For a battle to which it was not intended for.

Jeanne grabbed the sword, shifting her hand to the blade, holding it in her hand.

Of course, using the sword as a weapon in this position was very unlikely. However, using the sword as a weapon was not required at all - the last Noble Phantasm of Jeanne did not require her sword to be used as a weapon.

A moment after Jeanne's blade was unsheathed, Jeanne's sword completely changed its appearance.

After a moment, a fire spread along the entire length of the blade, devouring the hilt, turning the sword into a fiery cross. Slowly her Noble Phantasm is set in motion. A light detail, a dormant bud of flower at the pommel of the sword pushed the iron leaves away - and bloomed.

The fire, as if frozen for a second in the hands of Jeanne, exploded an instant later, rushing in an endless stream of flame, bright as the midday sun, white, like the rays of dawn, devouring Jeanne completely.

For the Dragon Witch, her burning at the stake was the moment when the Lord betrayed her and brought the very fires of Hell to her execution.

For Jeanne, the fire became what cleansed her soul and body completely before appearing before the Lord.

For the Witch, this became torture, a sign of the meaninglessness of her battles. For Jeanne, this was her well deserved rest, marking the end of her mission.

For in this fire is the end of your path.

**La Pucelle** is the embodiment of this thought. The flame that was the end of her mission.

The very essence of the Noble Phantasm was covered in another aspect of the flame. Not the moment when she died at the stake, but the moment when the Lord marked the fulfillment of her duty. And bringing this flame with herself, Jeanne was able to mark "the end of her mission on this earth."

In other words, it was a Noble Phantasm capable of destroying any goal that could be destroyed. Living and nonliving, destructive and harmless - if this goal could be destroyed - this goal will be destroyed.

However, this was not the power of "annihilation" in the truest sense of the word. It could not be used to advance her own desire, or in a fit of emotion and in order to deal with the enemy. It was the absolute power of the Saint - an instrument of God that gave Jeanne the power to fulfill His will. Only a force that was "supposed" to be destroyed could allow Jeanne to use this Noble Phantasm.

However, the burning flame did not only signify the "mission of the Saint", but also its "end". In other words, using this Noble Phantasm implied that Jeanne had "fulfilled her mission".

In an instant, a flash of flame inflamed every branch of Romulus' Noble Phantasm and while also consuming Jeanne.

A second later, the flame fell, not even leaving the ashes from the Noble Phantasm of Romulus.

And from Jeanne.

* * *

Ainz froze in place.

His connection with Jeanne was broken.

Medusa, the Dragon Witch, and now, Jeanne...

"Oh..." Ainz exhaled deeply, after which he glared at Baal, then at Euryale, "Oh... if you only knew how much anger you made me feel..."

Baal, having heard this remark, twitched. Unlike Euryale, he could actually roughly imagine how much he had enraged the Skeleton in front of him.

"Cainabel" - Ainz instantly reached for the girl's mind.

"My Lord," she answered joyfully, "Do you want something from your faithful servant?"

"End your battle this instant and teleport to Mashu," Ainz answered briefly.

"But my Lord, I..." - Cainabel tried to object. Under normal circumstances, Ainz would ponder her reluctance, however...

"Now" - Ainz's commanding voice instantly brought Cainabel out of her fugue.

"It will be done" - after a moment the connection between the two was cut off.

Ainz looked at Baal - and then at Euryale.

"Hmm..." Ainz sighed thoughtfully.

How funny, his skill had suppressed the emotion of hatred in his soul, but now Ainz knew.

He knew that he was experiencing a great amount of hatred, an emotion which he had never experienced before after being transformed into a skeleton.

He did not actually feel the emotion himself, but knew what emotion he should have felt - and therefore he could choose, with a clear mind, whether or not to act in accordance with the emotion he was experiencing - or not.

This thought briefly occupied Ainz's mind.

"Good." Ainz smiled. Unlike his human shell, which was able to express his emotions with facial expressions and unconscious gestures - his skeletonized body, naked skull and bones were not able to emote his happiness, because of which Baal was not able to determine the expression on Ainz's face. Perhaps this was for the best, - "Conducting a second experiment of similar nature like with Stheno would be stupid and unproductive. Therefore…"

"_Dimensional Lock_." Ainz instantly used a spell that cuts off all forms of teleportation around him for kilometers. When Baal sensed this, his body began to stir, after which the column of flesh slowly began to flow. Changing the shape of the mass of flesh, as if like flowing water, the meat was slowly transformed. After a few seconds, a human figure emerged from the mass of flesh. Although, it was impossible to call the emerging figure a human.

The creature that sprang from the flesh was the same height as Ainz, the same proportions even - and even its silhouette was somewhat similar to Ainz. However, despite the fact that it retained a human-like shape - the creature did not have a mouth, eyes or hair - only straight edges, that glinted as if it was made of polished surfaces, as if it were a gypsum figure. The creature's body consisted of bare muscles that continued to change and shimmer to the beat of Baal's heartbeat. After a moment part of its flesh, which until then retained its red-meat color, changed, turning into black mucus, slowly spread over Baal's shoulder, settling around it like a mantle.

"Hm, so that's what your combat form looks like," Ainz nodded. "I must admit, I thought that I would need to destroy you as a column of flesh."

"Big words," Baal did not have a mouth to show his grin, but he showed it perfectly in his voice.

However, it was a bluff.

Baal had absolutely no certainty that he could defeat Ainz in battle.

The free use of teleportation spoke of one's level of strength and skill. The use of such abilities in the form of artifacts given to the Servants showed a higher level of power. And the use of spells aimed at blocking teleportation is yet another level entirely.

In reality, there were very few magi who discovered the secret of teleportation. Even fewer who could use such power freely. And there were practically none of those who studied the spells used to counter teleportation. Such a spell was not only difficult - first of all, it had to be developed and studied. Few magi could afford the resources to study such complex spells, knowing the rarity of using teleportation and the existence of many other, much more practical abilities.

In other words, the fact that Ainz knew such a spell meant one of two things. Either he found it necessary to study such a spell for any battle with those who used teleportation - which was absurd, given how rare the users of such power were. Or he had enough resources and abilities to study this spell in addition to much more useful ones - which was even more absurd, given the level of resources required to study this ability and the large volume of more practical spells.

Even Baal himself, being a Demon King, was an exception to this rule - even among the other Demon Kings there are few who were capable of using this teleportation.

Baal felt a drop of cold sweat run across his face, a very human action for a being that is supposedly incapable of human reaction.

"I would not want to give you an honest fight," Ainz nodded. "However, I have already conducted an experiment with one method of destruction. Therefore…"

A gust of wind, completely unrelated to Ainz's speech rose above the plains. After a few moments Ainz stepped forward, causing the shapes of his mantle to flutter, exposing his empty chest.

"Attack at your full strength," Ainz sighed then smiled, "And I will show you what "**despair**" truly means."

* * *

Remus' memories... His life, his brother, the wolf that fed him...

Cainabel gleefully absorbed Remus' blood while feeling the Grail's darkness struggle to break free.

Oh, trying to overpower her in blood control? When Cainabel already activated her first Noble Phantasm?

Cainabel would have even smiled at this thought if she had not been preoccupied at the moment drinking Remus dry.

The singularity, Baal's plan, the battle with Cainabel - it was completely unimportant for the girl.

However, she still continued to enjoy the taste of the Servant's blood, feeling how it spills into her bottomless stomach. Remus' blood was... intoxicating. And it burned a little. Like wine with a light touch of pepper. A very exquisite drink.

Cainabel felt the moisture that she had been waiting for all this time pouring through her body.

Baal's master...

Cainabel stopped for a second.

Oh, that sounded much more interesting already.

Cainabel felt herself approaching the secret of Remus' existence closer and closer...

"Cainabel" - the girl's mind was touched by Ainz's.

"My Lord" - feeling the blessed good blood pouring through her teeth and inside her bottomless throat, Cainabel exhaled - "Do you need something from your faithful servant?"

"End your battle this instant and teleport to Mashu" - the cold voice of the Master answered her.

"But my Lord, I..." - Cainabel, sensing how she was getting closer to solving the riddle of Remus' existence, tried to object, still feeling the heady taste in her mouth.

"Now," Ainz's voice was as quiet and calm as ever, but Cainabel instantly flinched. Being next to Ainz in his peace-loving and calm state, she seems to have begun to forget who he really was.

"It will be done," the girl answered instantly, throwing off any obsession and intoxicating fun of blood.

After a second, the connection broke and Cainabel pulled her fangs out of Remus.

He was still alive, if barely, which means Cainabel could have pulled out details from him regarding the Master of Baal and the very secret of creating Remus, but Ainz's order was clear. Besides, he probably knew about everything already without any help from Cainabel.

Giving a moment of attention to the creature, Cainabel used the ability of her Noble Phantasm. Under normal circumstances, she would not fail to accompany it with a snap of her fingers or other meaningless gesture, but her order was clear. Instantly means instantly.

Each drop of blood in Remus' body exploded at the order of Cainabel, destroying his body to the very ground, blowing up the living Servant with a firework of blood and meat, after which Cainabel disappeared in a flash of teleportation.

* * *

Baal, the Demon King. There were several suitable adjectives describing its essence: proud, boastful, self-confident and cruel.

And also - strong, cunning, insidious and careful.

Baal's mind analyzed any detail that he could discern while observing Ainz. With every passing moment, it was only getting worse for Baal.

Mantle. The piece of clothing resting on Ainz's shoulders, it was so black it is as if it was woven from an eternal darkness that was never touched by a single ray of light. A darkness that existed even before the first ray of light arose in the chaos of the world. This robe alone could become a powerful Noble Phantasm of some great magi from human history.

Rings. Each of the nine rings resting on Ainz's bony fingers inspired awe in Baal. The rings on Ainz's hands were similar to the rings of his Master. No... Baal did not know if he should have felt horror, trembled in disbelief, or subjected himself to a hundred tortures for a slipping seditious thought - "These rings can be even stronger..."

Behind the head of Ainz a darkness slowly spread, like darkness awakening from a dream, a black halo, circling indefinitely according to Ainz's desire.

The figure of the skeleton did not look weak - the snow-white bones shaped and placed according to human anatomy seemed to spread an aura of power and grandeur by themselves, which made Baal shrink back from looking at it.

"I had to turn off seven passive skills and auras in order not to kill you just by walking towards you," slowly, Ainz took another step forward. Baal, a Demon King, standing in front of the magician, barely suppressed the desire to take a step back.

"Negative energy," Ainz said, stepping forward, "That would be enough to get rid of you right now. That was enough to get rid of Stheno…"

"Attack!" - Baal did not wait for the continuation of the speech, giving the order to Euryale, after which his mind, frenzied, rushed to cast the spells that he knew.

Euryale rushed forward, feeling her divine powers instantly take shape. A dozen spells from Baal followed...

A moment later, a barely visible transparent wave, rising at the feet of Ainz, struck in all directions, absorbing the spells and turning them back into harmless particles of mana.

"Disappointing," Ainz continued to move forward slowly. "It wasn't even a _Greater Anti-Magic Field_. So, those were spells of the eighth rank and below... I probably didn't even need to defend myself at all... Hm, I was hoping for something more…"

Baal felt his breath, a thing completely unnecessary to him, getting caught in his throat. The magecrafts created by him were one step removed in approaching the Magecraft of the Age of Gods - not to mention Euryale, a real goddess...

"Use the skill!" - Baal used another spell, lifting himself into the air.

Euryale, hearing the order, froze in motion, after which her divine power, the power that was responsible for her divine aspect of youth and beauty, was turned against the enemy. Euryale, obeying her orders, extended her hand forward...

"Hmm, charm," Ainz just continued to move forward, not even paying attention to the actions of Euryale, continuing to move forward towards his goal, the girl, "Strong enough, certainly... But not particularly effective."

The next hail of Baal spells poured on the skeleton.

"Attack!" - another order toward Euryale immediately followed - "Why are you just standing there?! Attack!"

A moment later, in the hands of Euryale, a bow appeared - a weapon for her class, Archer. The bow's appearance is as if it was woven from gold and ivy stalks intertwined. After drawing its string a small arrow shot an instant later. The arrow, as if in a mockery of the very concept of a battle, was made out of a pinkish crystal, tipped with a small stylized heart, pointed with an edge toward the enemy. After a short flight the arrow reached its target.

Dozens of Baal's spells - fire, lightning, ice , wind, pure energy, searing light and inky darkness struck Ainz. Against the backdrop of such a riot of elements, the arrows shot by Euryale were completely lost, but nevertheless contributed their part to the assault.

An attack that resulted in nothing.

The spells harmlessly crashed into a barrier that appeared before Ainz, which repulsed all destructive magic under a certain threshold, turning spells that could destroy a small city block into harmless dust at the moment of contact with an unseen barrier. The arrows of Euryale, breaking through the imperceptible barrier, crashed into Ainz's body, breaking instantly into dust and drifting to the ground.

This made Ainz stop in his tracks.

Baal felt joy for a second, comforting himself with the hope that these attacks, even if they didn't hurt, had caused Ainz some damage.

In a certain, very narrow and meaningless sense, it was so.

"The dust of crystals dirtied my mantle," Ainz glanced at the dust from the arrows of Euryale settling on his mantle, after which, with the sigh of a tired worker, he slowly extended his hand and brushed off his sleeves.

The heart of Baal, a body part nonexistent in his anatomy, like all other organs of the human body - missed a beat.

"No!" - Baal was way stronger than all Servants, well… almost everyone. But "stronger" did not mean that he does not need to be careful around them at all. Servants still remained Servants, even the weakest of Servants was still an adversary that could not be underestimated. Baal could defeat even Romulus in open battle, in his fortified fortress, even Altera. However, in none of these cases would victory have been easy for him. Even Euryale — though her physical parameters were low — was not an adversary from whom he could simply dismiss. Kill, defeat, subjugate - yes. But not ignore.

Therefore, looking at the fact that Ainz ceased his advance not because of an attack, not for preparing his ability, not even in order to taunt him, but simply in order to shake off the dust off his mantle. A mantle which got dust on from Baal's desperate onslaught, the nonchalance forced Baal to take a step back.

After a moment, Baal started running away. Baal could sense that the teleportation barrier "only" extended for several kilometers, a large distance to cross, but it was not infinite. If he could retreat beyond its limits, Baal will receive - albeit a ghostly - but still a chance to escape. For teleportation, even someone at his level would need time, rituals, circles, and even so, without preparing the place for teleportation, the probability of error was enormous, but this was Baal's only chance.

After a second, dozens of bones were instantly shot out from under the ground near Baal. The bones pierced his flesh, and then closed like jaws clamping their prey.

"_Hold of Ribs_," Ainz placidly stared at Baal, "Oh, if you were thinking of running away... I'm afraid I can't allow that."

Baal tried to wrench his body from the bones, but for some reason even his panicked intention to move failed. The ribs that emerged from the ground kept his body paralyzed - although he is held tightly by the bones piercing him, he should have been able to move somewhat. But now it was as if something had held him, fettered him, preventing any movement making Baal freeze in place.

"This spell was specially adapted to hold its target," Ainz sighed, after which several more arrows struck him, instantly breaking off as soon as the crystalline tip collided with his body. Euryale realized that she was doing an action doomed to failure, but she continued to shoot anyway, not even hoping for any different result.

"It's useless," Ainz turned toward Euryale, then sighed and looked at Baal. After a moment, the bones that pierced the human shaped mass of flesh disappeared, releasing Baal from its grip. For someone like Baal, the thought itself was absurd - why let the enemy go, the one over which you already held complete superiority over - however, this was the worst thing in his opinion.

Ainz seemed to be telling him that even by releasing Baal, he had not lost even a drop of advantage. As if Baal was too insignificant, incapable of actually posing as a threat to Ainz.

"Is that all?" Ainz sighed, looking at Baal, and then looked at Euryale, "I expected much more from the one who could kill so many of my Servants and created such a trap..."

Baal understood that he had lost from the very beginning. At the moment when Lev, the Demon King Flauros was killed, his Master instructed him, Baal, to deal with the cause of the incident. Baal then, through fraud and deceit, was able to supply the mage maddened with grief with the power of the Grail, after which he arranged his lair in the next Singularity, planning to watch how an unknown new enemy defeats such an enemy. Baal used his scrying spell then - and the consequences were terrifying. The enemy's return spell, Ainz's, nearly destroyed Baal, which was unprepared for it. However, it also prompted him to the idea of creating a trap.

Baal killed the Nero living in the Singularity, after which he summoned her and several of his own Servants and set about creating his brilliant trap. By manipulating the other Servants, he could force Ainz to dance to his tune, watching him reveal more and more of his strength fighting them, and then inform his Master about the new enemy, using the Singularity to tear to pieces the unsuspecting enemy. His trap with the Barrier was to keep Ainz's attention and then the corrupt Grail, the creation of his Master, should be able to read Cainabel's mind as soon as she touched it, extracting information that she possessed about Ainz and transmitting it to Baal...

But everything went wrong!

Ainz easily avoided the traps intended for him, after which, by manipulating the truth and falsehood, made Zhuge Liang doubt the leadership of Romulus - thereby destroying the main pawn of Baal himself and his helper. Using the information he had gained, he forced another Servant, the thoughtless Berserker - Caligula - to pick up the Grail, practically devaluing its role...

"No..." - Baal felt a sense of cold running down his back - "Caligula searched for the Grail precisely because I ordered to kill Nero..."

Baal made this mistake himself, but... He could not do otherwise under those conditions. If he hadn't sown dissent, Ainz could, instead of falling into the trap set for him unite all the three camps - after which he could detect the strings held by Baal and direct all the Servants against himself. Baal had to act, but even when he succeeded in avoiding disaster then, it still led him to this situation and lost even more...

"He..." Gazing at Ainz Baal felt a sense of nausea rising - "He knew..."

Ainz knew.

Ainz, as if feeling - no, knowing the thoughts of Baal, looked up at him.

Ainz knew.

Ainz knew from the start. About the Baal's plans. About his actions. About his decisions.

Ainz rearranged the traps placed around him so that Baal himself would fall into it. He made Baal destroy his plan with his own hands. His pawns were suddenly in the wrong hands. In the snares, placed for a stupid hare, was his own dog. When he sent his Servants to kill the servants of Ainz, the end of the prey according to Baal's plan, turned instead into the death of the hunters. And even when he was on the island, Ainz knew... Ainz knew about the actions of Baal - and allowed them to happen. It was the actions of the Dragon Witch who destroyed Rome that made Caesar focus his attacks on the Witch. His hatred gave her strength and his victory forced Alter to use the terrifying Noble Phantasm. This Noble Phantasm made Baal flee to the only place where he had prepared a place for teleportation with.

Into the trap.

The trap that Baal himself prepared for Ainz... But he fell into it himself.

"Despair..."

Ainz's words echoed in Baal's head with an empty ring.

That is what he really meant.

A despair that is not only from knowing how strong Ainz actually was. But a despair born of the desperation to escape death, from the realization that Baal himself was trapped by his own hands. A trap that he designed for Ainz, but ensnaring him instead.

"You knew," Baal felt his voice tremble with fear, "You knew... From the very beginning... From the very beginning, you knew...

Each movement of Baal was calculated thoroughly, his every plans were turned against him, his actions and intentions were perverted and directed so as to harm only Baal himself.

While Baal considered himself a player moving pieces on a chessboard, his fingers were tied to the movements of one alien pawn.

"You knew about my plan," Baal felt the nausea intensify with every word, but could not stop talking, "You knew about my actions... About all the Servants... You foresaw my steps and knew what I would do to guide me…"

And in the end, the trap set on Ainz, the Barrier, turned into a trap that Baal himself fell into. A trap sprung from his intent of escaping from the consequences of his own deeds.

Despair…

Baal felt despair.

The trap set on Ainz eventually became a trap for Baal himself. This is what the whole Singularity eventually became for, making Baal feel horrified.

However, Ainz's figure slowly opened its mouth and...

"I don't understand what you mean," Ainz's voice sounded so incomprehensibly, naturally, human, that Baal felt the last support of his mind breaking.

"Noble Phantasm!" - Baal shouted to Euryale over the link, instantly using every last bit of his mana to power it.

Ainz only interestedly looked from Baal to Euryale...

And he brushed off his mantle once more.

* * *

Mashu continued to look disbelievingly at the place where Jeanne had recently burned.

"Jeanne..." she held out her hand, as if hoping that what had just happened was a dream, the strange nightmare in which she found herself in.

However, Jeanne was not in front of her.

"Where…" - Mashu blinked, after which an unexpected blow knocked her from her flight.

"Waver!" Alexander's scream made the girl turn around, looking at the person who had knocked her down. It was Rider, to be exact.

Alexander was on his horse, **Bucephalus**, the horse of Alexander the Great.

The creature, only mistakenly called a horse, was larger than any normal mount. His crow-like black silhouette stood out especially sharply in the blue of the sky, and Alexander's face, disfigured by anger, attracted attention.

Mashu barely had time to set up her shield before another blow of the hooves knocked her around again, dispelling the spell of flight, making her fall to the ground.

Bucephalus immediately rushed forward, after which several lightning strikes from the clear sky strike Mashu again, curtailing any possibility of resistance.

A second later, Mashu saw how, despite the fact that the horse was standing straight in the air, Bucephalus reared up, as if preparing to trample Mashu. She only managed to put her shield forward barely, hoping that this would delay her grizzly fate.

"Having fun?" Cainabel's voice was filled with sarcasm and amusement. After a second, there was only a loud neighing of a horse.

Mashu opened her eyes to see the monstrous hooves of a horse skidded helplessly over an umbrella carelessly placed to intercept the blow, after which Bucephalus took a step backward.

"You!" Alexander instantly noticed the appearance of a new person.

"I!" Cainabel grinned, after which, before Alexander could do anything, she extended her hand forward. A second later, the body of Alexander and Bucephalus exploded into bloody mist, instantly covering Cainabel and Mashu with blood from head to toe.

From such a quick change of situation in front of her, Mashu only foolishly turned her gaze to Cainabel.

"Ah, young blood!" Cainabel grinned, after which the precipitation of blood began to merge, obeying her order,into a single stream, rushing into the bottomless mouth of Cainabel, "Hmm, you are the only one who survived... Well, that means that this is all I have to do and I don't have to be bothered doing anything else."

Mashu blinked again, after which she realized, "Senpai! We must help senpai!"

"I doubt it," Cainabel exhaled, after which she glanced toward the direction where she could feel Ainz's presence, "To be honest .. I would rather run to the other side of the world than going anywhere near Ainz."

"Ah?" Mashu blinked.

"Hm," Cainabel only sighed, after which Mashu with an appraising look, "My Lord really cares about his Servants. And now... He's a little out of sorts…"

A second later, Mashu - and Cainabel - was blasted from their place by a wave of power.

* * *

**Eye of Euryale.**

A terrifying force that was capable of overthrowing any enemy. From the time when the beautiful Helen led to the fall of Troy, female beauty ruled the world. Love became the sword and shield of the great heroes and rulers. The ever-beautiful, ever-young goddess, Euryale, knew this.

Gold leaks through the fingers, chains of fidelity are corroded by the rust of envy, power and strength age as fast as the person holding them ages. But love is eternal. It subjugates minds and hearts, excites souls, makes sobbing great warriors and cowards perform heroic deeds.

The ever-beautiful Euryale was born perfect. As the perfect goddess of youth, she was blessed with a beauty that could drive anyone crazy - man and woman, king and pauper, man and god. Euryale did not need a weapon - her arrow was her gaze, her blade was her smile, her poison was her sweet voice. Her very appearance, her very essence was permeated with the dangers of love. And her Noble Phantasm was a force that concentrated all this power into a single attack.

**Eye of Euryale** \- for if her gaze was directed at the target, they were already at her feet.

However, unlike his sister, Stheno, who embodied an unattainable love that drove anyone's crazy, Euryale embodied the other side of love. Crazy and dangerous, for love turns friends into enemies, the rich into beggars, cities into ruins. And therefore, when the heart and mind of the target were captured by Euryale - one cruel gesture that rejected the crazed love was able to snuff out the life of a lover. Each cell of the body, each particle of the mind, unable to imagine such love anymore after they were rejected, would be damned - and destroyed.

It was a Noble Phantasm, embodying not true love, but the grief of the rejected.

And therefore, the stronger the charm of Euryale would have acted on the target, the more terrifying the consequences would be.

However…

Euryale's arrow, which hit the target, crumbled in an instant, encountering an invisible barrier.

"Hmm…" - Ainz held out thoughtfully, - "So... Charm…"

After that, Ainz slowly turned to Euryale.

"Charm... Against the undead," Ainz let out a chuckle, "How… Charming"

Euryale, feeling the power of her Noble Phantasm crumble, not even reaching its target, retreated back - then again - and again.

"Your Noble Phantasm parameter is too low to break through my barrier," Ainz glanced at Euryale. "Also, the strength of the Noble Phantasm itself is also below the required rank. In addition, you tried to use charm on the undead, which is immune to such effects. I also have the skill necessary to further suppress my emotions. And besides that, you used charm on someone who has incredible hatred towards you."

Ainz slowly inhaled, "Your Noble Phantasm did not work exactly five times, for five different reasons."

After that, Ainz looked at Baal.

Baal, on the other hand, felt his mana moving according to his directions while focusing his gaze at Ainz to see what he was planning to do, however... He did not move. He didn't move at all, simply staring at Baal, as if curious of what he was planning to do.

If Ainz planned on doing nothing, so be it.

Baal felt each particle of his mind aspiring to the fulfillment of his will, how each particle of his mana was concentrated into a single curse.

Let Ainz look down at him. Let him be able to pervert the plan of Baal himself. Let him trap Baal. But…

Ainz will not be able to defeat him so easily. Even **he** was vulnerable. Even **he** could be defeated.

Baal's mind clung to this thought like a drowning man grabs at any straw extended to him.

He was the Demon King. He was a servant of his Master. He was Baal!

Therefore, at the moment when the Baal spell was cast, the Demon King rejoiced and looked at Ainz. For now is his hour of reckoning.

"**Absolute Darkness**!" Baal did not have a Noble Phantasm like the Servants, but the magic he created could be classified in such a way. Magecraft that surpassed even those that existed during the Age of Gods, approaching True Magic, answered the call of Baal, after which a thousand created spells exploded in an instant, releasing a cloud of darkness.

It was as if the whole world had been devoured and all reality was captured by a nightmare - the darkness struck Ainz from all sides, drawing all the light from the world itself, destroying its orderly vista. Such magic was supposed to destroy anyone.

"Ha..." Ainz's voice sounded tired.

"Impossible..." - Baal felt his will leaving him.

Slowly, the stream of darkness thinned, disappearing, only to allow the body of Ainz - snow-white and completely unwounded, to appear again.

"Using the magic of darkness against the undead," Ainz took a step forward. Streams of darkness, thinning, rushed after him, continuing to try to hurt him, but only powerlessly making his mantle flutter - "In general, a very bad idea."

Baal felt all the strength to resist, left him and slowly sank to the ground, his cloak of darkness fall, flowing to the ground and turning back into crimson mucus.

"The strength of your attack was satisfactory," Ainz continued to walk slowly, "However, almost all types of undead have a high level of protection against such magic. Some even are…"

Ainz tugged at the edge of his cloak, dispelling the remaining floods of darkness, and then sighed - "Outright immune to it completely."

After that, Ainz sighed and looked around at Baal and Euryale, then shook his head, "In that case, if your attacks are over... I should probably start attacking."

At that moment, Baal's mind fell into the abyss of despair.

* * *

**Golden Rule**

The ability to always get what you want.

There are various options for this skill depending on what you wanted. If it was beauty - then it is the ability to always have the most coveted and perfect appearance. If you want good health - then it is the ability to possess an ideal body. However, the most basic version of this skill is in acquiring gold and wealth.

In other words, it was the ability to receive treasures. Or, if you will, rewards.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
**

**Answering some questions: Oh you're asking money now? - M, no. I'm asking for money for a year now.**

**Ainz is a heterosexual male in canon so no. - Yes, he is canonically straight. But given a lot of circumstances that differ this fanfic from canon - I wouldn't say it so unequivocally. He is still heavy on the straight side, but not unchangeably so. **

**I do have a question, I remember you mentioning that Nazarick is in a reality marble, could Ainz summon the denizens of Nazarick out of the reality marble or pull people in? - Yes for both.**

**So, how the hell it doesn't reach Ainz's place? - It's more about measurements, since thousands of kilometers is a volume (V3) of area blasted by NP, and thousands of cubic kilometers isn't that much of a deal. So, change of scale (tens\hundreds\thousands) is also contributed by this fact (tens of kilometers length = hundreds for square = thousands for volume). Though I, of course, apologize for the confusion the reason for which I was.**

**Fucking cliff why do you always cut when the scene is in ainz? - When I find it suitable.**

**How would Jalter's infinite mana supported-Noble Phantasm compare to a Super Tier Magic spell? - It depends on the Super-Tier Magic in question. But about the power of the Fallen Down.**

**And hey - Singularity ended and even a bunch of new Servants was summoned! On my Pat reon though, so 6 - chapters for now. And the 5$ vote is opened yet again. For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, to the end of this Singularity and beyond. For 5$ you also can vote for different topics - such as "interludes about whom should I write". Yeah, that's all ****I wanted to tell you about.**


	68. Chapter 68

Ainz slowly turned his gaze toward Baal.

The figure of the Demon King that before looked, if not confident then at least ready for battle, did not look as if it was capable of any more resistance now. The towering figure looked resigned.

"Interesting" - Ainz wondered - "If I cast a curse on him now, will I strengthen his despair or will it paradoxically weaken?"

Even if Ainz did nothing, the Baal's chances of escaping without giving Ainz any time to react were close to zero. But, on the other hand, if he did indeed manage to somehow escape, Ainz would have needed to waste a few more hours finding him at worst. Therefore, by finishing off now with a spell, Ainz would have cut off any opportunity for the Demon King to escape. This could either increase his desperation by showing him that he had no opportunity to escape. Or instead it could strengthen his will to live, showing that no matter how illusory the chance of Baal extending his life, a very small chance it may be, he could still take it and then deliver more troubles for Ainz.

Ainz observed the figure of the Demon King.

Baal still maintained his human form, but all the pomposity, confidence, and posture of a battle ready Demon King was already destroyed. Baal did not even bother standing and just fell to his knees, with his gaze focusing on nowhere. More precisely, of course, in the absence of actual eyes, Ainz could not really determine where, if anywhere, Baal was looking at all, however, his defeated appearance suggested to Ainz that he had achieved the desired result.

Good.

Ainz then looked at Euryale, who continued to look at him with an unbelieving look and resignation.

The whole point of the battle was to sow despair in Baal's soul, and this goal has been reached. This meant that the hatred that Ainz was supposed to possess had subsided. On the other hand...

Ainz looked at Euryale.

Just letting Euryale go, or even just killing her with a simple spell, did not seem like a good to Ainz. He had many more experiments that he needed to conduct after all.

However, he had already conducted the most atrocious of them on Stheno, so he planned to deal with Euryale relatively quickly.

"_Deicide, rank E-_" - Ainz's skill responded instantly.

After a second, Euryale took a step back. No words escaped from her mouth, and no exclamations, but her hands began to tremble the moment when Ainz's skill was activated. The skill produced such an amount of dread even at its very minimum level.

The strength of this skill depends on two factors. First is the rank of the skill itself, and last but not least is the rank of divinity the target possessed. After all, the best poison is tailor made. In other words, the eternal goddess Euryale, possessing a full-fledged core of a goddess, was the best experimental subject in order to test this skill in the field.

"Rank E-" - At this rank "The Divine must not fight this adversary."

Euryale took half a step back while slowly retreating she still continued to attack, firing another shot from her useless bow.

"Hm" - Ainz slowly took a step towards Euryale - "So, the skill at this rank has no full-fledged permanent effect. Perhaps some slight influence on the enemy in the form of fear or other sensation... However, it is too weak to fully influence the enemy... "

"Rank E" - At this rank "The Divine must fear this adversary."

After a second, Euryale, who had so far continued to shoot in a senseless attempt to somehow harm Ainz, froze in place.

"It imposes a feeling of fear," Ainz said to himself. After a second, Euryale was still able to pull herself together. After which she started sending a wave of spells against Ainz - "But the effect is not insurmountable."

"Rank E+" - At this rank "The Divine must suffer from this adversary."

After a second, Euryale uttered a cry, falling to the ground for some reason, as if she had been hit.

"Oh, it seems that at this rank the skill is able to influence the enemy directly" - Ainz nodded to himself, and then observed Euryale, whose face was twisted in a grimace of pain - "I wonder if this skill causes actual damage or if it only causes pain?"

Ainz was not opposed to conducting the experiment and waiting ten or even twenty minutes to find out if Euryale would die from the effect of the skil at this rank or not. But too long a delay could give Baal time to recover from the shock he felt and do something troublesome, a thing which Ainz did not want to happen. Ainz wanted to kill Baal at the highest point of his despair, showing him how much he made a mistake by provoking an enemy he could not hope to defeat, so he continued to increase the effect of the skill even further.

"Rank D" - At this rank "The Divine will be weakened in a battle against this adversary."

Presumably, this rank was supposed to weaken the three physical parameters of Euryale - Strength, Dexterity and Endurance, but Ainz did not notice a significant change in Euryale's physical capabilities. Even before the weakening effect of the skill, her physical parameters were already extremely low, so Ainz planned not to linger on this rank.

"_Mana Essence_" - Ainz casted a spell that allowed him to see the mana points (MP) of the enemy - "Impressive."

The level of mana that Euryale possessed was really impressive, and in Ainz's eyes it looked like a huge bonfire, rising to the skies - smaller than that of Ainz of course, but still terribly huge. If Ainz were to compare it with information known to him from Yggdrasil, then he would say that her mana indicator was currently approaching the maximum, a 100-point value - and therefore was at least at Ulbert's level. However, a large amount of mana by itself didn't mean much, without the spells for which the mana could be spent on. Ulbert, who possessed similar mana reserves, was also the strongest magician of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown - and was even one of the strongest magicians of all Yggdrasil. Given his race, skills, and available spells, he could have razed a small city to the ground without even having to resort to the help of Supertier Magic. While Euryale, even though she possessed a similar amount of mana...

"Please!" Euryale's spells, which she casted with desperation, were stopped by Ainz's shield with contemptuous ease, "At least something!"

Euryale was far from a similar level of strength.

"Rank D+" - At this rank "The Divine will find its powers disappearing in a against this adversary."

After activating the next step in the skill, Ainz saw the bonfire rising to the heaven representing Euryale's level of mana began to slowly decrease - "Hmm, so at this level of the skill it imposes a minus to all parameters of Divine beings it seems to work normally."

Euryale, sensing her strength slowly beginning to leave her, attacked with frenzy.

"Rank C" - At this rank "The Divine will be wounded in a battle against this adversary."

Euryale's mana bonfire has shrunk dramatically, causing her to slowly stagger. Slowly, a trace of awareness of the futility of her attempts began to dawn on her. All her parameters were reduced by one rank.

"He must possess some kind of weakness!" Euryale used her plethora of magics and abilities, sending blow after blow toward Ainz.

"Rank C+" - At this rank "The powers of the divine are insignificant in a battle against this adversary."

Suddenly, even the flow of Euryale's spells was interrupted for a second before she continued casting more spells. Spells which looked much weaker even compared to the previous attacks that Euryale had used before, attacks that were inconsequential somehow became even weaker. Not only her parameters, but also her skills were reduced in their rank by one.

"Rank B" - At this rank "The strength of the divine leaves them in a battle against this adversary."

Euryale's bonfire of mana, which until then had continued to be an impressive sight, shrank yet again.

"Hm," Ainz nodded thoughtfully, "Now I would say that her mana parameter has dipped to eighty..."

The reduction of all parameters and skills of the divine by two ranks. A fairly significant decrease.

"Rank B+" - At this rank "The Divine will discover that their greatness has become dust in this battle."

Although this skill, at this rank, full effect was not that apparent at the moment, due to the fact that Ainz was already immune to Euryale's Noble Phantasm, as far as he was aware, at this rank Euryale also had to lose one rank from her Noble Phantasm. However, it was not feasible to verify the decrease in rank at the moment.

"Rank A" - At this rank "The Divine is weak in this battle."

Euryale's bonfire of mana has been weakened even more, forcing the girl to stop her futile attempts to attack, perhaps she has even already run out of mana. A three rank decrease in parameters and skills now...

"What the fuck is this even..." Euryale stopped trying to attack, realizing the futility of it. Moreover, she was frozen by Ainz's gaze. A gaze that seemed to cut into her.

"Rank A+" - At this rank "The Divine has no ability to perform a miracle."

Now even the ability to cast her Noble Phantasm was sealed. Of course, Ainz could not verify it right now, so he slowly moved towards Euryale.

"Rank A++" - At this rank "The Divine has no right to power."

At this rank of Deicide all of Euryale's skills have been sealed. Even if she tried to attack Ainz now, nothing would have happened. However, she did not even bother trying, she was transfixed into paralysis by the slow approach of her executioner.

"Rank A+++" - At this rank "The Divine has no right to divinity."

Then Euryale Mana Bonfire ceased to exist completely. Her Noble Phantasm was sealed, her skills were sealed. Now even her parameters as a Servant were sealed.

Although Euryale possessed meager physical parameters — the parameters for her mana and luck were above all possible limits — at least for a Servant — they were equal to the EX rank. However, Deicide of this rank cut off this link with ease - all parameters of Euryale were now reset to zero. In other words, she has lost all her skills, Noble Phantasm, and all that she could gain from the capabilities of a Servant, essentially ceasing to even be a full-fledged Servant. Now she possessed only the same capabilities that a normal person with her body could possess. She has turned from a very strong Servant into a simple girl.

Ainz slowly approached Euryale, who have finally given up all hope, and raised his bony hand, laying it on her forehead.

"Rank EX" - At this rank "The Divine has no right to exist."

After a moment, the absolute power of the skill penetrated the spiritual core of Euryale, after which it easily broke it.

Euryale froze for a second, frozen in a rictus of a scream. In an instance of infinity she felt an incredible amount of pain suffusing all parts of her body as it began to disintegrate, but she did not even have time to scream. Her body was instantly turned to dust and dispelled in the wind, her destruction was complete the moment when Ainz's skill was fully activated.

The strength of Deicide as a skill is governed by a strict correlation between the rank of the Skill and the rank of Divinity, or its equivalent skill, of the target, total disintegration for that reason is very rare. For example, if one were to use Deicide at rank EX against an enemy who possesses a Divinity at rank E-, then the effect would be the same as if one were to use Deicide at rank E- against an enemy with a Divinity of rank EX, the skill then would only cause minimal effect. Therefore the skill would show its greatest effect when Deicide is of a high rank, not a problem for Ainz, and the enemy also possesses a high rank of Divinity. The latter is not a problem in and of itself as there was a fairly powerful correlation between the strength of a Servant and the possession of a high rating of their Divinity.

Looking at the place where Euryale stood a second ago, Ainz dropped his hand, after which he turned off the effect of his skill and turned towards Baal.

Baal, the proud Demon King, continued to sit in a stupor, looking at the place where Euryale had recently been. Ainz sighed and moved toward his last adversary.

"Baal," Ainz said aloud, "Demon King."

There was no reaction to show that Baal had heard Ainz.

Finding his existence in the Singularity was a great accident. His existence was so hidden, barring the existence of his three Servants, that finding him was credited only to ordinary "luck."

"You resisted with dignity," Ainz displayed some glee with his voice. Its purpose was to further crush any hope remaining in his enemy, - "How does it feel to see that all your endeavour was all pointless?"

Researching the skills that his Servants possessed allowed him to plan out any esoteric use of their abilities, and with that information in hand, allowed him to carry out his plan. He did not know anything about the leaders of the three camps in this singularity. This dearth of information caused a seed of an idea to be planted in his head. The development of the plan was not organic in any way, but it was logical.

Cainabel was able to absorb the memory of the people whose blood she drank. The more blood she drank, the fuller more detail she could absorb. However - this a logical question arose in Ainz's head - did it work only with blood?

The short answer is no.

Then a scheme was born in Ainz's head. If he was not able to use Jeanne to look at the parameters of the three leaders - why couldn't he use Cainabel?

The plan was extremely simple in its essence, Ainz sought to create a sort of alliance between the three camps, at least for the duration of the barrier's destruction, in this Singularity. Why couldn't he pursue an additional goal just in case he has to fight one of the camps?

In any case, the organization of the meeting between the three leaders relied on him, he had to create a place suitable for negotiations. But dragging furniture was too slow and burdensome, especially considering that Ainz could create the necessary furniture just by using his magic.

Negotiations began and Ainz was glad that they could agree to cooperate. However, this agreement did not last long, unlike the other goal achieved by Ainz.

After all, all the leaders had to take their place at the table for negotiation. The human body, even if this person has become a Servant, has some physiological characteristics. Like fingerprints, Servants possess the print of their mana. However, while there are people who have learned to erase their fingerprints - for Servants the matter was somewhat more complicated. Even if Baal had casted a spell preventing the acquisition of information about his Servants - even he was not so paranoid as to separately cast the same spell on the equivalent of the sweat remaining on a door handle.

However, Ainz was paranoid enough to suggest that this information could be used.

Each of the six Servants who came to the negotiation table had to sit on chairs created from pure mana at a table also created from pure mana and therefore leave a little of their own imprint on these things. Ainz then used Cainabel's abilities to destroy his mana-made furniture, absorbing those bits of information about the Servants that they had left in the few minutes of negotiations. This was enough to find out one simple, but important, thing. The three leaders of the three factions had the same Master.

Then everything went wrong. Ainz, realizing that all the three leaders were controlled, went to the island, which the three leaders carefully ignored in their conversations, after which he found Euryale. From her, he learned that a Master really existed among the three Servants - his name and even, um... His occupation - as Baal, the Demon King.

The rest, as they say, is history...

Ainz slowly approached the enemy, after which he stood opposite the figure, which slowly raised his face to him - or at least what counts as its face.

"So," Ainz smiled. "Have you finally known despair?"

"Despair..." Baal repeated with a dull voice, then he laughed, "Oh yes, perhaps... My respect for you, Foreigner... You are very eloquent in your lessons…"

"Thank you," Ainz nodded, and then held out his hand to Baal. "Your last word?"

Baal grinned sadly, after which he looked at Ainz, "Whatever you do... My King will kill you."

"I would like to see him try," Ainz smiled at Baal, after which he casted his spell, "_True death_."

A second later, Baal's body fell to the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut, after which its shape slowly began to melt, turning into the same red meaty slush that it had been before.

"Hm" - Ainz sighed - "Now... I wonder what kind of data crystal will drop out of it?"

Although Ainz did not encounter monsters in this Singularity, which meant that his supply of loot was small, he still did not ignore the chances to loot that were given to him periodically. Baal, Euryale, Stheno - he also needed to check the place where the rest of the Servants had fought for the drop...

Ainz sighed, and then turned around in place in shock after hearing a voice.

"Ha," Ainz heard this voice not so long ago, but he could not even imagine that he would hear it again, which made him bewildered for a second, "You... Won..."

Ainz carefully looked around, trying to find the source of the sound, before his attention was attracted by the figure of a girl in a red tattered dress, slowly rising from the ground.

"Nero?" Ainz looked at the girl in surprise. He believed that Baal had already killed her.

"Umu," the girl grunted languidly, after which she grimaced, clutching her side, "But not for long. The Master has disappeared and now his Command Spells do not limit me... But his mana supply has also disappeared in kind."

Nero rose slowly, after which she nevertheless rose to her full height, glancing at Ainz, "You... Defeated Baal."

"Yes," Ainz nodded, after which he looked at Nero, "And you fought for him."

Nero cringed at the accusation. In a sense, she really did fight for Baal... More precisely, she had served as a pawn in his plans.

Yes, she could justify her actions in that she did not know about his plans and that she was just a tool to him, that if Nero had not come up for this role, Baal would have found another executor of his will - perhaps even that would lead to even more devastating consequences. But in the end, these was just excuses that were too easy to find solace in and she would not hide from the uncomfortable truth.

"Yes," Nero nodded slowly. This action was full of remorse and pain, - "Yes."

"Why?" Ainz looked at the girl. Carefully holding himself from lashing out. His hatred had subsided after the destruction of Baal, but Nero was also guilty of everything that had happened. Because of her actions Humanity was endangered, his Servants were killed and this whole charade was put into action. Of course Ainz knows that he's also partly to blame, he had committed many mistakes in this Singularity, but still most of the blame still lays on his enemy's hand - "Why did you obey him?"

Nero looked up at Ainz, - "Because I wanted to protect Rome."

"Why?" Ainz looked at the girl again. There was no point in killing her, one way or another she would die. She would soon die due to the death of Baal and the Singularity around Ainz had already begun to slowly collapse, marking the end of the battle. He could afford engaging in conversation.

"Because Rome is all that I am," Nero looked up at Ainz, "I am the emperor of Rome until the very end. Therefore, when the Baal seized control of me, when he summoned me... I was afraid for my Rome and followed his instructions. He promised that after the completion of his King's plan, my Rome, my people, my empire will be saved."

"A foolish promise," Nero grinned, feeling tears slowly starting to drip from her eyes, "But what else could I hope for? My empire - for its sake I was ready to do anything."

"And now Rome is destroyed," Ainz looked at the scorched wasteland that still surrounded him.

"Yes," Nero grinned through her tears. "Because of my actions."

Ainz thought for a second, then slowly bowed his head. "I apologize."

What Servants, ha...

The mad mage who had lost everything, strove for his source of admiration's salvation. An Emperor, who wanted to keep her dearest thing in the world safe at all costs.

Ha... Ainz kept thinking about how much the Servants were different from normal people - and from him.

Although, if you really think about it, would he be different were he placed in the position of Nero? If something had threatened his Nazarick, his Ainz Ooal Gown, would he have acted differently?

No, he would act just like Nero. He would dance to the tune of an unknown enemy for a ghostly and even false promise to preserve his precious treasure. Perhaps in such a situation he would have acted in a much worse way than Nero.

Ainz slowly knelt down, and then bent so low that his forehead touched the ground. "I apologize for what my Servants had done to Rome and I will accept it if you never forgive me."

Nero froze for a second. She expected a lot of things - anger, hatred, even a tirade, but... Not that.

"Ha..." Nero grinned through her tears. "Ha ha... Ha ha ha!"

Unable to resist it anymore, Nero laughed, and then fell to the ground, continuing to laugh.

Ainz slowly rose from his bow, looking at the laughing girl. He did not expect such a reaction.

"Ha ha ha!" Nero laughed, even feeling her last seconds of existence coming to an end, "Just think of it... Ha ha! You really know how to surprise people!"

Ainz looked at Nero in confusion.

"Ha ha..." Nero laughed several more times, slowly rising from the ground, after which she looked at Ainz, "Ha... And I thought you would kill me now... I have even prepared myself for such a thing..."

"For what?" Ainz glanced at the girl uncomprehendingly. "You were only trying to protect what is dear to you. You did the same thing as anyone in your position would do."

"Ha…" Nero grinned, after which she looked at Ainz, smiling, "Yes... And my actions led to unfortunate consequences."

Ainz slowly inhaled air and exhaled.

"You know," Nero smiled sadly, "During my life there was a story that I had burned Rome..."

Nero sighed slowly, after which she looked around at the wasteland that is what remained of Rome. "Let this story be a… reminder of my actions."

Ainz looked around, after which he looked at Nero.

Actions, ha...

It's funny that If Nazarick were to be destroyed, Ainz would never forgive anyone who would allow such a thing to happen. And yet, Nero, whose whole motivation in serving Baal in the first place was to protect Rome, forgave him with ease... No, she instead took all the blame for it.

Could Ainz do this?

No. Of course not.

"Servants... Really are amazing…" Ainz grinned to himself.

"Of course," Nero smiled back at him, "And you have the right to look at Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the most amazing of them all!"

Ainz sighed and looked up at the sky.

If you think about it... What gave him victory in this Singularity?

Force? Mind? Luck? Fate?

Perhaps the most correct answer was...

The Servants.

If it were not for the information from Jeanne that Nero, Romulus and Altera were unreadable by the sight of the Saint, then Ainz would easily have joined any of the camps, convincing himself after the last Singularity that not every coincidence was due to the evil plan of the enemy. If not for Mashu, he would never even have thought about his attitude to the Servants. If it weren't for Cu Chulainn, then the Witch... No, Jeanne Alter, she would never have been able to escape from the attack of Romulus, and if she had not escaped, then Baal would have remained unscathed in his den, since she used her Noble Phantasm, forcing Baal to escape. Medusa was the reason that made Ainz linger in the battle against Stheno - and what made him take a closer look at Cainabel's abilities - and thanks to Cainabel he was able to find out that there was a puppeteer in all this Singularity and avoid his traps.

Not to mention the fact that they destroyed most of the opponents, while Ainz barely participated in the battles.

"Ha..." - Ainz blinked, looking at the sky - "I'm still a bad boss..."

After all, most of his Servants in the Singularity were dead. Yes, he finally felt angry for it and they would return eventually, but... They died under his leadership. Fulfilling his orders. They were in danger, because Ainz had put them there.

And yet, despite this, they obeyed his commands. And Ainz was sure that when he returned to Chaldea he would not find any sideways glances and any misgivings toward him. No, it would not be strange if someone like Medusa only apologized for her own death... It was...

Absurd, if he would put a word to it.

The Servants of Ainz were for him, in essence, random allies with whom fate and chance brought together. They were not even obliged, strictly speaking, to obey him.

But they obeyed nevertheless.

'Ha…' - Ainz grinned. 'Did you too feel like this too, Touch Me?'

The story of Ainz becoming a guild leader was not the most interesting one, but at the same time it was pretty significant.

Once in the game, he was saved by Touch Me, one of the strongest players of Yggdrasil, simply because he considered such a thing to be a natural course of action. He just saw a low-level player from an unsuccessful undead race being bullied by high-level players, that taunted the undead in voice chat - and appeared like a hero of justice, shining with snow-white armor, because he considered it right.

It was Touch Me who then organized the first version of their guild, along with Momonga and seven other players - Nines Own Goal. He was their leader - charismatic and noble, of those who ignited a fire in people inside. The guild grew, changed, but in the end - there were people who did not agree with Touch Me. Internal contradictions eventually forced him to resign as Guild Master - and the guild needed a reorganization. Then Momonga became a figure they could compromise on.

He was one of those who was a friend to everyone - even to Luci*fer, who was disliked by the other guild mates for his habit of forever spoiling every situation with his stupid jokes. He was close to everyone, everyone was his friends, and, in the end, Ainz became the leader of the new guild simply because everyone was okay with such a thing.

And he coped well with the duties of a Guild Leader - he was a good tactician, raid leader, a good fighter for all occasions and a good manager. He was, in general, a good guildmaster.

But not a leader.

Ainz was a good friend to everyone, but Touch me was the one who organized the guild, assembled the first squad, who lit a fire in Ainz - and in the others. If Ainz had become a leader from the very beginning, he would never have been able to do that. He would not help an unknown player like Ainz, and would not organize them all together, would not inspire them to seek greater exploits, and would not lead forward. Ainz was a good guildmaster, but he was not a leader.

"Ha..." - Ainz sighed again.

Perhaps now, looking at what had happened, at his Servants, Ainz understood him. He understood why he helped an unknown player, why he brought them together, why he breathed life into what would once become one of the most powerful guilds in the game - Ainz Ooal Gown.

'Good, Touch Me' - Ainz smiled. 'You convinced me. There probably is still a reason to keep this world around.'

Not only for the sake of the adventure, treasure and new battles... And not only for the sake of Ainz Ooal Gown.

"Thank you, Emperor of Rome." Ainz smiled at Nero and bowed.

"Sure ~ umu," Nero smiled, after which, after a second, her mana supply finally dwindled and the Servant, Nero, disappeared.

But for the sake of those who follow me.

* * *

**Golden Rule:** _EX (A+++)_

This ability at the maximum rank allows one to get any amount of any resources that would ruin entire countries in pursuit of them. Countless artifacts of unimaginable power, libraries that store the greatest volume of wisdom on earth, or gold that seemed to flow down in an endless river at the request of the possessor of this skill. This skill, in fact, is not limited in the number of valuables and artifacts that it is able to provide.

However, it would only be true if Ainz used this skill to its full potential, putting his hands to the treasury of Nazarick in case of a need. Toward the treasury that stores so many priceless relics that they could fill all the oceans of Earth with them. However, since Ainz refuses to use Nazarick's treasury for his own purposes, using his own inventory only instead, the rank of this skill was reduced. However, even so, Ainz possesses valuables and artifacts, the mere appearance of which in the public domain can lead to a global, economical - and possibly political - disaster.

Also, this skill, in combination with another, is responsible for obtaining "loot" from killed targets. Although in fact, of course, opponents should not leave any "data-crystals" Ainz's certainty that "the killed enemy leaves a drop behind it" creates the suitable data crystals for him, further expanding Ainz's - and his combat potential.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.  
**

**Answering some questions: What the fk is with authors trying to change a character's sexual orientation. - Huh, seems like I wasn't clear. Astolfo is a bae, I think no one would object to this? Like the D'Eon, Lanling Wang and Enkidu, all of those are men that are heavy on the feminine side of the appearance\mannerism, so I wouldn't want to exclude them from the potential candidates for Ainz romantic interest. Though their appearance later on right now not guaranteed, neither their potential romantic interest in Ainz, I still would be prone to consider it possible and Ainz answering them - after some long thoughts, of course. That's it. I'm not planning on making Ainz\Virtually any man, except these few notable exceptions.**

**How is jeane alter, the younger sister? - Because Jalter embodies the human nature of Jeanne, the one before becoming Saint, and true Jeanne embodies Sait Jeanne, the one she became in the minds of people after her death. So - Jeanne Alter, technically, is a younger version of the Jeanne.**

**Would Ainz Super-Tier Magic what summons Monster from sacrifices to God's or Goddess by useable, as most Gods are on the Reserve-side. - It would be because MOST of the Gods on the reverse side of the world. Shub-Niggurath is an Outer God, it's more difficult than this.**

**How does the massive crater in the sea get explained away by scientist? - Human history change of this caliber is nothing to Chaldea and can be easily redacted out.**

**if ainz could summon the nazarak, why haven't he yet and better yet by any chance he could bring people in his nazarak? - It was explained in one of the first chapters. 3rd one, if I'm correct.**

**Would you please make a hunter x hunter and overlord crossover - No**

**What is your most favorite chapter/singularity in FGO? - Can't answer. Salem for Abigail, probably? I don't know, it's just the first thing I thought about.**

**Have you seen the new Lostbelt 5? - Yes.**

**And hey - Singularity ended and even a bunch of new Servants was summoned! On my Pat reon though, so 6 - chapters for now. And the 5$ vote is opened yet again. For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, to the end of this Singularity and beyond. For 5$ you also can vote for different topics - such as "interludes about whom should I write". Yeah, that's all ****I wanted to tell you about.**


	69. Chapter 69

Ainz slowly rose from his nostalgia, after which he looked at the data crystal remaining after Nero finished dissolving.

Then suddenly, the reality around him started to ripple, the rubbles of Rome slowly started disappearing in waves. A wave of void spreads, as if the Singularity was a still pond where a stone was thrown into. Like a mirage slowly disappearing.

Hence, this was indeed the last problem of the Singularity. The last anomaly in the Human Order.

The Demon King, Baal...

In Yggdrasil, he was a very memorable enemy, albeit not one of the strongest. Strong or not, he was still a hundred-level mob - albeit not a boss. Ainz could defeat him, alone of course, but it would not be the easiest battle in his life...

Of course not the most difficult either.

However, thinking about it now was pointless. It was about the Baal from his past knowledge as a Yggdrasil player. The Baal that he fought just now was...

A lot less memorable. His spells repertoire was a lot lackluster, and in the end was a lot weaker.

For Ainz, in the end, he did not pose any particular danger.

But... He was still dangerous to the Servants. A huge danger.

In Yggdrasil, power was not everything. Although a level one player was not a danger to level one hundred in any way whatsoever in direct combat, there was still a different plane of the game where the level one player could pose as a threat. The level one player could be smart - he could compensate for his weakness in many ways. For example, he could invest a crazy amount of money in the game to bribe some guildmates of the level one hundred player, so that at an unexpected moment they would leave the guild and then attack their past leader. Ainz even heard of a similar incident in the past...

Thus, a level one player could defeat a level one hundred player without ever meeting him in battle. And even more - inflict a huge amount of damage on the entire guild while still remaining a level one player.

In the end, Baal posed no threat toward Ainz in a direct battle. But he had easily fooled him, killed all of his Servants and only a wonderful coincidence of circumstances did not allow him to win in the end. To simply retreat in the end with all the information he acquired about Ainz to his... King.

It was important that information about this "King" was to be reported to the rest of Chaldea, well to Roman, Da Vinci, and Olga at most.

What, in the end, was Ainz's strength good for if he couldn't use it openly? Using the Servants as an accessory, an expensive collection, was stupid. Wasteful. And what's more...

Inhumane.

Servants are people too...

In a second Ainz remembered Cainabel and shook his head - well, she still counts… in a sense.

Taking special care of Servants like Medusa, and then sending them to a slaughter... It was hypocritical.

Unfortunately, Ainz was a hypocrite. "Yesterday I killed one of their tribe - and that's good. Today they killed one of my tribe - and that's bad. " Hottentot morality... Unfortunately.

And, in fact, Ainz was completely fine with embracing this morality. Ainz was simply unsatisfied with the previous borders of "his tribe."

Still… Servants, ha...

Ainz was a bad boss, ignoring his Servants, those who differed from him only in appearance. They also had their own goals and desires, things that he ignored as he held them at arm's length. He treated them like simple toys in his collection. Now he couldn't anymore.

Of course they still remained a part of his collection, in a way. And their deaths meant that his collection would be damaged.

In other words, Ainz's humanity was confronted with his rationality. But instead of a battle in which his humanity could lose, the two parts of his personality found common ground. A process in which each part of it could be satisfied and become strengthened. Ainz slowly surfaced from the quagmire of his mind..

So... Servants are those whom I should take care of huh...

Ainz exhaled. The first part of his plan took shape in his head and Ainz grinned.

And the greatest journey begins with a small step, ha...

After calming the turmoil in his head, Ainz bent over, picking up the data crystal that had dropped from Nero, and then went toward Baal's body, or at least what remains of that meat slurry

After this the last thing Ainz needed to do was to remember to take the Grail from the site of Cainabels's battle...

* * *

Demon Kings. Creatures whose very basis of existence was different from humans or even Servants. Perhaps the closest existence that was comparable to the Demon Kings was... Angels.

Surprisingly, this was indeed the closest possible definition of those who are demons. However, of course, these were not the angels from popular culture - beautiful young men or women in shining white robes, with wings and a halo. Rather, these were the angels described in the sacred texts, the part of the bible cut out for being too "heretical". Titans of inhuman forms, fulfilling the incomprehensible will of God, taking beautiful and terrifying guises as necessary to complete their incomprehensible mission. In other words, in addition to the descriptor of an "angel," another term could also be used to describe them.

A Robot.

Although, of course, not a strange bucket of nuts and bolts that the term whose image would be conjured by the layman's imagination. Rather, they were closer to the incomprehensible androids described by sci-fi authors, completely indistinguishable from people in their thinking or behavior.

However, for the angels there existed God, the will of which they performed their deed for. The actions of androids were limited by their artificial intelligence.

Demon Kings also had their own "God" - or "controlling artificial intelligence". The one whom even they called their King.

However, this did not mean that the Demon Kings were brainless, or without their own will. They were very independent and thinking individuals. Perhaps this was part of the problem...

At least the Demon King, Focalor, thought so.

"Baal has disappeared..." - a thought, not vocalised, spread from Focalor among the rest of the Demon Kings instantly. After a second, Focalor's mind was filled with the thoughts of his... Comrades.

"How?!" - Furfur answered instantly - "He couldn't just disappear for no reason!"

"Was it like Flauros?!" - Malphas practically cried out in a panic - "Check again!"

"Flauros first, now Baal..." - Stolas, dumbfounded by the news, muttered in shock - "What is happening?!"

"For fuck's sake, someone is killing the Demon Kings!" - Aim almost grabbed his head - "Who is doing this?!"

Dozens of voices soon followed. Uncomprehending, alarmed, surprised and some even sounding scared.

The death of Flauros - the one whom in his human disguise was called Lev - was an unexpected event. Frightening even, perhaps.

Cutting off one of the Demon Kings from their King was, in fact, impossible. Magic beyond comprehension linked their existence together. Even if the body of one of the King's servants was destroyed - it only meant that his physical shell was destroyed and that the process of rebirth was ahead. Of course after they were fully resurrected what's ahead is simply experiencing hundreds of ridicules from his other comrades. A fate which was a much longer and humiliating task.

However, Flauros' death was anomalous, worryingly so. At the moment when Flauros was supposed to be reborn, the King simply... Could not accomplish this.

Such a thing was unthinkable. The King exceeded such mortal things like strength and weakness. For him, there were no things that he could not do. At least… until that moment.

After that shocking event many other attempts, spells, and actions followed... But there was still no rebirth.

It is as if Flauros was simply no longer in this world at all.

It was unlikely that someone had killed Flauros for good somehow - or captured his soul - or did something similar. The Demon Kings were all protected from such things. However, Flauros seems to have just... Disappeared. As if he had never existed at all.

Focalor did not want to admit it to himself, however, it was probably at that moment that for the first time in his life that he experienced fear.

Being killed was not a scary thing for Focalor - he knew, without a speck of doubt, that he would be reborn after. This he knows because his King was indestructible. However, if there was a force capable of competing even with his King in this matter...

Focalor did not know what he should think.

The King then used many powers and abilities, in an effort to revive Flauros. As far as Focalor himself knew, he was still trying... But things still remained the same.

Then the plan proposed by Baal followed. He always tried to slip forward with his proposals, bypassing his colleagues, to curry favor with the King. But then no one objected to his plan - they were all swept away by the prospects that had just opened before them.

The prospect of death without rebirth.

Baal's plan was not bad. Using an already existing Singularity called Orleans, he planned to observe what would happen in the Singularity to create something like a closed training ground. Of course he would not openly confront one who could kill Demon Kings. So he hid in a place in which he could observe the one who could destroy Flauros deal with the Singularity. Given that someone had killed Flauros he had to also reappear in the other Singularities. At the very least in order to understand the reason for the Flauros' existence. If such an adversary really existed then Baal would be able to acquire some information about the new enemy and pass it on to the rest.

The King approved the plan and Baal started preparing. Then several weeks without anything special happened followed and...

Baal failed. Loudly failed.

The unknown enemy, sensing Baal's surveillance, at least these were the words Baal himself used - almost destroyed him with a counter-spell. Baal miraculously survived by escaping to another Singularity.

This was the second close call and a new cause for concern for the King.

Then Baal sought another chance to confront the enemy. He always tried his best to suck up to the King. Usually the other Demon Kings would raise quite a ruckus in order to stymie his efforts, but this time there were no objections from the other Demon Kings. The rest, like Focalor himself, were afraid of the enemy. An enemy that could resist the magic of the Demon King? Moreover one capable of killing one of them permanently?

Baal was not the strongest of the Demon Kings, but among his kind, his knowledge and ability for magic stood out. It was difficult to even notice even the smallest bit of Baal's observation - all the more so to block it completely and even worse, to send a return spell. A spell so strong that it almost killed Baal. Even among the Demon Kings, there were precious few capable of doing such a thing.

Therefore, Baal was authorized by the King after having determined that observation from afar could not give any information. Baal was allowed to go on his own, to do what is required. With this allowance Baal's other strength, his mind, was put into use.

Baal was an upstart, but it doesn't mean that his position is unwarranted. If the Demon Kings played board games, then Baal would win nine times out of ten, it was so one-sided that many players would just give up when he entered the game.

At least it would be a fun thing to do. So much so that Focalor was somewhat disappointed that the Demon Kings did not do weekly gatherings for Munchkin. Although Phenex would surely constantly cheat...

In any case, Baal took action with gusto. He prepared, set traps, made plans, after which, three days ago, he announced that an unknown enemy had set foot on his territory.

And three days later he died.

And again a death from which there was no salvation.

Focalor felt an unpleasant feeling arose within himself.

What was even worse - Baal did not just die, he failed to deliver any information about his opponent. The last thing he reported was that he was gradually approaching the enemy, that he was ready to retreat at any moment and then... He died.

Focalor did not know if he loved black comedy and irony - but the magi whom he once was probably knew a lot about it.

Of course, Focalor truly believed in the exceptionalism and strength of his King. But even so he understood that if the King wanted to obtain any information about this enemy then he would need to send more demon kings. And this meant that the King had lost two Demon Kings - having received nothing in return.

The only information that the King has is that there existed an adversary capable of killing Demon Kings permanently. Oh, and this enemy is also capable of defeating Baal in his prepared battlefield within three days. Of course this doesn't mean the King has any information about the enemy itself, not even their appearance.

Oh... what a pleasant line of thought.

"So what do we do now?! I ask all of you, what to do?! " - Morax, as always, bothered everyone with his loud cries.

"Quiet" - at this moment Focalor, while without even possessing a material body, stretched out. All the other Demon Kings also instantly became silent.

The King has taken the floor.

"Baal was destroyed" - if one of Focalor's comrades could still entertain himself with the hope of incorrect information, then after the King's words no one dared to think otherwise - "This is... Concerning."

"Concerning" - oh, that is not the most comforting of words...

Focalor thought about the prospects.

To deal with the enemy decisively could mean that the King would have to intervene in person. Indeed, in the world there were very few things that could stand toe to toe with the King, but his intervention in this case meant... Many things.

First of all, Alaya will not tolerate the appearance of the King on her territory - and the consequences will be terrifying. Not to mention the fact that if, by a terrifying and incredible coincidence, the King fails to destroy the enemy in one blow... Such a thing would jeopardize the whole plan.

Focalor would pensively and anxiously frown his forehead if he had one.

"The plan... needs to be accelerated." - The King spoke weightily and bluntly.

Speeding up the plan meant that many things would have to be changed...

"The Demon Kings that are not needed at the moment to maintain the Temple will take decisive action," the King said instantly.

Focalor froze.

Excluding the two who are dead and those who were necessary to maintain the Temple, there were about five dozen Demon Kings... among the King's servants.

"Your goal is to spread through the Singularities, and then get all the necessary information about the unknown enemy" - the King gave the order - "Be careful not to provoke retaliatory actions of the enemy and Alaya... But act decisively."

Focalor swallowed his non-existent saliva.

Five dozen Demon Kings among the five Singularities... That means ten for each...

Focalor felt his head spin. Wouldn't the mere fact of ten existences like him appearing in the Singularity be enough to provoke retaliatory measures from Alaya?

"Don't act at the same time" - fortunately, the King foresaw such a complication- "For now... Forneus, which of the Singularities is most likely to become the next target of the adversary?"

"It is unknown with absolute certainty, but judging by the fact that the enemy is trying to follow a pattern of growing danger, although of course there were only three data points for now..." - Forneus was distracted for a second, studying the result from the Observatory - "The most likely Singularity they would visit next would be… Oceanos."

"Oceanos..." - The King was silent for a second - "Six of the Demon Kings will go there and study the enemy. Use all possible methods in order to get information about the enemy. At the moment, acquiring this information is more important than your life."

Focalor exhaled, of course he has no lungs at this point and so it is done mentally, and then shook his head. So, things have even reached such a stage...

It was truly frightening.

"The rest should go to the other Singularities and begin to accelerate the processes of assimilation..." - Ohoho... Focalor felt goose bumps running down his back. The King waited hundreds of years, slowly cultivating the sprouts sown centuries ago, leisurely and without paying attention to the passing of time. If he decided that the situation was dire enough to accelerate...

So the situation was really out of the ordinary...

However, six Demon Kings per Singularity in order to find an approach to the enemy... Focalor wondered for a second who would be elected for such a task.

"Aim" - The Lord of Flame, ideal for battle - and preparation... Logical.

"Beleth" - A Demon King with specialization in management and the ability to control minds...

"Belial" - A destroyer and capable disintegrator...

"Balam" The King of Dolls and a regenerator capable of healing even the most terrible of wounds...

"Astaroth" A seer... So the King believed that the defense of the unknown enemy is capable of being breached...

And last…

"Focalor."

Focalor sighed.

Oh, irony, i~ro~o~o~ny~y~y~y...

* * *

"It took you three days to figure out the anomaly in human history," Olga-Marie looked at Ainz and sighed, "I would have called the Guinness Book of Records if your achievement could be compared to at least one other person in this matter..."

After which the Chief looked at the distant window, behind which the flames that had consumed humanity raged, "Well that, and also if the commision still existed."

"I will consider it as a compliment," Ainz smiled.

However, given that his body was still a bare skeleton wrapped in a midnight black mantle, parsing any emotion expressed by the skeleton was currently beyond the Animusphere right now.

"However, I lost four Servants in the Singularity," Ainz sighed deeply as if in regret.

Olga-Marie skeptically raised an eyebrow, - "And also solved the Singularity in its entirety. In only three days. Not to mention killing Baal, an enemy that we didn't even have an inkling of existing. It seems to me that if you had instead used a hundred Servants and solved the Singularity in ten years, it would still be an achievement."

"Thank you, Olga, but I think the compliment is still undeserved," Ainz nodded lightly to the Director.

Olga just rolled her eyes, then took out a pack of cigarettes from her inner pocket, lit one and exhaled, "Seriously... You are one of, if not the most powerful creature I have ever seen, and these include the numerous Servants. While being a skeleton you're also a super-magi wrapped in a robe containing so much magic that it would be possible to develop a couple of magic systems on its observation alone. I should be afraid of you to the point of dying."

"Oh, ahem," Ainz nodded once more, not understanding the essence of the conversation, "I apologize."

"That's what I'm talking about," Olga-Marie exhaled, then smiled, "But still... Welcome back."

"Hm," Ainz grinned and looked up.

Chaldea with its white walls, with sofas placed here and there, a wacky plant in a pot that needs to be watered constantly so that it does not dry out...

"It's nice to come back here," Ainz breathed out.

Chaldea, ha...

Okay, life here wasn't so bad.

* * *

**Golden Rule:** _EX (A+++) (Case)_

It is difficult to imagine what rewards and things a player of the hundredth level can get. And it is difficult to imagine what wealth can accumulate in his inventory if this player is a miser.

It is also difficult to imagine how easily a person gets used to ignoring the absurdity that occurs in video games. The inability to loot all the equipment of \a defeated boss, getting exclusively one ring only instead of all of it. And at the same time, looting from the corpse of a dragon a ready-made gloves. Players ignore the ridiculousness of getting gold coins from dead spiders, rationalizing such a thing, thinking that it is "just a game."

And even when an event like receiving a data crystal from a killed clot of pure mana is not anywhere near possible, the conviction that "it will be just like in a game" can do terrifying things. Especially if such a thought comes from a nigh illogically strong being accustomed to the illogicalities of a game.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Okay, so, this was my version of the Septem Singularity. How was it for your taste? I hope it turned out to be good. Or at least okay, I guess.**

**I really wanted to change the story - especially since most of the people (and even authors of the Singularity!) think that this one sucks and give it a little more credibility. I also wanted to make Nero a less prominent figure here - though, staying true to her character - and make Lev's (now replaced by Baal) trial a little bit more fun and complicated than just a "there is the enemy, there are the allies, you know what to do". And show off some of Bone Daddy's skills in battle. And yeah, being Cu Chulainn sucks, even if he was summoned as a Caster - first death among Ainz's Servants there. **

**Also - it took me quite a time to readjust Ainz's view of the Servants to something more than just "mobs that no different from my summons". But it still happened nonetheless. Yet even if he sees HIS Servants as something more, than one of the random pieces on the board - OTHER Servants are way, waaaay too insignificant for him - for now, I guess? It's not to say that they can't impress or inspire him - but that his starting attitude to them is "some random mob that may be against or for me".**

**Anyway, it's time for a few (5) interludes, new summons - and then - Okeanos. With 6 Demon Kings. Oh boy...**

**And now, comments:**

**It was cool to see the effects of his Deicide EX - though would that work the same on Tiamat's beast incarnation? - He could nullify her external powers, such as Authority, and weaken her, but since she is a Beast with Independent Manifestation - he couldn't kill her, nor outright strip her of all her power. It still would be a devastating blow to her, though, and if Tiamat was not a Beast and had no such skills that protect her - or if there was another being, possessed by the Mother Goddess, not of Beast origin - it would probably outright annihilate them.**

**Can you later summon nazaricks npc? - I currently have no such plans.**

**Great chapter, but i skipped a lot because i can't accept it that the great Ainz-sama kneeling before someone, bowing is okay but kneeling ia a big no - Yeah, I understand you. I thought about it too, thinking, what would be the most appropriate response for Ainz, but after drawing the parallel between Nazarick\AOG for Ainz and Rome for Nero decided to go with that.**

**I even checked a tvtropes page to see if I missed something, but seems like there is none. How's that even possible? - A man can dream...**

**wait aren't touch me quiting become guildmaster because there is one player who quit playing yggdrasil because of him - This event influenced many people indeed, but Touch Me was a leader of the AOG before it became the AOG itself, since only after reorganization before conquering Nazarick Momonga was chosen as the new GL.**

**To be honest the moment I see Ainz being non-straight, fk this fic. I'm out. - M'kay**

**Sooo in conclusion he cared more about his servant than Cainabel a creation and the only memory of his friend - Besides the fact that Cainabel is barely more important then any other Servant - if only by virtue of being slightly more "relatable" to Ainz there is also that Cainabel is virtually untouchable, should she fight seriously. Worrying about her would be the same as worrying about Heracles attacked by street punk. Not that there is absolutely no way to defeat her, there is a two-digit number of beings that could force her to resort to the 3rd NP in canon, and even a few of those, who could defeat her - but God, would it be a tough job...**

**And hey - a bunch of new Servants was summoned and their interludes is ready too! On my Pat reon though, so 6 - chapters for now. And the 5$ vote is opened yet again. For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, to the end of this Singularity and beyond. For 5$ you also can vote for different topics - such as "interludes about whom should I write". Yeah, that's all ****I wanted to tell you about.**


	70. Chapter 70

Ainz pensively walked along the corridors of Chaldea, at least as pensive he could be with a chatterbox walking alongside him..

"Just think about the new prospects that could be opened for you!" The identity of the chatterbox was, of course, Da Vinci. She is walking beside him, talking all the while, completely unaffected by Ainz's current skeleton appearance. it is as if she saw terrifying skeletons wearing a mantle all the time. However, given that it was Ainz her nonchalant attitude was understandable - "If we do it, then the increase in strength for the Servant will be simply unbelievable!"

Ainz sighed, what Da Vinci was talking about was inherently interesting, promising and even desirable. In fact, Ainz could say that using the Grail on the Servants was similar to obtaining a unique case for displaying a collection. As far as he knew, different Masters could receive the same Servants, not at the same time of course, but still the same Servant from the Throne of Heroes. On one hand, if Ainz used the Grail, he could turn his Servants into unique ones, one that will never be summoned to any other Master in their collection, but at the same time...

"I have to take care of the Servant's well-being," Ainz breathed at the thought.

Human experimentation... Officially, in the future world of Ainz they were banned. But like in many other cases, given that the government's power was quite fictitious and the world was actually run by the megacorporations, rumors about human experiments were very popular in the internet and too often it turns out that not all of it is untrue. Of course, it doesn't mean that all of them were true, but this did not mean that among hundreds of suspicious cases there was not at least one that is confirmed to be true...

'Bellriver was greatly interested about this issue…' - Ainz remembered his guildmate's interest in conspiracy theories.

Thus, if Ainz is now planning to take care of his Servants, then experiments on them were, if not completely prohibited, at least very much controlled. Ainz will only consider doing such a thing only if the Servant themselves chose to undergo the procedure and also if Da Vinci could give him enough evidence that there wouldn't be any side effects. Therefore…

"I'm sorry," Ainz bowed his head slightly, apologizing, "But I cannot agree with your proposal at the moment."

Da Vinci was silent after that. Ainz prepared to hear from her any sort of arguments to convince him of the usefulness of such a procedure or even her resentment, but instead...

"Alright," Da Vinci shrugged her shoulders.

Ainz blinked, metaphorically of course since his real body had neither an eyelid nor an eye, after which he glanced at Da Vinci.

She continued to walk next to Ainz, completely not showing any other reaction about his refusal. Ainz even wondered for a second whether her nonchalance was true or whether it was only a mask that hid her true mood. He was not allowed to think about it for too long before the doors that opened in front of him marked the end of the corridor.

'Women... I will never understand them!' - is the only conclusion that Ainz could come up with.

Inside the summoning room were the people that were expected, Roman, and the Chief. What was surprising to Ainz, other than the presence of Da Vinci, was the presence of Cainabel in the summoning room for some reason.

Ainz sighed and then looked at the vampire with interest. She, having felt Ainz's questioning gaze, bowed deeply.

"I apologize, my lord," Cainabel did not cease her bow for ten long seconds, trying to consolidate the fact that she completely submits to Ainz's authority. The appearance of Ainz's real body and a small incident that occurred during the last battle in the Singularity made her recall some problems in her behavior. "I just wanted to look at your future Servants in order to know and meet my future... colleagues in person."

Ainz simply nodded at these words, not particularly caring about what Cainabel just said. Ainz was not planning to make any sacrament out of the summoning of new Servants. It was a pointless gesture to meet the new Servants in person, considering that all the other Servants would know about them after a couple of days at most.

After that, Ainz threw a glance at Roman and the Chief, after which he headed for the summoning circle.

Unfortunately, the last Singularity supplied him... Not with the greatest amount of reagents for summoning. Part of the reason was because there were virtually no monsters in this Singularity - except for the manticores, the crystals from which were low-level at best, and partly because of the Dragon Witch - or should Ainz call her Jeanne Alter now? - destroyed the whole island, causing all the possible loot to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

However, even so, thanks to the drops from Stheno, Euryale, Baal, and the manticores, Ainz had enough crystals to summon four Servants. And…

"By the way," - Da Vinci distracted Ainz from pulling out the data crystals out of his inventory, - "As for the Grail - since you don't want to use it for palingenesis…"

Ainz, realizing that his intention was found out, hesitated for a second.

"It's not that I am opposed to using the Grail in such a function," Da Vinci continued her thought, after which she glanced at Cainabel, who stared back. "The summoned Servant is a very interesting outlier... But still - do you plan to use the Grail for summoning another Servant from, hmm, Yggdrasil?"

Ainz nodded slowly. That is indeed what he planned to do.

As Cainabel existence showed, such a summoning was possible and did not even bring any special downsides in itself... Besides the fact that Cainabel was summoned much weaker than the Raid Boss that Ainz remembered, and also the unfriendly personality of the summoned Servant.

"Hm, that's what I thought," Da Vinci sighed, "It took me three days to repair Chaldea after the previous summon..."

Ainz, feeling guilty, bowed again, - "I apologize."

"I'm not particularly bothered by it," Da Vinci only flicked her hand at the summoning circle, "Just use the Grail at the end so that Chaldea breaks at the end of the summoning without interrupting the summoning of other Servants."

After saying her piece Da Vinci walked away, muttering to herself, "It will be necessary to somehow modify the ritual of summoning given this new feature."

Ainz, thinking, nodded once more, after which, laying out the crystals, he took a step back.

A second later, obeying the commands from the summoning console, the rings surrounding the summoning circle began to rotate slowly.

Ainz was deep in thought for a second - which of the Servants that he met in the last Singularity would he like to meet most? Not that he spent much time with them, but of all the possible options, the most desirable option for him was…

"Umu!" An exclamation that sounded like a thunder from the blue resounded, after which the figure of a beautiful girl dressed in a red dress slowly emerged from the dimming streams of light which emphasized her golden hair and emerald-colored eyes. Eyes shining with superiority and complacency, "You made the right choice! You will understand that your choices were not wrong!"

After this, the attention of Nero, radiant with complacency, focused on Olga-Marie, then Roman, then lingered on Da Vinci and Cainabel for a second and only after focusing on all the other occupants of the summoning room then she looked at Ainz.

For a second Nero froze at the sight of the undead wrapped in a mantle saturated with powerful magics, but after a second the girl's slowly fading smile was replaced by a new one, a recognizing and joyful smile, - "Ah, consul! What a pleasant reunion- to see you again!"

"Hm?" Ainz blinked. "Consul?"

"Of course!" Nero, completely unbothered by Ainz's appearance, perhaps it is because she was already acquainted with Ainz's true appearance in the last moments of the Singularity, took a step towards the magician, and then extended her hand, "As emperor, I am the ruler - which means you, my Master, is my main adviser - and therefore the consul ~ umu."

"Ruler, pff…" Cainabel exhaled with a laugh, laughing at Nero's actions. But Nero, either not hearing the ridicule or deciding to ignore it, just looked at Ainz with a joyful look, extending her hand for the sake of concluding a contract.

"Consul Ainz Ooal Gown," - Nero smiled a good-natured and joyful smile toward Ainz, who was a little bewildered by the pressure of the girl's exuberance, - "I recognize you as my Master ~ umu!"

"Um... Yes... Umu," Ainz nodded, accepting the girl's hand, then blinked.

Honestly, Nero was one of the best options that Ainz could hope for. In addition, having signed the contract between Master and Servant, Ainz looked instantly at the girl's parameters ...

"Umu!" The girl concluded joyfully, after which she looked at Ainz, "Your mana supply is so big!"

Ainz choked a little at the ambiguity of the phrase, after which he glanced at Nero's abilities.

Imperial privilege... Wow, this skill sounded just horribly unbalanced!

Thrice-setting sun... This skill was even more unbalanced!

Ainz looked at Nero in bewilderment, to which she answered him with a joyful smile.

She had such overpowered skills?! It was a pleasant surprise that she did not become a huge problem for him in the Singularity!

Ainz blinked once more and felt a smile creep over his face - of course, metaphorically given his lack of a face and such features. Such a successful summoning was clearly a good omen.

The next summoning somewhat cooled Ainz's ardor.

"My name is Altera - descendant of the Huns and a warrior of the God of War…"

After that, Altera, a girl with mocha-colored skin and snow-white hair, stopped her introduction immediately, without leaving the circle of summoning, when her gaze met Ainz.

Ainz, knowing that his true appearance would bother some people, turned off all the passives that would further scare all the people around him, at worst killing them outright. Of course he kept the passives that would obfuscate his true abilities, not to mention the ring that would hide the level of his overwhelming Mana. Of course such abilities are not needed in Chaldea where there are no enemies, but Ainz was not one to scrimp on his defenses even in his home base. And yet, looking at the, supposedly, normal undead, eyes glowing with a crimson flame - Altera clenched her teeth.

"I understand why you needed an avatar of destruction, Master," Altera nodded slowly. In the end, as a Servant, she had to obey her Master and fulfill his will.

After a second, Altera's gaze came upon Cainabel, which only expressed a crooked grin on her face. For a second, Altera wanted to squeeze her blade more tightly, however, the realization that it would most likely be useless in any case caused her to slowly nod, "However, I don't understand why you could need me if you had that thing on your side."

Ainz blinked, looked at Cainabel, and then at Altera.

'Ah yes…' - A sudden realization came to his head - 'Cainabel killed her…'

Prior to this, Ainz did not have to face such problems - all the Servants he summoned were not killed by him... Except for the Witch, with whom he then resolved the situation quite simply, of course not by Ainz's own actions, the Dragon Witch simply decided not to remember her loss anymore...

'Ahem, if a new player joined the guild, who previously had a conflict with one of the other players in the guild…' - Ainz tried to recall the experience of other guilds with which a similar situation occurred - 'Then they usually…'

"Altera," Ainz called to the girl, after which he pointed to Cainabel, "This is Cainabel. She will help you around."

Altera, having heard this, froze for a second, looking at Ainz, before bowing slowly, - "If this is the will of the Master."

'You can't leave the conflict to boil for a long time or it can develop into something even worse…' - at least, Tabula said so to Ainz, looking at how Touch Me and Ulbert constantly go at each other's throats - 'And there is no better way to bring the two closer than to force them together to walk a path full of dangers and difficulties. In this case, they will definitely become real friends…'

This phrase had some kind of ending, but Ainz, to be honest, forgot it and decided to ignore it in any case, as insignificant. Knowing Tabula, he had in the end some mythological reference or inserted a phrase in Latin...

The ending he had forgotten was "...or they will kill each other."

"Anyway," Ainz nodded. "I hope you will become good friends."

Altera looked at Ainz in confusion. Cainabel only smiled, "By all means, my lord."

Ainz smiled and exhaled. Apparently, he managed to resolve this conflict. However, the good thing in this case was that Ainz himself did not kill Altera, because of which her reaction to him was not so strong. Everything would have looked much more strange if instead of Altera in her place was...

"Ufufu…" -Stheno, for example... - "To manifest a Goddess, what an interesting and pitiful person…"

A second later, a new Servant appeared from the summoning circle.

Her lilac hair, fashioned in two long pigtails to the floor, framing her face, beautiful in her innocence, and a white dress, not at all suitable for her age, diverging just above her left thigh, giving an onlooker an opportunity to look at her legs.

"What's..." - at that moment Stheno's gaze reached Ainz, "...your name..."

The continuation of the phrase turned out to be so mechanical and unnatural that for a second to Ainz it seemed as if at the end the Stheno's voice changed to that of a robot - and not of the best quality.

Ainz froze. Stheno froze. There was silence in which Stheno, whose eyes focused on Ainz, stopped responding to the whole outside world - her pupils randomly narrowed and expanded, as if their owner was in a crazy panic and was focusing wildly around the room as if looking for an escape route. However, Stheno's body stood frozen in one place, completely immovable. Perhaps even paralyzed - as if all the muscles of Stheno froze in one position and ceased to obey their mistress.

"Khm," - Olga-Marie was the first to break the silence, "And what, actually…"

"AAAAAAAA!" Stheno screamed uncontrollably, after which she tried to run away from Ainz, but because of the panic that overwhelmed the girl's head, she could not control her own legs, instantly stumbling herself and plopping down on her ass. However, this still did not stop her from running away - and Stheno, without even trying to get back to her feet, crawled away - "GO AWAY! GO AWAY FROM ME! MEDUSA! EURYALE! ANYONE, SAVE ME!"

Olga-Marie, looking at the panicked behavior of the one who loudly proclaimed herself as a goddess, slowly turned her gaze toward Ainz, - "Have you... did something happen?"

"AAAAAAAAA!" - Stheno, hiding in a corner, could not think of anything better to do other than to scream, looking with horrified eyes at Ainz, who slowly raised his hand to his chin in a thoughtful gesture. Stheno, seeing Ainz's hand and remembering for a second what happened in the Singularity, could not restrain herself and with a disgusting sound regurgitated all the absent contents of her stomach onto the floor next to her.

"I…" - Ainz thought for a moment, - "Stheno was punished for her betrayal…"

"AAAAAAAA!" Stheno did not think to shut up, continuing to scream, covering her face and especially her eyes with her hands. Stheno did not even remember the fact that she is a Servant and did not even try to attack, instead, just like an ordinary girl encountering a monster, she continued to close her eyes with her hands from the threat, hoping for a miraculous salvation at the last second from her imminent - and very painful - death.

"Could you be a little quieter?" Ainz asked Stheno, not particularly hoping for an answer, after which the girl instantly fell silent. It seemed that even the sounds of her breathing had disappeared and Stheno continued to stare silently at Ainz, waiting for the moment when he would move towards her, slowly raising his hand, in order to kill her again.

"Ahem," Olga-Marie spoke first, looking from Stheno to Ainz and back, "Perhaps I was wrong... I still can be afraid of you..."

"Ahem..." Ainz grunted again, after which he looked from Stheno to the other Servants, seeking support from others.

Altera, who was still silent, only gave Ainz a heavy look. Nero, smiling, simply blinked, looking at Ainz — she saw the battle — if one could call it that, of course — of Ainz and Baal, so she could imagine the scale of his "punishment" - however, even she was a little concerned.

Da Vinci studied Ainz and Stheno carefully, looking from both of them to each other.

Roman looked at Ainz in horror.

Only Cainabel smiled approvingly at Ainz - but for some reason, approval from Cainabel in this case did not seem like a good thing to Ainz.

'If I directed Altera to interact with Cainabel…' - Ainz thought for a moment and looked at Stheno, causing her to hiccup in surprise - 'Does this mean that I must now personally deal with Stheno and resolve this issue?'

Ainz took a step towards Stheno, but she, noticing the act, instantly started twitching, as if in a bout of seizure, all while not taking her eyes off of Ainz, as if trying to knock on the floor in a panic, but remembering the words of Ainz and not daring to make a single sound.

'Um…' - Ainz doubted his decision - 'Maybe later?'

Ainz turned around from the girl, making her almost cry with relief, and moved on to the next summoning. Indeed, perhaps with his next Servant the situation will get better?

Ainz has never been so wrong...

"I am Euryale," the appearance of an almost identical copy of her twin sister, Stheno, was noted with her tin sister's dilated pupils, "That's right, I'm a Goddess. It'll be one short life, but do your best to…"

Euryale's gaze then came upon Ainz, making her freeze in place, continuing to speak in a mechanical tone, similar to Stheno's voice, "Entertain me..."

Ainz froze. Euryale froze. Stheno froze. There was silence for the second time.

"Hmm…" - this time Olga-Marie broke the silence much faster, - "Another... Punishment?"

"Yes," Ainz nodded, looking at Euryale. Euryale, having noticed the movement, blinked, after which she turned toward her twin, Stheno, who was sitting next to a corner and with mechanical-like movements moved toward her prone sister. Walking up to her sister, Euryale slowly sat down next to Stheno, after which she hugged her sister mechanically, leaning the girl's head against her, staring blankly in front of her.

"And now I'm really interested in what happened in the Singularity," Da Vinci's voice resounded in the awkward silence, surprisingly out of place.

"This…" - Ainz tried to come up with a suitable excuse, - "It is not the most... Interesting story…"

"As interesting as your victory over Cainabel?" Da Vinci looked at Ainz with interest in her eyes.

"You... Defeated Cainabel?" Altera, who at that point remained silent, looked at Ainz in surprise.

"Wow!" Nero looked at Ainz with respect in her eyes, "Consul, you have done so much! For this I will declare you the Pontifex Maximus! Yes, since this title belongs to me by right - I have the right to dispose of it! Wear it with pride!"

"Oh-oh-oh..." - Ainz felt the fragile balance and reputation that he had in Chaldea quickly collapsing due to a series of ridiculous coincidences. After all, who would have known that it was Stheno, Euryale, Nero and Altera who would be summoned today...

Ainz tried to think of a way out of the situation, "Um... Exactly, the summoning is not over yet!"

Ainz, taking advantage of the momentary confusion, took a step forward, taking out the Grail as he went.

"Are you planning to use the Grail for summoning?!" Nero looked at him with even greater respect. "What a brash courage!"

"The Grail was necessary for summoning someone like me," Cainabel made an offhand comment, "True, even with the absorption of the entire Grail, the body provided to me is somewhat... Constraining…"

"Constraining..." Altera spoke quietly, alternately looking at Ainz and Cainabel.

Ainz hurried to do everything that is necessary.

"The grail is ready!", Beating the silence, Ainz hurried, "You can summon the Servant now!"

"Yeah... Yes…" -Roman, who was silent the whole time, finally ceased to show signs of life, mechanically moving his hands. His actions turned out to be so similar to the actions of Stheno and Euryale that Ainz wondered for a second if some strange disease had struck them all at that moment...

After a second, the summoning ritual commenced.

Associative chains are powerful. Associative chains multiplied by the knowledge of the Eclipse of All Life and the power of the Grail are even more powerful.

At the time of the summoning, Ainz certainly wanted to summon a new servant from Yggdrasil. The Servant summoned from Yggdrasil was not only part of the collection for Ainz - they performed the same functions as the Servant who would undergo the palingenesis - that is, he was a unique exhibit. But at the same time - he reminded Ainz of his home, of his Yggdrasil. But associative chains are certainly a great thing.

Ainz had no concrete idea about whom he should summon from Yggdrasil - any of the summoned Servants would be close to him. However, at the time of the summoning, Ainz had a different intent in his head.

"Distract the attention of other people", which easily turned in his head into "find someone who could control these Servants."

Nero, Euryale, Stheno and Altera.

And in Ainz's head, on a subconscious level, there was an associative chain. After all, he knew the one who knew how to control these Servants. After all, he already controlled them in the past.

Of course, more precisely, a version from this world, but the associative chains are truly powerful.

In an instant when the summoning started the room dimmed and the summoning circle seemed to go berserk, similar to how it reacted to Cainabel's summoning. However, instead of disconnecting at the moment a capacity overload, the device only issued a few errors indicating the overload - then it exploded in a pillar of light.

"Oh, my dear friend!" - even before the light had finally subsided from the center of the summon, a voice resounded. The voice of the speaker was soft and soothing, but at the same time - pompous, as if the speaker was enjoying the sounds of his own voice - "Don't be afraid anymore, for I have answered your call. Rejoice, for my legions have also answered with me. That's right, my friend, today you are lucky to summon me…"

Then, when the light finally dimmed out, a man appeared in the center of the summoning circle - although it would be rather difficult to call him a man. The summoned, no older than two decades in appearance, had a beautiful face, as if it was sculpted by the hand of an artist - and was dressed in a suit, which could not be called another thing other than "the pinnacle of style". The Servant was wearing a gray coat, unbuttoned, which is why it hung on him completely without covering his gray classic suit and long tie. The tie stretched down to the very bottom of his chest. The Servant wears a gray scarf carelessly thrown over his shoulders. And his shoes were patent-leather black shoes, varnished and polished to a shine. Their hands were adorned with white gloves in which he held a cane on which he leaned on, not as a support, but, rather, for the sake of using it as an expensive accessory showing his status and power, all of it combined literally screamed that this guy was indescribably rich, important and influential.

"That's right," the guy continued to say, "For I, the Seventh Uninheritable Demon Emperor of Muspelheim, Baal have answered your call."

After that, taking a step from the summoning circle, Baal stared at Cainabel and then at Ainz.

For the third time there was only silence.

"Oh..." Baal blinked, then pointedly rolled up his sleeve, looking at his wrists, "Hmm, what time is it?"

"Ah yes..." glancing at his wrist, where there were no watches, Baal nodded. "Time to swear eternal fidelity!"

After this, Baal sank to one knee, leaving his cane. That, left without support, instantly catching fire, after which a second later it completely disappeared in a sheaf of smokeless flame.

"I swear allegiance to you, my lord," Baal bowed his head.

"Ainz... Killed you too?" Da Vinci looked at the new Servant interestedly.

"Ainz... Ooal Gown?" Baal blinked, after which, looking at Ainz, he immediately nodded, "Of course. If you take the whole Ainz Ooal Gown, then I was killed... Twelve thousand times?"

It seemed as if silence had become the normal state of this room.

"I will establish a new title for you!" Nero looked at Ainz in admiration.

Ainz only cursed himself.

It seems that his plan to "start taking care of the Servants" began from the wrong note...

* * *

**Independent Manifestation** \- is a lesser skill included in YGGDRASIL.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**To Issei ODR, answering 3 questions at the time - It's still way too early for me to talk about anything that lies this far ahead.**

**Would Ainz summoning skill that summons Jack the Ripper summon the one he did at the graveyard or would it change and summon the Nasuverse Jack? - No, it would still be Overlord Jack.**

**Also was that comparison of Demon Kings and Angels a hint at a Fallen DK betraying Beast I to join Ainz? - I would not answer this question for now.**

**Will Ainz summons more NPCs from Yggdrasil like Cainabel? - Well, as you can see...**

**just wondering but are the chapters getting shorter so people would pay u on to see whats next faster? - No, all chapters are still 8+ pages long and are written in the exact same method - so "write it till you think you've done enough". Previous chapter just was a wrap-up chapter that are considerably smaller than a regular one, given their overall meaning. Previous such a wrap-up chapter, Orleans one, was the same.**

**if you had written little more words you could have get 420k in 69 chapters - Dammit, I missed such a "nice" moment!**

**Will this story also include the lostbelt? - Ask this question in the next few years, I think...**

**I wonder, could Ainz teach the Yggdrasil magic system to the Nasuverse magi? I remember that the players who arrived to the New World before Ainz taught the magic of Yggdrasil to the inhabitants of that world. - But it seems like you don't remember how they thaught Yggdrasil magic to the NW. They used one of the WCI to change the world laws to give people way to use tier magic. So, in other words, Ainz has the power to grant Yggdrasil magic to Nasuverse magi, but you might seriously underestimate the consequences of such actions. And how much resources Ainz would have to spend on it.**

**But Momonga has a True Resurrection Wand which means they do in fact exist, which also means you really need to do better research before proclaiming facts that are incorrect as correct - As far as I remember, I didn't say that they don't exist, I said that they can't be used in the current circumstances. Because using it incurs a level loss on the target, which may be proven fatal for Olga-Marie, since Ainz didn't know her level, and it requires a body to be performed, something that Ainz lacked at the moment.**

**Also, is the whole "chipped spiritual core because of death" issue going to be solved somehow? - Well, in a sense, I guess...**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so 6 - chapters for now. And the 5$ vote is opened yet again. For 1$ you get 6 new chapters right now, to the end of this Singularity and beyond. For 5$ you also can vote for different topics - such as "interludes about whom should I write". Yeah, that's all ****I wanted to tell you about.**


	71. Chapter 71

Medusa slowly tried to move her stiff arm.

"NO!" Stheno grabbed at her arm with all her, admittedly, pretty small strength, but it was strong enough that Medusa thought for a second that her arm would be broken any second now. At the very least it would be broken eventually before Stheno finally calmed down.

Right next to Stheno was Euryale, who was pressing her body even closer to Medusa, making her sigh as her sister's hands squeezed her body.

This peculiar situation has been happening for a whole day. Stheno and Euryale have been stuck to Medusa, literally trying to crush her in their arms, not daring to move away from her even a millimeter and also literally holding Medusa in place in her room, more precisely on her bed.

Medusa, of course, was glad that her sisters were a lot freer in expressing their emotions. Her sisters, when the three of them lived on the Shapeless Island, were much more... restrained in their actions. They were much more sarcastic, acerbic and perhaps even cruel. Of course not in an evil way, but rather in the way that an older sister can be cruel to their younger sister, constantly making fun of her, but still loving her.

However, from the very moment of their summoning, both her sisters seeked out Medusa and instead of their usual behavior, they literally tried to strangle her in their arms. It was very cute, pleasant even. But it hindered Medusa's daily activities. She, of course, loved her sisters, but still she didn't really want to lie in bed for 24 hours.

However, disregarding Medusa's complaints, her sisters clung to her with all their might, not letting go of Medusa even for breakfast - and even more they flatly refused to leave Medusa's room.

Honestly, if one would evaluate the situation solely in how it appears, then this behavior could be called if not "logical", then at least "explainable". Stheno and Euryale looked not much older than young adolescents, when compared to Medusa who looked to be in her twenties they looked really young. So two "young" girls seeking safety with their "older" sister made sense. On the other hand, given the characteristics of the Servants and their related legends - all this made no sense. Since in fact, Medusa was the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. And logically speaking, it was she who should have hidden behind the back of her older sisters. However, for some reason, their roles have been reversed.

The name of this reason was...

"Ainz," Medusa uttered the word almost inaudibly, but even so, Stheno and Euryale, barely hearing the name of Medusa's Master, pressed themselves closer to their sister, almost trembling at the mention of Ainz's name.

The reason for this conundrum confused Medusa greatly.

Ainz had killed her sisters, this fact was supposed to anger Medusa.

But at the same time, her sisters were enemies not only of Ainz, but of Medusa herself. They were Baal's subordinates, their enemy. So his actions were completely justified and logical.

But Ainz did not only kill her sisters, he did something else to them... Something neither Euryale nor Stheno would say what exactly happened during their encounter with Ainz - they would only say that it was incredibly painful - and humiliating. Such excessive cruelty should have revulsed Medusa...

It should… but at the same time, all this happened due to the fact that Ainz had lost his temper after learning that she, Medusa, had been betrayed and killed by her sisters. The thought of this warmed the soul of Medusa, forcing her to slowly pull the corners of her lips in an attempt to put a smile on her face.

In other words, this situation was complicated no matter from which side one was to approach it, therefore Medusa experienced all sorts of emotions from processing what had happened. She was angry with Ainz, and was also grateful to him. She condemned his actions, and yet also considered him extremely sweet and even, in a strange sense of the word, romantic. All these conflicting thoughts confused Medusa.

Medusa was completely unable to figure out what she should have felt — for Ainz, for the situation, and even for her sisters.

They indeed killed her - betrayed her even. It was an indisputable fact. Yet at the same time...

Medusa turned her gaze toward Stheno. Her eyes are currently closed, perhaps she had fallen asleep, all the while continuing to hold Medusa with her hands. Her intermittent breathing sometimes went astray, and the pupils behind her closed eyes continued to move randomly. It seemed that she was dreaming. And judging by the cold sweats on her forehead, a nightmare.

Looking at Stheno shivering because of her nightmare , Medusa could not keep being angry at her and could not hate her. Stheno had clearly already paid for her betrayal, and now her older sister, the one who always seemed to Medusa as a bastion of strength and a calm rock in the raging world around her, was a small, fragile and defenseless girl, so in need of protection for her sister. Her younger sister.

Medusa exhaled and stretched her hand in order to pat Stheno on the head, however, at the moment when her hand touched Stheno's hair...

"HE IS COMING!" Stheno instantly jumped away from the bed, almost making Medusa fall after her, "RUN!"

After a second, Euryale also jerked from her sleep, waking up as fast as Stheno did. She also jumped from the bed, yanking Medusa in the opposite direction. Due to the fact that Stheno still held Medusa's other hand, for a second, due to the opposing force, it seemed to Medusa that she would now be torn to pieces.

"RUN!" Stheno let out another panicked cry, and then rushed forward to the only exit from the room. Euryale followed after her - and only Medusa, being abandoned for some reason, blinked in incomprehension of the situation. After a second, as soon as the door opened, Euryale and Stheno together instantly disappeared from Medusa's field of view, disappearing to the corridors while leaving the door wide open.

Medusa blinked again - "What... Could have caused such a reaction in them?"

A second later, Medusa received the answer to her question.

At first, the sensation came as if Medusa had suddenly plunged herself under a cold waterfall - a cold, gloomy and unemotional force seemed to have seized her. The cold made the girl breathe deeply as if before diving into the ocean depths. After a second the reason for her sister's panicked reaction appeared on the threshold of Medusa's room.

A black mantle, as if created from the blackest magic imaginable, encircled the skeletal figure of a creature in whose eyes an implacable crimson flame glowed. This is what Ainz looked like in his real body.

Frankly, until that moment, Medusa hardly thought about how Ainz actually looked - although she knew that his body, provided by Da Vinci, was just a puppet. However, in her mind Ainz's manners, character and behavior were so perfectly matched with the ordinary, unremarkable, but at the same time attractive body of a simple person, that Medusa could not even imagine how different his real appearance would be from his puppet body.

Medusa, even realizing that it was Ainz himself that had appeared before her , her Master, the one whom she had already got used to and even become somewhat close , tried to retreat as far as possible from his presence.

"Oh, Medusa," Ainz looked at her. Medusa was sure that, if he was in his usual body, Ainz would now smile good-naturedly and even sound friendly. But his bare skull, incapable of expressing normal human emotions, and the deep voice gave his words a completely different weight and tenor. Transforming what would normally be an ordinary speech for an ordinary person into the words of a king, speaking with dignity and regal authority.

"Ainz," Medusa, not completely sure how she should address Ainz, entangled in the contradictory signals in her mind, nodded slowly, "Master. "

Aizs stopped for a second.

In reality, the reply was unexpectedly cold - and perhaps even the formal response of Medusa and perhaps it even confused him, but for Medusa the situation looked completely different. When the enormous figure of the undead king froze at the entrance to her room, Medusa felt goosebumps running down her back.

'It seems... That I'm now starting to understand why Stheno and Euryale are so afraid of him…' - Medusa could not help herself. Ainz, whom she seemed to know not so long ago - good-natured and smiling - completely did not fit in her mind with the figure of the powerful undead that stood before her.

"You..." Ainz glanced at Medusa. "Do you know where Stheno and Euryale are?"

"Why are... Are you looking for them?" Medusa couldn't force herself to lie to Ainz, but she also couldn't simply point out her sister's location, not that she actually knows where they are right now.

"This…" - Ainz froze, as if pondering his words, - "It concerns what happened in the Singularity."

"What... What exactly happened there?" It was difficult for Medusa to even look at Ainz, it almost seemed that his presence was pushing down on Medusa.

"Hm..." Ainz looked to be deep in thought about it, after which, looking at the open door, he took a step inside the Medusa room, then he closed the door behind him. After Ainz entered the room it became somewhat cramped. Not only because of Ainz towering two meter tall figure, but also because of the aura of power radiating out from the skeletal figure.

However, contrary to the serious atmosphere slowly descending in the room, Ainz began to look around the room for a second. After spotting a chair next to a desk, he carefully seated himself on the chair. The creaking noise of the chair was somewhat incongruous in the silent room.

"Hmm... I... Slightly lost my temper," Ainz slowly spoke out.

Medusa sighed. She expected such an answer, but to hear it personally from Ainz was very different than assuming such a thing.

"Why?" Medusa glanced at Ainz, waiting for an answer.

The tall skeletal figure seemed to freeze for a second. And then Ainz slowly brought his skeletal hand to his face and...

Scratched the back of his head?

Ainz's unexpected action literally knocked Medusa out of her stupor, forcing her to look at Ainz closely. With a second look Medusa could clearly see the resemblance between the King of the Undead in front of her and the kind Master that she knew of.

Moreover - looking closely, Medusa saw that Ainz is not actually looking at her, but instead away a little to the side, as if... Embarrassed?

An emotion like embarrassment did not fit with the appearance of an undead king so much so that she was forced to look at Ainz differently. The skeleton in front of her was no different than her Master.

"Because..." Ainz hesitated, "Well, that is... I take the concept of family very seriously..."

Ainz's tone was so out of place that it deprived Medusa of her prepared reply.

"When I found out that your sisters had betrayed you..." Ainz looked uncomfortable talking on this subject, but he continued," I lost my temper a little and... I wanted to avenge you."

If someone could translate Medusa's thoughts into sound, then instead of the usual many-voiced chorus, they would now only hear the howling of the wind. Ainz's words shocked Medusa so much that her mind pretty much blanked out.

Of course, she knew that Ainz was riled up after her death, but she didn't really believe that "after, means because of" and did not immediately think that Ainz did such things to avenge her. Rather, she believed that Ainz was enraged because he missed Baal's presence on the island - or even that the Barrier turned out to be a trap - or something like that...

Ainz's made Medusa's heart skip a beat.

"Ah..." "Medusa, after a few seconds in awkward silence, was able to control herself and continue the conversation, "What exactly did you do in the Singularity?"

Ainz sighed and squirmed a little in his chair. Another absolutely human action that made Medusa breathe a lot easier. Yes, apparently it was still the same Ainz, to which she was accustomed to... Just with a different appearance and making a slightly different impression.

"I..." - Ainz sighed again, "I tried out the effect of my two skills... And as a result I killed Stheno and Euryale."

It... It didn't sound so scary.

Of course, there were a lot of skills in the world - and some of them are really terrifying and shock the imagination, or did both at the same time.

On the other hand, apparently these skills belonged to the latter category, being powerful - and, judging by the reaction of her sisters - extremely dangerous.

Medusa exhaled.

"In that case, could you…" - Medusa exhaled, - "Apologize to them?"

It could not be said that Ainz was not in his own right when he acted against Stheno or Euryale - woe to the vanquished, and they really were enemies at that time, so their death was logical and justified. In addition, they also betrayed and killed Medusa.

But still, despite everything that had happened, they were her family. The family that Medusa loved. The family she valued. And even if they betrayed her...

They only returned her old favor. She did kill them in the past.

Ainz froze at the thought, after which he slowly turned his gaze to Medusa and... - "Under no circumstances."

Medusa froze at the sharp reply.

Ainz looked at Medusa seriously.

Until that moment, Medusa had time to look at Ainz - the man - for a few moments and to look at Ainz - the King - and make sure that this King was still the same Ainz that Medusa remembered. But his harsh answer brokered no further argument and was more like a royal decree than the words of a simple Master. Ainz uttered the words like a final judgement.

"But…" - Medusa tried to object, - "Why?"

Ainz froze from such a question.

Why…

How was he supposed to answer this question?

Because his Ainz Ooal Gown was just the same. Because no matter how many times Touch Me and Ulbert fought with each other, Ainz still knew that they appreciated each other, relied on each other and were confident in each other. Because his memories of the member of Ainz Ooal Gown were the only dear thing in his life. Because Nazarick, the only proof of his existence, his achievements in that distant world, was created by Ainz Ooal Gown. Because the lonely and unhappy Satoru Suzuki lived his life without family and friends. Because he always dreamed that there would be someone who would share his joys and sorrows. Because he was Ainz Ooal Gown.

"Because I take care of my Servants," Ainz sighed. He felt like a hypocrite, saying this now, after all the moments when he forgot about his Servants for a variety of reasons... But now, right now, he, like Ainz Ooal Gown, the one who shall not let disgrace to the name of his guild, would take care of them.

Medusa fell silent.

For a second - it seemed to her, only for a second, but after these words... Her heart skipped a beat.

"I made too many mistakes," Ainz inhaled, "And missed too many chances given to me to miss another one. You - Medusa - and the other Servants... You are important to me and I will take care of you."

Ainz exhaled.

"Therefore," Ainz shook his head, "I can't just go and apologize to Stheno and Euryale for what happened. I did what I did - and if retribution for what I did would fall on me, then I will accept it. But I have nothing to apologize for."

Ainz, having finished his speech, bowed his head, as if apologizing.

"Sorry, but I have spoken my word."

Medusa slowly bowed her head.

Not that there was much room for dispute after all that was said. In fact, she could not even find an objection to Ainz's words. He only did what was logical. From his position, his action was not just logical - he did what was only fair to do. Ainz really shouldn't have - and had no reason to apologize to her sisters. All that Medusa could oppose his position was with selfishness "but I want you to get along." From Ainz's position, his act was a manifestation of justice, while Medusa herself desired only to satisfy her own ego.

In other words, it was a principled stand against a selfish desire. It was not even necessary to think about which side would win this confrontation.

Medusa turned her gaze to Ainz, as if trying to see in him some detail that could help Medusa convince her Master. Perhaps, in different conditions, Medusa might even notice something, but not this time.

Perhaps Ainz's words influenced her so much ,or perhaps it was because of her new appearance? - old one? - Ainz's true appearance, but Medusa did not see anything that could help her point of view. Each line of his appearance, his every movement, even his posture expressed absolute conviction in his words. A conviction that is far more powerful than Medusa could hope to break.

"Is it unusual to look at this appearance?" Ainz looked at Medusa, and if not for the absence of a face on his skull, Medusa could have sworn that he was smiling, "Da Vinci is preparing a new puppet for me... So for now I'll have to stay in this body for the next week. I hope that I am not scaring you."

Ainz bowed slightly, in a half-joking tone. However, Medusa herself only could determine that this tone was half-joking only because she had previously communicated with Ainz - his tone still sounded too majestic to easily determine his intentions.

At that moment, Medusa realized that she had seen Ainz's true appearance.

She didn't see any specific detail in Ainz, but she could see him.

The glasses. The glasses that Ainz gave her. A copy of the glasses that she wore before, to be more precise. Then Ainz gave them to her along with the book of Baal, as a reward for the past Singularity. For this...

Medusa was reluctant to think about asking for a reward from Ainz. So he did enough for measure up to the reward that Ainz had given her. Being a Servant, a weapon in the hands of the Master, a monster from the Shapeless Island, Medusa received much more than she deserved. To ask Ainz for something even more... Now, after everything that had happened, it seemed very unfair to Medusa, but...

"Please," Medusa bowed her head, then slowly extended her hands to her glasses, "Please, could you..."

Slowly she took off her glasses.

Having lost the effect of the artifact, she closed her eyes. Again. Her damned gaze would poison her life again, and her punishment would return, but still...

"Please, you could take this back" Medusa held out the glasses to Ainz, trying not to cry from resentment. Getting rid of her great curse... She was ready to sacrifice it for her sisters. Even after everything that had happened.

Ainz only looked at the outstretched glasses in confusion.

There was silence for a second, in which Ainz looked at the glasses, then at Medusa for several times before breathing in. "Do you want it to happen so much?"

Medusa looked up at Ainz, after which, not restraining herself, nodded, facing the magician.

Tears were in her eyes, so that her frozen, not blinking pupil seemed even more ugly in the rays of light than usual, but Medusa only nodded quickly with her head, dropping the salty tears on the bed.

Ainz, still silently sitting still, then stood up.

Medusa, expecting him to take glasses and not even fulfill her wishes, shrank back, as if before a blow. Ainz slowly took one step, then the second, and then slowly sitting next to the girl.

After a second, Medusa felt a touch of cold fabric, soft and light, like silk, and at the same time heavy, like velvet, on her cheeks.

"It's alright..." Ainz's voice was quiet, so Medusa did not immediately realize that he was saying something, "Don't cry..."

Slowly, moving his bony arm, the undead king wiped the tears from the face of Medusa.

Such a surreal picture, someone might be surprised - or even horrified, but Medusa, unable to resist, only hugged Ainz and burst into tears.

"Well, you are crying now…" - Ainz sighed, completely not happy with this result, - "Don't cry…"

Ainz hugged Medusa, making her cry even harder.

It seemed to Medusa that in Ainz's hands she was protected. It was as if someone big and strong was protecting a little girl, desperately clinging to the only good thing in her life, sheltering her from the whole world.

"What kind of a bad Master I am…" - Ainz exhaled upset, - "I made my Servant cry…"

Medusa clutched at Ainz even harder. She desperately wanted to object to Ainz, to tell him how much he underestimated himself, and that he was the best Master in the world, but if she tried, all that would come out of her mouth would be unidentifiable noises, mixed up with sobs. Therefore, Medusa only grabbed hold of Ainz even harder, hugging him with all his might.

"Well…" - Ainz, completely unsure of his abilities to console a sobbing girl, only continued to wield his cloak, trying to wipe the girl's oncoming tears, making her only cry more.

After some time, Ainz abandoned this useless activity, simply hugging Medusa, allowing her to sob on his shoulder.

This went on for several minutes, the silence of the room interrupted only by the Medusa's sobbing and the periodical noises from Ainz head patting Medusa. At least Ainz had heard that young children respond well to such actions - and although Medusa was clearly not a child, that was all Ainz could do in the current situation.

After some time, when Medusa was able to recover her calm and her sobs ceased, Ainz pulled away from the girl, looking at her.

"Use the glasses," Ainz sighed, "I don't know how much of a monster I would be if I took such a thing from you after such a strong reaction..."

Medusa felt disgusted at the thought that Ainz was giving her glasses because of her tears, but at the same time she was too relieved at having it back to object to him.

"Umu…" - Ainz exhaled, after which he looked seriously at Medusa, - "And even so... I can not apologize for what had happened before. And even if I could, I would not. And even if I did, it still would not change what had happened."

Medusa felt her heart freeze.

"But…" - Ainz shook his head, - "Hmm... Good. I can do something else. If you really want it so much that you decided to choose it as your reward... then there is something that I can give you."

* * *

Stheno felt her heart beating with such force, it was as if it was trying to break her rib cage and escape from its mad owner.

A light breeze that came along the corridor startled Stheno and made her sharply turn in the direction of the wind, freezing, as if a wild animal in the face of a hunter.

But luckily Stheno did not find any danger, only her sister, Euryale, forcing her heart to calm down even a little.

The air itself was saturated with the sensation of Ainz. That...

Thing.

Walking nearby. Expectantly and mockingly looking at her. A pending moment to again bring Stheno the pain that she experienced.

Stheno shuddered when Euryale laid a hand on her shoulder, after which she looked at her fearfully.

"He's gone," Euryale answered Stheno. Of the two Gorgon sisters Euryale went through less - but even so Stheno saw how hard the girl steeled herself to say just a few of these words - "Nothing is threatening us. We need to go back to Medusa."

Stheno was only able to slowly nod at this, and then, leaning against the wall, slowly moved forward.

Even the obscure shadow in the distance of the corridor, barely darker than the snow-white corridor, looked to Stheno like a lurking Ainz, looking expectantly at the girl, and only having gathered all her willpower could she move forward.

The door to Medusa's room opened easily, allowing Stheno to slowly walk inside - after which Euryale followed right behind, closing the door.

Medusa sat in her place, looking at her sisters with kindness and love, but at the same time with anxiety...

"Fuh…" - Stheno was barely able to say it, - "He left…"

"Not really," an unexpected voice suddenly replied, making Stheno freeze in place.

She knew to whom this voice belonged. She knew who was standing next to her now. She knew that she could not run from him.

Stheno froze in place, not daring to turn toward the speaker.

"Hm, indeed, the impact was greater than I expected..." - Ainz took a step toward the door, cutting off the sisters' path of retreat, "All right, then... Stheno, Euryale..."

Stheno, having neither the will nor the ability to ignore the command in his voice, turned toward Ainz.

He looked exactly as she remembered, with the fire of hatred burning in his eyes, with Darkness itself wrapping around the body of a skeleton. And last but least, the pressure of irresistible power.

Stheno froze completely.

"Medusa," Ainz suddenly mentioned the third sister.

"No..." - Stheno felt how all hope in her eyes was crumbling - "Not Medusa..."

Stheno did a lot of terrible things. She had betrayed Medusa, but only because she tried to save the three of them in the end.

There was no escape from Ainz.

'Run, I'll hold him back!' Stheno would like to shout something like that, but she realized that it was useless. She could not even hold Ainz back even for a second.

"Hmm, you three," Ainz nodded slowly, after which the fire in his eye sockets went out, a gesture similar to a person closing his eyes, "I will not apologize for what happened in the Singularity and I cannot change what had happened... But Medusa pushed me to this decision. So…"

"From this moment," Ainz slowly extended his hand, after which he hugged all three with a broad gesture, "You are under the official patronage of Ainz Ooal Gown. I swear on this name - that the heavens will fall, the seas will dry up and the earth will turn into dusts before anyone dares to hurt you."

"And if anyone dares," at that moment the fire in Ainz's eye sockets lit again, forcing Stheno to hold her breath at the moment when the gaze of her new Master touched her, "He will know a pain a thousand times worse than he can imagine."

After that, Ainz slowly lowered his hand, after which he took a step back, glancing at Medusa. "Is this enough?"

"Yes," Medusa nodded slowly, after which Ainz stepped back.

"In that case, perhaps I should leave," Ainz nodded again, "I don't want to interfere with your family reunion."

Ainz, slowly moving forward, walked around the Gorgon-sisters, after which the sound of the door opening and closing informed them that Ainz had left the room.

"Now we have nothing to fear," the voice of Medusa was calm - and even joyful, "Ainz will protect us from everything."

Protect from everything? Yes, that sounded realistic...

But is there nothing to be afraid of? Oh no, Stheno didn't think so...

They had nothing to fear - except for Ainz.

That which embodied everything that should be feared.

* * *

**Name**: Medusa Gorgon

**Ability**: Blood Fort Andromeda

Level: 60

An ability that establishes an area around the user in which the adversary receives a constant - albeit not very large - damage, and also loses a significant part of their parameters. Unfortunately, this is where the features of the ability end. Although the size of the created field is quite large and the loss of parameters is substantial, unfortunately this field does not impose any additional penalties, or even the most basic protection against teleportation or other movement restrictions on the enemy who gets inside.

**Skill**: Mystic Eyes

Skill Strength Level: 90

A skill that is on the edge of becoming an ability. Rather, it can be said that this skill is an "ability", which at the same time scales according to the level of the skill and the user, gaining strength depending on the chosen specialization of the skill owner. In this case, the skill that Medusa possesses is the "Mystical Eyes of Petrification," an ability that, when activated, causes permanent small damage to any target that the player is looking at, additionally imposing a stacking debuff on the physical characteristics of the target, up to complete paralysis and powerlessness of the target. Unfortunately, this ability is easily blocked by a high enough parameter in magic defense or a high enough mana of the target.

**Skill**: Monstrous Strength

Skill Strength Level: 60

A skill that enhances the player's physical attack in the case of a melee battle. Further enhances the parameters in case of a battle with a target with high positive karma.

* * *

**Player Comments:**

\- I don't remember at all what build this is... The skills are terribly motley - did someone try to make a one on one specialized fighter? Or a noob hunter?

\- Medusa... Wait a minute, this is that rogue of the fortieth level! Also the summoner! With such skills for hunting noobs with unbalanced parameters! No, well, this is just ridiculous - who was even entrusted with making this build?!

\- AAAAA! A summoner with classes of rogue, with high agility, and classes based on the legend of the Medusa, with the skills to fight either with a group of weak enemies, to weaken a crowd, and to kill loners! I'm hysterical, who is so crooked to come up with THIS?! A hundred different skills, and nothing that synergizes well with each other! I'm done...

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Is medusa not gonna be summoned?\Wait, so Medusa is gone for good? - As you can see...**

**so have the other servants in chadela seen aniz without his atificial body? - Only Mashu, Da Vinci, Olga-Marie, and Roman saw him in his true body before.**

**Oh boy, 12k times? Seriously!? \ Killed 12,000 times? What rare item did drop he drop to deserved to be farmed? - He was gutted for gold and materials for 7th floor of Nazarick.**

** Did they monopolize his kill? - For the time being, yes.**

**Also I'm wondering, who is stronger? Cainable or Baal? - Cainabel with her 3rd NP by far, but with her 3rd NP restricted - Baal has a very decent chance.**

**Does The Goal Of All Life Is Death automatically impose the concept of death on everything including beasts and outer gods? - Indeed, an interesting question, that I, indeed, yet would not answer.**

**How come Ainz's golden rule skill doesn't work on the gacha, I mean summoning system? - Ainz doesn't see nor rarity, neither skills of the Servants he is summoning, so he doesn't see it as any sort of gacha, where there is a "good roll" and "bad one". He just sees it as a summoning Servants, to which his Golden Rule already applied, by creating data-crystals.**

**With both of the gorgon sisters here, i wonder if they might actually use medusa as a.. honey trap? - Lol... They are probably way too traumatized right now for anything that even remotely involves Medusa and Ainz.**

**Are Ressurection Wands 1 time use or multipul use? - Multiple.**

**Does the Wand's have grades that affect how well the Ressurrected person will be once they come back? - Yes, there are Ressurection Wands and True Ressurection Wands at least.**

**As a Necromancer, does Ainz have any personal Spells or SKILLS that can do similar things? - No, Ainz has no personal skills\spells to resurrect people as they are. At best he could make them undead by himself.**

**So I feel like Ainz would be able to teach via a spell book or something without needing a world class item. - Yeah, that's something that may be true... But not yet, I think, anyway.**

**Will you summon sebas? - I'm not planning to summon anyone from Nazarick - for now.**

**Sebas is a butler right? - But he can't cook. He is a battle butler after all.**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 7 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 7 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond. **


	72. Chapter 72

Archer was in an unusual state of mind.

Well to be honest he's been in an unusual mood from the moment he was summoned. He was not summoned in the most ordinary of conditions, life on earth was annihilated in a cataclysmic fire, then was supposed to fight in these Singularities and so on...

But more specifically, at the moment, Archer was in an even more unusual mood, looking at... His Master.

Ainz Ooal Gown.

An Undead... It was not Archer's most frequent opponent, but Archer did have some knowledge regarding the monsters created by black magic based on the bodies and souls of the dead. It may not be enough to call himself a full-fledged undead expert, but it was enough to roughly understand what the undead are like.

But while observing Ainz, Archer felt his practical knowledge, fostered and collected over many years and uncountable battles, was threatened to crumble into useless dust.

Ainz exceeded all the undead seen before by Archer so much that even trying to compare them seemed ridiculous to Archer. Where an ordinary undead would either have decaying flesh or even bare bones, there was only a snow-white body that Archer, for all his cunning and observation, could not find a single proof that the body could ever belong to a person. Rather, it seemed as if Ainz had been created as a perfect undead from the very beginning. Instead of an unpleasant aura that would be created by the corpse animated by dark magic, Ainz's figure radiated a primordial force, more suitable for a king - or, if someone wants to make an even more bombastic comparison - to a God. And, of course, instead of the primitive thirst for blood and hate for life that a brainless undead exuded, Ainz instead...

"What a pity," Ainz shook his head, "I really wanted to try your cooking..."

Yes, this also contrasted strongly with Archer's knowledge of the undead.

Of course, Archer knew that Ainz's real body was not human at all - and, unlike the other Servants, he took special care to find out what Ainz really looked like.

However, the description that he managed to get from asking the others - "a terrifyingly strong undead" - completely did not convey the whole picture of what he actually saw. Of course, theoretically, Archer could get more information from, for example, Cainabel, but...

To ask her? Archer was not crazy enough to do such a suicidal thing.

"Ahem," Ainz cleared his throat a little, after which he looked at Archer and, having carefully examined him, bowed his head a little, "Is... Is everything all right?"

Archer was ready to fight to the death against Ainz. But the fact that Ainz will ask him questions that, apparently, concerned his well-being, he was definitely not ready.

Archer, as a Servant, had certain advantages over ordinary people. And as one of the incarnations of the Counter-Force, he also had certain advantages even over other Servants. One of these advantages was, for example, his instinct.

Although there are many Servants who could determine that Ainz was not a simple Servant, Archer's instinct was comparable in this aspect with the mind of Da Vinci herself. However, if Da Vinci could find out everything thanks to her intelligence and abilities and to find it from a scientific point of view, then Archer's knowledge was more instinctive. In other words things such as: is that the enemy, how strong is the enemy, how great is his influence on the world around him, and how bad is the situation in which Archer found himself in.

The answer to the last three questions were very simple - "very". Ainz is very strong, his influence is very great and the situation is very bad. It was all the more strange for Archer that the answer "is the enemy standing in front of me?" - his instincts answered him with a resounding "no."

Judging by all the obvious indicators, Archer should be in a fight with Ainz right now, having received the strength of a Counter Guardian for the sake of saving the world and all of mankind. Instead…

"It's all right ..." Archer communicated with the creature that he, in any other situation would consider the cause of the death of mankind and the creation of the Singularities.

"Hmm…" - Ainz coughed once more, - "Good."

An uncomfortable silence fell in the kitchen.

Up to this point, Archer had never met Ainz face to face, at least when they were alone. The closest interaction Archer had with him, was most likely when Ainz used a healing potion on him in the Orleans Singularity and maybe a couple of phrases when it happened. After this, any interaction between Archer and Ainz was almost nonexistent.

"Anyhow…" - Ainz nodded again, - "Nothing unusual happened in Chaldea when I was away? Any problems?"

Archer exhaled.

What was the point of such a question?

From where Archer stood, Ainz looked to him like some kind of incomprehensible terrifying enemy magician, who for some reason, and perhaps only by a miracle, did not provoke a response from the Counter-Force. But Ainz's behavior did not fit into this neat image so much that it was physically difficult for Archer to combine these two pictures in his head.

So, Ainz... What did Archer actually know about him?

Apparently, taking into consideration everything that is happening, just about nothing.

"Nothing special, there were no problems that needed your attention," Archer answered in a terse tone.

"Oh, ahem, I see..." Ainz nodded once more, "Good."

The conversation was halted yet again. Archer exhaled deeply at the uncomfortable atmosphere.

Was he destined to constantly get into these strange situations? Once he was actually summoned into the past and met with himself. He was also once summoned into a virtual reality with the help of an ancient computer and an insane AI. But even so, the situation in which he was in right now, probably would win the prize among all the oddities of his life.

As a Counter Guardian, he has already become somewhat accustomed to the fact that he often appears at a time when humanity is about to be destroyed. Of course, to be summoned at a time when humanity was already destroyed was unusual, but given his nature as a Servant, it was not so surprising. But to be summoned by an ancient necromancer god, who was used to hunting other gods and destroying worlds after dinner, was definitely the strangest thing that had happened to him now.

And even so, the strangest part was not that Archer was summoned by the ancient conqueror to direct him to destroy humanity, but... The fact that this was not so?

Honestly, from the very summoning Archer went through less fighting than anyone in the, if you can call this clusterfuck as such, ordinary Holy Grail War. That is, a couple of battles with hostile Servants, a couple bouts of planning, one ambush, all of these in a couple of weeks. After that, he... was given a vacation?

Well what he counts as vacation anyway, probably, it was worth saying that nobody in Chaldea used him to fight, did not give him any arduous or impossible tasks, did not use him in any dark rituals and did not even sacrifice him for some byzantine reason. That is, Archer... was free to do what he wants?

No direct directive from Alaya, being summoned by an enemy of the world, who is actually not an enemy, a quiet life in Chaldea, during the apocalypse along with a dozen other Servants...

It was definitely the strangest circumstances for a summoning for Archer.

"Ha, as I thought," Ainz shook his head, after which he took a step forward.

Archer stiffened, expecting that now everything would be decided and Ainz would attack him, or at least something that would decide his future actions would happen. But instead...

"Haaaaa," Ainz exhaled, then sat down in an empty seat, then looked at Archer. "Can you please close the door and sit down?"

Archer tensed, but nevertheless fulfilled what was said to him and sat across from Ainz, expecting some kind of unexpected actions from the Undead. And indeed something unexpected did happen. Just not those that Archer himself expected, as much as one could expect an unexpected action.

"Archer, tell me... Is that not your real name?" Ainz looked at Archer, "Could you tell me then... Your real name?"

Archer froze.

Such a question was so unexpected to Archer that he started thinking about the possible reasons for Ainz to ask. Find out his actual name to possibly acquire information about his abilities? But it was unnecessary for Ainz to ask him as he could just look at all the information about him using his ability or even just by asking Jeanne, wasn't that so?

"Um, no, if some kind of story is connected with this, then I don't want to be intrusive," Ainz hastened to assuage Archer's bewilderment, confusing the Servant even more, "Just, hmm... I've never been too good at communicating with people, and the Servants…"

With people... Did he mean with actual people? Representatives of the human species?

Archer could believe it, but it created a hundred more questions in Archer's head. If Ainz did not get along with people up to this point, then what had changed?

"In truth, I'm not very good at speaking at all," Ainz nodded. "But anyway... I would like to know more about you."

What for?

Archer's mind started spinning in his head, trying to come up with at least one coherent reason why someone like Ainz needed to talk to someone like Archer.

"Well, that is, isn't it certainly better to work in a team when you know who you are working with?" Ainz sounded cold, but the essence of his reason delivered with his calm and even majestic tone was so incongruous that Archer's mind finally broke down.

"Ah, yes, of course," Archer nodded. "Should I make some tea?"

"Hm, of course." Ainz nodded.

Archer got up from the chair, after which he took a couple of mechanical steps to the teapot with unbending legs. Of course, he won't be able to arrange a traditional Japanese tea party, but even so, it was best to discuss issues with a cup of tea in their hands, wouldn't it?

"What do you want?" Archer turned to Ainz.

"Oh, thank you, but I don't need anything with this body," Ainz nodded, then pointed to his skeletal figure, which did not even have a hint of flesh.

Yes, of course, if Ainz would drink tea right now, then most likely the drink will simply spill out of the gaps in his body... Ha ha...

Archer wanted to squeeze his head in frustration. Yes, it didn't make sense at all! Nothing around him made sense!

If you are a terrible god of darkness on the cusp of becoming the destroyer of the world, then behave accordingly!

Archer continued to stand still until the kettle informed him with a whistle that the water was ready, after which, quite routinely, he steeped some tea leaves and returned to his place opposite Ainz.

Ainz just looked at Archer, and then nodded. "I would not want to get into anything sensitive, but, of course, if we were to work together in the future..."

Archer slowly raised his cup of tea, taking a sip.

So, Ainz is asking Archer about his life...

What should Archer answer him with? What answer could he give? How will Ainz react to any information that he reveals? And how will he use this information?

Archer continued to look at Ainz with a glassy look while taking another sip.

Tell him about his past? About becoming a Counter Guardian? About the fight against creatures that Archer himself, for the sake of convenience, would call as "something like Ainz"? What about his plans for the future? About his wish to the Grail?

Archer drained the mug of tea to the bottom, after which he looked at Ainz seriously.

"I love to cook," Archer replied in finality, like a final argument. Depending on how Ainz reacts to this sentence, Archer could determine what motivated Ainz interest in him. Maybe his Combat skills, or perhaps even some personal information for future emotional blackmail, or...

"Oh yes, I already heard about it!" Ainz nodded. "Amazing. Honestly, your image as someone with your personality, a no nonsense kind of person, was completely unsuitable for cooking…"

Or nothing…

Archer raised his cup of tea, took a sip, then another...

"Hmmm, it seems that you have run out of tea," Ainz said in a calm voice.

"I know," Archer only replied distractedly, after which he continued to drink the non-existent tea.

"Ahem... Okay," Ainz easily agreed with Archer's words, "Although, in fact, I'm a little envious. All the people in Chaldea say that you are an excellent cook, and unfortunately I can't try your cooking... Honestly, I am quite vexed that my past body was destroyed…"

Ah, to hell with it!

"Is it hard to live as an undead?" Archer asked Ainz a question that had been bothering for a while. Ainz wants to just talk, okay, then who is Archer to be against a little conversation with his Master?

"Hmm…" - Ainz thought for a second, - "In some ways. Honestly, I definitely can't say that there aren't some things that bothers me. Of course, it bothers me that the many pleasures of life can't be enjoyed by my undead body like food and even… khhm"

At that moment Ainz was suddenly silent, but Archer could guess Ainz's thought.

Yes, to be without your own... Manhood as a man, that definitely did not sound like the most pleasant state of existence.

"But on the other hand, being undead brings a lot of advantages," Ainz nodded. "There is no need to be afraid of aging, no need to worry about starvation or dying by exposure, not to mention that many additional abilities open up. Your magic would also get stronger, moreover…"

Archer nodded, and then asked another question, "In that case... Do you regret having turned yourself into undead?"

Ainz thought for a second, "Actually... it's not that I turned myself into an undead... Rather, it was just... An accident, I suppose."

Archer exhaled. He would like to know what kind of accident would make Ainz into such a creature which he was now.

"Regarding regrets," Ainz shook his head. "I don't know. On the one hand, when I first appeared in the world as an undead I met... Many obstacles."

Ainz wondered for a second whether or not he should reveal this detail of his past or not, but in the end he decided to at least say something, - "People... And, I mean humanity as a race, they always reacted badly to someone like me."

There were three races in Yggdrasil that a player can choose to play in. Humans, demihumans and heteromorphs, although, for a better understanding between the dichotomy, it is better to say that the races were divided into humans and almost humans, like elves or gnomes. And non-humans like orcs or lizards, and lastly the "monsters".

And, speaking in a theoretical sense, the "monsters" should have been the main choice among the players. Thanks to Yggdrasil leveling system, with levelling up requiring picking various classes, the various types of classes gave players various advantages depending on how rare and powerful the class itself was. In this levelling system being a heteromorph would make specialized racial classes available to the player.

In other words if a regular class would for example give two attribute points for levelling it, then a rare class would give three, and a unique one, four. In this case, various racial levels would give six or even more, not to mention opening additional ways for levelling the classes up, unique abilities and many other advantages. Although this was not entirely correct it was suitable for explaining the mechanics of why using a heteromorph avatar should be a non-question.

However, heteromorphic races were an extremely unpopular choice in Yggdrasil. The thing is that their potential power in the future was extremely spoiled by their debilitating weakness at the start. There were various disadvantage being a heteromorph that the other races doesn't have, for example; when killing heteromorphic races, PK players were not debuffed nor were they penalized in any way; there were not a lot of teachers or NPCs that gives information for heteromorphic races; and many quests most of the players considered the most profitable in the game were not available to the heteromorphs.

These reasons gave rise to a lot of discrimination towards heteromorphic players, and many human players considered players playing as heteromorphic races as noobs, idiots, or just lovers of very strange things. This was especially damaging due to the fact that the developers of Yggdrasil did not give the heteromorphic races any beautiful forms and, thanks to the complete immersion, the first reaction of many people to seeing a player in the form of a shapeless mass of mucus or even a abomination created from many mouths and pieces of flesh was quite negative to say the least.

There were many more reasons, but in the end it all came down to the fact that the general attitude towards players of the heteromorphic races from other players was most often very cruel - and the constant PK and multiple ridicule in voice chat were a daily occurance. Once Ainz himself, as Momonga then, was constantly exposed to this discrimination and was already planning to quit the game when Touch Me saved him.

"But in the end, I do not regret it at all," Ainz nevertheless finished the thought. "Because of my state as an undead, I was able to meet my real friends."

Ainz exhaled and nodded.

"Is that so" Archer nodded.

"Archer," Ainz suddenly thought, "Tell me... Do you have any friends?"

Another of Ainz's unexpected questions knocked Archer out of his mind. "What?"

"Friends," Ainz looked up. "People that are dear to you? Someone for whom you would go through hell for?"

Archer blinked at the question.

Friends, hmm...

"Probably..." Archer thought, "No."

Of course in his life there were many people that are significant to him. His father, that gave him his ideals of a hero. His school friends, then later his colleagues, allies... But in the end, these people would simply pass him by. A friend today is only an acquaintance tomorrow, a week later a random face in the crowd, and a month later an enemy on the other side of the field. Archer learned this the hard way.

Probably, many years ago, when he was still a young and naive fool, a boy dreaming of becoming a hero of justice. He did indeed have those for whom he was ready to sacrifice everything for, but he would do such a thing because of his naive ideals not because they were dear to him. But after going through what Archer went through, people would change. His old personality was now blurred, and instead he became cynical and bitter.

If you want to become a hero then be prepared for the fact that you will be alone. It is impossible to save everyone, and in the end there will always be a victim. Even saving hundreds of people from one killer, there is always one person you cannot save - the killer himself. In the end, you must learn not to wish for good at all and accept that your heroic ideal is unattainable.

Ainz was silent for a second, after which... - "I'm sorry."

"Why?" Archer glanced at Ainz

"Because only by having people dear to you that your strength has any meaning," Ainz slowly raised his hand to his chin, rubbing it. "Why do you need strength if you have already defeated everyone? Why do you need wealth if there is no one to show it off to? Why do we do anything if they do not affect anything?"

Ainz grinned. "What is the point of your cooking if no one appreciates it in the end?"

Ainz looked up. "In my life there were those whom I even now would call my friends, even my family. They gave me the meaning for my life and only walking next to them did I understand why I actually live. And if you don't have such people…"

Ainz nodded slowly. "I'm really sorry."

Archer... Was not sure about Ainz's reaction, or even his own, to these words.

Of course, they sounded like the words of the stupid youth that once dreamed of saving everyone, but at the same time... There was a big difference.

Once Shirou Emiya, a boy and a fool with a crazy dream wished for one thing only. Save everyone at all costs, even sacrificing himself, he dreamed of saving everyone.

The world proved to this boy that he was wrong and never will be right. Then the boy broke down - and so Archer was born. Cynical and rude, he denied the boy's ideals with his all, realizing that he could never save everyone.

Ainz... He wasn't that boy. Where there was youthful ardor - now there was a cold calculation. Where there were passionate speeches - there was a steel confidence. Where was the naive dream - there was a pragmatic calculation.

Ainz did not believe that he could save everyone. Honestly, he did not even bother to try.

And yet he still believed in something. Something much more real than the salvation of all and universal happiness. In friends, family... In people.

It would not be strange to suppose, after Ainz's revealed some bits of his past, that he had suffered a lot from the people around him, and perhaps this could even be the reason why Ainz would have been a destroyer of life, carrying great strength and power while bearing hatred for humanity.

But Ainz was not, he was not a monster and was not a destroyer. Instead, Ainz was...

Who exactly was he? This, Archer could not determine.

'Interesting…' - Archer thought for a second - 'What would that boy say to these words?'

Shirou Emiya, the hero of justice, would surely find something that he could object to Ainz with. Talk with him about the nature of justice and about his dream. Perhaps Shirou Emiya would not be able to take Ainz's position in the end.

But... Could Archer have done this?

Of course, things don't work out that simply. A one heart-to-heart talk is not enough to completely change a person's mind - not to mention a Servant who is much more stubborn in their mindsets. But…

'If life would have gone differently…' - Archer looked at Ainz - 'Could I think the same way he does?'

Perhaps the ideals that Emiya Shirou held were not viable from the very beginning. There's no way to make everyone happy. But if Emiya Shirou had abandoned his childhood dream... But if the boy did that wouldn't he break herself? If he didn't fight hundreds of battles he would not have gained the armor of cynicism and cold professionalism... Could he have understood Ainz then? Would he become the same?

Maybe. If life were a little kinder to him. If his dreams had not brought him to the brink of collapse. If all this had happened, would Emiya Shirou not have become Archer in the end? And to become, maybe not a hero of justice, but at least a worthy person?

Archer thought about it.

"Ahem," Ainz coughed into a fist, then slowly rose from his seat, "Anyway, I'll probably go..."

"Emiya," Archer said unexpectedly.

Ainz stopped and looked at Archer, waiting for clarification.

"My name is Emiya," Archer shook his head. "But it's better to call me Archer."

Ainz thought for a second, then nodded. "Good... Archer then."

After that, Ainz took a step outside the kitchen, leaving Archer - Shirou Emiya, a boy who could not become a hero - but could not abandon his ideals - alone.

* * *

**Name**: Archer Emiya

**Race**: Human

**Title**: Nameless Archer

**Occupation**: Servant of Ainz Ooal Gown

**Residence**: Chaldea, main kitchen in the residential wing

**Karma**: +150 (Neutral Good ~ Good)

**Race level**: -

**Class** **Level**: Archer (10)

Swordsman (10)

Sword Master (5)

Mage ~ Self-taught (1)

Counter Guardian (1)

**Total**: 27 Class Levels = 27 General Levels

**HP**: 40

**Mana**: 60

**Physical** **Attack**: 20

**Physical** **Defense**: 0

**Agility**: 40

**Magic** **Attack**: 0

**Magic** **Defense**: 20

**Resistance**: 10

**Special** **Abilities**: 0 (?)

**Ability**: Unlimited Blade Works

**Level**: 10 ~ 95 (Scaled)

The ability to create a specific field around the caster allowing the user to create a copy of any previously seen melee weapons inside this field. The very possibility of creating a suitable weapon that exploits the weaknesses of the enemy to battle with any enemy is already strong enough, but this ability is especially effective due to the ability of the user to, at any time, change the weapon they are using. Even using several weapons suitable for any battle is not an impossibility. Also any defence to a specific type of weapon damage is easily bypassed by instantly creating another one.

**Player** **Comments**:

\- Wait... Archer. Swordsman. With one level in mage. And with a great amount of mana with very little in all physical parameters... Guys, I brought you one more, open the archives of useless builds!

\- Being an archer and a swordsman at the same time may sound cool, but what's the point if you fail in both directions?

\- Oh, of course, pretend you're a cool super-warrior and a super-archer, walking in cool clothes. Until you find the first normal player with a normal build.

\- A cool skill that was failed by an underdeveloped build. Level-up at least a little bit at first!

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Are we gonna see the reaction of everyone who havent seen ainz's real body looks like yet, in the next chapters? - Some of them.**

**Would he be one of the few things immune to MEoDP? - Most certainly**

**Will Ainz use his perfect warrior? - I planned it for one point in the story...**

**You know, for another disguise - No, not for this one.**

**Could Ainz send, for example, an enemy servant into Nazarick in order to be tortured by Kyouhukou or Neuronist? - He could, but he would not.**

**So one could argue Sebas should have some knowledge on cooking, maybe not on the level of some of the NPC's dedicated to making meals, but still. - Well, Sebas is a buttle butler. While he certainly possesses skills to run a household, organize a dinner, and do other miscellaneous tasks that do not require any specific skills - since in YGGDRASIL only someone with the cook-class could cook - and Sebas does not have one - he most certainly can not cook.**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 7 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 7 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.****  
**


	73. Chapter 73

"Interesting ..." Da Vinci went over the several sheets of notes that she had filled with her handwriting, and then looked at Baal. "What happened after that?"

'Da Vinci, fighting skills... Below average…'

"Oh, well, after that they killed me," Baal did not deny himself the pleasure of grabbing one of the croissants that Da Vinci had provided him, after which, carefully biting off a piece, he looked at Da Vinci, smiling, "For the first time, I mean."

"Hm, how interesting," Da Vinci tapped the pen in her hands, then wrote a new line in her notes, "And how exactly did it happen that you were killed so many times?"

'The desire for knowledge with the erratic accumulation of information makes her relatively dangerous. She would become much stronger, the more time was given to her…'

"Oh, parallel realities," Baal waved his hand vaguely in the air, bringing a cup of coffee to his mouth, "It's all because of the World Eater. He greatly complicated the system of our world order."

"How so?" Da Vinci continued to write something on another piece of paper, writing while completely not looking at the paper itself, "I would be glad to hear the details."

'However, this same thirst for knowledge also makes her convenient enough for manipulation…'

"The Devourer of the Worlds," Baal breathed, "It really fits the name given to it. From the very beginning he had already devoured many worlds, after which he aimed at destroying the remaining nine leaves of Yggdrasil. I understand that the Yggdrasil is a well-known concept in this world?"

"Yes, of course," Da Vinci looked at Baal, "But our knowledge about it is still very lacking, so I want to find out how so many different worlds were connected to each other."

'Da Vinci's main strength is her intelligence, something that does not depend directly on strength. In other words, if I manage to direct this mind in the right direction…'

"Oh, I would also like to alleviate your ignorance," Baal smiled with that smile that could slay any girl on the spot. Anyone who would actually respond to his superior appearance of course. Da Vinci, as the owner of a perfect body and a person who casted aside the veil of secrecy over the very concept of beauty, was excluded from the list of those who could fall at the feet of Baal because of one of his careless smiles, - "But I admit, I have been very busy as of late... So far all my days are spent getting to know my new colleagues."

Da Vinci looked at Baal interested, - "I'm surprised... I admit, your colleague, Cainabel, was not at all interested in such things."

'Cainabel... Even while being summoned into such a wretched body, she still remains my main opponent…'

"Oh, Cainabel is quite... Hmm…" - Baal thought of a word that could describe his colleague, - "Very specific in her way of communication…"

"What kind words from a demon!" Da Vinci grunted as she poured tea into her own cup.

'Not just a demon, but an emperor of demons. Please, mind the title. And acting talent is the first thing that both a demon and an emperor should learn. You could say that I'm doubly talented here.'

"Oh, the demons have an undeservedly bad image," Baal shook his hand in the air, as if talking about something unpleasant, "Demons since ancient times have always made deals. We only asked those who have made deals with us the payment that they are willing to pay, never more. We are the oldest negotiators, but with a terribly bad reputation. Although, this is certainly just human stupidity and undeserved slander."

"Is that so...," Da Vinci arched one eyebrow. "What about when demons take the souls of their contractors and when demons would tempt the believers with worldly desires?"

'This wording suggests that after the worldly one, the Garden of Eden will be waiting for someone after they pass. What stupidity…'

"I admit, I don't see such issues when trading souls," Baal grunted. "We only conclude an agreement and honor it to the letter, we never lied. And, of course, we do try to use the terms that were agreed upon to our advantage. I do not understand why this is so disgusting to the humans. Any businessman or lawyer is also trying to do the same thing, concluding a deal then trying their best to profit following the terms that they had agreed upon. And I have never seen people being burned at the stake for daring to make a profitable deal with their client."

"The very sale of the soul and obtaining help from infernal forces are considered by most to be immoral acts," Da Vinci smiled.

'Ha, to consider the sale of the soul immoral... In the world, there are so many things that are much worse than this…'

"Could it be that angels should not be despised on a par with us then?" Baal shrugged, "As far as I know, the 'righteous' also exchange their souls for the benefits that are due to them. Of course these 'benefits' will only be availed to them after death, and in contrast we offer to give the benefits we offered right away."

"Angels on the other hand have a much better history when they deal with contracts," Da Vinci replied. "They play less with words."

'Oh, you have not met with the Twelve Seraphim of Sephiroth... Once they found a loophole in their promise they destroyed half of the existing worlds and were destroyed in turn…'

"By the way, about the play on words," Da Vinci nodded, distracting Baal from his thoughts, "I think we were talking about how you were killed twelve thousand times?"

"Ah, my fault," Baal smiled, "In an interesting conversation it is so easy to lose your thought..."

Da Vinci just nodded at that.

'Hm, that means she's capable of concentrating on a single goal... That's problematic…'

"Hm, the parallel worlds..." - Baal thoughtfully bit another piece of the croissant, "The World Eater, which follows from his name, devoured the worlds except for nine. And then, which does not follow from his name, he was killed. Honestly, I still wonder how exactly he was killed, but it doesn't matter right now. The important thing is that killing a creature of such a caliber could not go quietly, and, in fact, it did not. After the death of a creature containing an infinite number of unreal worlds, the part of it that was the Root remained like all the worlds stored in it. And, to put it bluntly, they broke free."

"The infinite number of worlds that broke out during the destruction of the creature, multiplied by the death of this creature changed, collided, and then changed even more..." - Baal waved his hand in the air, as if to say "something like that", - "And, in the end, led to the situation that was already known to us, a world that is finite and yet not.

Strictly speaking, at the same time, an infinite number of parallel worlds were formed from the remains of the body of the being, which embodied this infinite number of worlds. As a result, an interesting situation was created in which an infinite number of worlds, changed from being close to the Root and the death of the creature who embodied them, created an infinite number of parallel lines, united solely by one constant - the death of the World Eater itself. Because it was the death of the World Eater that gave rise to the infinite number of these parallel worlds."

"And then, as expected, confusion begins," Baal sighed, as if engaging in a small talk during a meaningless conversation, "Yes, all these parallel worlds are united by the fact that the World Eater was killed in them - since it was his death that spawned all these worlds. And if there was a World Eater, it means that some other constants by themselves were implied to have appeared in these worlds. For example; the existence of a World Eater, its devouring of the Root, and many others. But many facts that should be concrete would change constantly."

"For example, despite the fact that in all these worlds the World Eater was supposed to die, it's almost impossible to establish who had killed him," Baal sighed, a little exasperated, "There are thousands of versions of thousands of parallel worlds about how the World Eater was destroyed. Whether he was killed by Momonga, or by someone else... And, the most interesting fact is that virtually all of these versions are correct. Because, in reality, in all these parallel worlds there was always someone who killed the World Eater."

"In these parallel worlds they also killed me…" - Baal rolled his eyes, - "Very, very many times."

"However, even if there are many versions of this event," Da Vinci glanced at Baal, "And existing in parallel realities is normal for people like you... Is there really no accepted version?"

"Formally, it is believed that the true and first version of the death of the World Eater is the world where the association of the Supreme Beings "Holy Trinity" killed him," Baal sipped more coffee.

"Not Ainz?" Da Vinci glanced interestedly at Baal.

"Formally, no," Baal nodded.

"Formally, hmm?" Da Vinci thoughtfully looked at Baal, "Should I then assume that everything was different in reality?"

Baal smiled - internally - and set the cup aside.

"Calculating the powers of a creature that could be called omnipotent is such a headache - I'm sure you understand me," - Baal got an understanding nod from Da Vinci, - "You can't just translate into figures the ability to "erase existence from reality". Therefore, all that remains for us is to clutch at comparisons. If one stone is twice as large as the other, then two large stones are four times larger than one small stone - a similar primitive calculation."

"It is kept in my memory..." Baal thought for a moment, but nevertheless decided not to disclose all the details in his memory, "There are a lot of options for the recollections of how the World Eater was defeated. At best, it took twenty Higher Beings to kill him - at worst, sixty-five. Of course, the range between these things is significant - and in any case it is difficult for me to imagine what power the sixty-five Higher Beings represent. At the very least when they are combined together - they are at least equal to the power of the World Eater."

"However..." Baal uncomfortably fidgeted on the spot from the memories — and it wasn't an act. "There is a reason - one event - which made many, including me, reconsider their views on who actually defeated the World Eater."

War of the Great Ones.

Not that it was an official name - but every nation, every world, every tribe, everyone who had more brains than a worm knew about this momentous event. All the people of the Worlds had their own names for this event and their own beliefs. But all of them - including the demons - were afraid to even mention out loud about what had happened.

One Higher Being could have many different levels of powers, from a simple person to a monster of such strength that they could destroy the whole world with a careless blow. But, in any case, the average level of power of the Higher Being was... Indescribable. It was rather like an unstoppable force of nature, turning the balance of world power to its own advantage, destroying the gods and monsters with ease, boredom, or even with joy. Even if we take the lower bar - sixty-five of the Higher Beings could destroy the World Eater itself - a superior creature of absolute strength.

But the War of the Great Ones was an event that is much more terrifying.

Sixty-five Higher Beings killed the World Eater.

Fifteen hundred Higher Beings died in the assault on The Great Tomb of Nazarick.

Fifteen hundred Higher Beings could carve out all the existing worlds, burn them to complete sterility, and create great and incredible things. And yet they all died during the assault on Nazarick.

No one knew exactly what happened then - except for the echoes of what had happened. The War did not last long, but it left an incredible mark on the fabric of the universe. Reality itself would collapse every few seconds, the passage of time would turn on itself again and again, magic shouted to the heavens like the roar of a volcano, the heavens itself were shattered and the earth turned into an abyss devouring everything in its path. Fifteen hundred Higher Beings united for one war. A War against the small guild - Ainz Ooal Gown. Anyone in whose head had enough brain cells if only to understand what the number "1,500" means could easily indicate that the besieged Nazarick had no chance. And yet they were all proven wrong.

No one knew - and most likely, no one else never would know what exactly happened that day and what that war really looked like - except for Ainz himself, of course. However, the fact remained. Fifteen hundred creatures that destroyed the very logic of strength and weakness by their very existence had perished.

And if sixty-five Higher Beings were able to destroy the World Eater, a creature of absolute strength, and one and a half thousand could not defeat Ainz Ooal Gown - did this mean that Ainz Ooal Gown was at least twenty-three times stronger than the World Eater?

What did it even mean to be twenty-three times stronger than an almighty being?

Even if only Momonga was in this world - it would still mean, according to the most conservative estimates, that he possesses about half the power of the World Eater. Which would be enough to destroy not just this world, but personally erase all existing parallel worlds and create an infinite number of new ones for the sake of it. But if Momonga instead embodied the strength of the entire Ainz Ooal Gown...

Baal flinched when Da Vinci touched his hand.

"What exactly happened at that event?" Da Vinci glanced at Baal.

"Something that made me think that perhaps Ainz is the strongest of the Higher Beings," Baal smiled, and then looked at the clock hanging above Da Vinci's head, "Oh, well, what time is it! I've completely blabbed for such a long time here with you - I'm sorry, but I needed to go."

Da Vinci only nodded to Baal, after which he rose from his seat and cast a last look at Da Vinci.

'Probably a good thing will come out from her.'

After this, Baal took a step outside the door.

Olga-Marie, Roman, then Da Vinci... One can say that he has already drawn all the commanders to his side - except Ainz, of course. So, he only needed to work with the lessers - the Servants. Not that it was required at all - but it was better to play it safe than to lose. Especially if it was not difficult to do, given who his opponent was.

Of course, in this case a question arose - who was his opponent. In any other circumstances, Baal would definitely reply that it was his Master. In circumstances of course where Ainz was not his Master.

To fight Ainz for Baal would be like attempting to defeat a hurricane in battle. Of course, no one will forbid him to wave his sword around, but the final result will, of course, be zero. The hurricane will leave only when it wants to.

"Baal?" At this moment, Baal froze when he heard the voice of the Master.

'Interestingly, is this also one of his abilities, to appear when someone thinks of him?' - Baal thought for a second before turning around, putting a huge smile on his face, - "Oh, my lord, to whom I swore infinite loyalty! How can I help?"

"Ahem," Ainz coughed into his fist, however he did this while the missing throat, and then looked at him, "Nothing special. Just strolling through the hallways of Chaldea."

'Of course, I believe you,' Baal snorted internally. As if a Higher Being like Ainz had no more interesting and important thing to do than walking along the corridors of Chaldea now.

"I see," he smiled. "Are you heading somewhere?"

"No, just walking," Ainz nodded. "And you?"

'As if you don't know?' Baal sighed.

Even if Baal had decided to fight Ainz, he would have to surpass him in three aspects.

The first of these is in intellect. And in that aspect he has already lost.

"I talked a little with Da Vinci," Baal shook his head, a blur in a good-natured smile, "A beautiful woman and a great conversationalist. Honestly, I had a good conversation with someone like her."

"Oh, I see," Ainz nodded understandingly, "Of course, it's always interesting to talk with Da Vinci. True sometimes a conversation with her can go on a completely different topic…"

'He is clearly hinting at my plans,' Baal grimaced internally. However, it is not that his plans were so difficult to unravel.

'What should I do in this case?' - Baal asked himself a question. If Ainz had already unraveled Baal's plans, then any further attempts to deny all this would have been extremely suspicious and Ainz could have easily unraveled Baal's further execution of his plans - not to mention just getting rid of a potential conspirator.

"Well, you yourself understand how such a thing would happen," Baal shrugged, "A beautiful girl, an intimate atmosphere, and a wonderful conversation..."

"Ahem, definitely," Ainz cleared his throat once more, playing innocent, "Honestly, I didn't plan on doing it now, but seeing as... Baal, can you take me to your room?"

"Ha?" - Baal looked at Ainz, after which he dismissed the first thought about why Ainz might need to do such a thing. Rather, if he wanted to have a conversation with him, rather than do... Other strange things.

"Of course," Baal smiled. "It's not far away."

Baal moved through the corridor, moving calmly and confidently even when knowing that he was turning his back on Death itself.

The Demon Emperor, Baal, always had a plan. More precisely, he always had a lot of plans - for himself, for battles, for breakfast, for managing his empire. Basic plans, the spare, and backup plans for the spare ones. This was the essence of Baal - and even the fact that he was summoned to another world by Ainz, albeit with a scratch, but these strange circumstances still fit into one of the plans prepared by Baal. The one where he falls into slavery.

In this case, his plan was simple. With excellent work and rigorous fidelity he would earn the authority of the Master, achieve his trust, and then to kill and take his place - it's a very short and simple plan. True, completing the last step in his current situation was quite difficult.

Having reached the door of his room, Baal went inside, after which, after taking a couple of steps, he stopped, looking back at Ainz.

The menacing figure of the Highest Undead took a step inside, after which, looking around, sat down on a chair.

Yeah, a figure exuding menace and great power... on a chair...

"Baal," Ainz looked at the demon, forcing him to pay close attention. "What do you want?"

"Only to serve you, my lord, how can I dream of something else?" Baal smiled.

However, instead of displaying a reaction, Ainz only slowly inhaled and exhaled, "I doubt it."

Baal wondered for a second whether Cainabel had experienced something like this.

"My lord," Baal smiled, deciding on a half-truth, "I am your Servant... In more than one sense of the word. Your well-being is my well-being. So, I want to serve you - because that's how I can achieve all that I myself want."

"But what exactly do you want?" Ainz looked at Baal carefully.

'Hmm, there seems to be no way out.' Baal sighed. Apparently, he will not be allowed to play with words for a long time in any case.

"I would like to receive the Earth as a reward," Baal nodded, after which, seeing how Ainz began to speak, he hastened to speak out, "Not all of it. Maybe a continent or two…"

Ainz froze, then slowly asked the question, "Why?"

Baal shook his head, "As the Demon Emperor, the only survivor, I must take care of my people. And so I want to bring them to this world."

Yes, it was strange to talk about it, but in the phrase "Demon Emperor" it was not the word "demon" that is more important, but the word "emperor".

Baal, being a demon - while being very cruel and evil in nature, nevertheless considered himself not just the small leader of a gang who climbed to the top, but the emperor of all demons and reasoned in his deeds not only from the standpoint of his own profit, but also the benefit of all demons. After all, he was an emperor - and what kind of emperor would he be without his empire? Therefore, his final plan was to revive his empire of demons in this world.

Frankly, for the sake of this, he initially began to communicate with other Servants. After all, Baal did not doubt for a second that after Ainz saved the world he would immediately conquer it. What was the point of saving the world if you didn't conquer it later?

After taking over the world, of course, Ainz will not rule the world himself. Rather, Baal saw Ainz as an unattainably high figure of the supreme ruler determining the general policy of the state, waging war and endless conquests that increased his strength, while the management of the occupied lands would fall on the shoulders of his loyal generals. And Baal was glad of such an occupation.

Of course, ruling by himself was more attractive to Baal, but given that in the current conditions it was impossible - for Baal it was not such a burden to kneel down and swear allegiance. In the end, the survival of the entire demon race depended on it.

However, in order to guarantee his place as one of the ruling generals, Baal needed to deal with the other applicants for this position. And the main opponents in his case were Cainabel.

Apparently, over the past Singularity she managed to strengthen her position and became something like a field commander among the Servants, Ainz's right hand. And this meant that she had to be removed from her place.

"Ahem, that's why..." - Ainz thought about Baal's proposal. And really, it was something to think about.

In Yggdrasil, Baal was one of hundreds of NPCs, one that has the title as the Demon Emperor. And in accordance with this title, Baal himself was in his palace almost all the time and some lore indicated that it was during the reign of Baal that the Muspelheim demons were able to achieve their current heights - of course, in the game his motivation, thoughts and desires were not explained at all, so to hear a similar request from Baal for Ainz was... Unexpected.

"And what, then, will you do with the land given to you?" Ains looked at Baal.

"For starters, it will be necessary to depopulate the lands inhabited by people," replied Baal, "then bring a stable Muspelheim's ecosystem to the world..."

Of course, Baal concealed the fact that if he manages to bring the Muspelheim's ecosystem to Earth, then within a couple of weeks the entire planet will be completely infected and assimilated, turned into a likeness of Muspelheim.

"Hmm, that's how…" - Ainz thought.

On the one hand, of course, he, as a Master, had to support his Servant... However, in addition to the ethical issues that would arise from pretty much bringing Hell into a part of the world inhabited by other people, many other problems arose. Not least is the reaction of the other Servants to such an act and, of course, the consequences for all of the Earth and the changes that would happen to it in the future, what will happen as a result of what happened...

Ainz thought for a couple more seconds, after which he shook his head. "No, I'm sorry, but I cannot allow this."

"Oh…" - Baal nodded, - "I understand."

It looks like I have to do it behind Ainz back...

Not that Baal believed that Ainz would actually believe that he decided to abandon his plans, but if he succeeds in at least bringing Muspelheim to the world, then in the worst case, Ainz will erase him completely. But, at the very least by the moment this happened the demonic hordes of Baal will most likely have time to capture enough land in order to continue the assimilation of the Earth… Hopefully.

"But," Ainz interrupted Baal's thought, "I think we can come up with something else..."

Baal froze and looked at Ainz.

"It's not necessary for you to use the lands inhabited by people, is it?" Ainz looked at Baal.

"M, strictly speaking, no," Baal shook his head. Of course, it would be much more fun to watch the various human civilizations collapse and the people dying in torment, watching their world burn in agony, but he was not so stubborn as to refuse any other option.

"In that case…" - Ainz pondered, - "How about instead of destroying the Earth, instead do... Colonization?"

Baal blinked.

It sounded... Not so crazy.

"Well, that is, if you are talking about creating the ecosystem that you need," Ainz nodded. "As far as I understand, this means that you can colonize previously uninhabited lands..."

Baal blinked.

It sounded... attractive even.

"Let's say by using the Gate," - Ainz thought for a moment, - "You can move to another territory... Mars, for example?"

Demons living on Mars...

Baal's mind stuttered for a second from the fact that his mind seemed to have stumbled upon some long-forgotten joke, but in the end he managed to regain his calm.

"That sounds…" - Baal blinked, - "Interesting."

"Yes, but it will be possible to carry out only after the resolution of the Singularities," Ainz hastened to make an important clarification to Baal.

"Yes, of course... Of course…" - Baal blinked.

The plan sounded... More than seductive...

"Ahem, in that case, if that's all you wanted to tell me," Ainz rose from his seat, "Then I will probably go."

"Yes, of course," the Baal nodded to Ainz.

It was easy. Even more so than doing it on Earth. Too easy even.

Baal planned to prepare a long and convoluted plan, with a dozen betrayals and a hundred seemingly random events in order to achieve the desired goal...

Instead, Ainz simply allowed him to do it.

Baal blinked.

It was... Unpleasant, to some extent. For such mental labors to disappear in vain...

After that, Baal blinked again and nodded.

He will not let his plan to all be discarded and still plot to remove Cainabel from her position! But not for the sake of the now saved demon race.

But simply because Cainabel was a bitch.

* * *

**Servant**: Baal  
**Class**: Foreigner  
**Status**: ? (Incorrect Summoning)

**Gender**: Male  
**Alignment**: Lawful-Evil  
**Attribute**: Beast

**Strength**: C  
**Agility**: B  
**Endurance**: B  
**Luck**: EX  
**Mana**: EX  
**Noble** **Phantasm**: EX

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Is it the same Baal? - It is.**

**I just reread your older chapters and realized the existence of Baal had already been foreshadowed beforehand. - Oh, you will not believe how many foreshadowings are out there I made...**

**More exactly, Namless is a variant of Shirou that has not become a dog of Alaya. - Ooops, mistake on my part. Well, what can I say... It's AU! Yeah, it always works**

**Im pretty sure that monetizing your work that is based on IPs owned by other people is illegal.. - Thankfully, legal shenanigans of doesn't count as monetizing. Technically it's just a donation, for which I provide something akin to "thank you" small gifts in return.**

**How many years will this story finished? - I can't really say definite answer on this, so let's say "at least a year and a half".**

**i love this story but i think its kinda scummy that you are hiding already written chapters behind paywall it seems kinda trashy especially now - Sorry if you are feeling that way, but donations are a thing that mostly allows me to continue writing. I mean, I quit my part-time job and dedicated all of my free time on writing - and, if the God will be merciful and things would continue to work like this I might very well go into full-time writing, dedicating my time solely to my works. And yes, it by no means going to be a true paywall - as I said, I still post chapters for free - at least once a week. While I by no means trying to point my finger on certain someone - I feel like I'm pretty consistent on writing part and posting chapters weekly is still not a so bad result to say that I made a real paywall.**

**I can only shudder at the thought of a future in which roleplaying is dead and the only mindset of a player is Min-Maxing. - No, I mean there was a role-play builds - Ainz to point out - but even a role-play builds should be made with some viability in minds - Ainz to point out yet again.**

**Archer is a better in bow than sword so shouldn't he at least have archer class? - But he has an Archer class.**

**I could write at least a 500 word review for every chapter talking about what I found entertaining and what I didn't - Oh, such a shame you didn't...**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 7 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 7 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	74. Chapter 74

Altera slowly raised her blade into a defensive posture while concentrating on the movements of the enemy in front of her.

Any wasted movement, any over-extended blows, and any opening in her stance must be annihilated. Any mistake on her part would be taken advantage of and she cannot spare a single one, as just one mistake would spell her doom. Her opponent could finish her off with one blow, of course not for good, just this round.

Altera did not take her eyes off her opponent. Even the basic biological actions of a living creature - like breathing, blinking, and sweating - were suppressed by her monstrous skill which gave her unparalleled control over her body.

The price of any mistake was so high that she cannot afford to spare any attention on such trivialities.

"Oh, is that all you can do?" Her opponent, Cainabel, began to mock Altera, smiling mockingly all the while. "A little tin soldier should be steadfast... Although, looking at you, I would have believed that you would have played the role of a ballerina in this fairy tale... Hmm, no, the ballerina was described as beautiful…"

Altera was not ignorant to human emotions, so she could determine that such words were meant as mockery without any hesitation. Though it was somewhat more difficult for her to determine the cause or purpose of such mockery, the concept of "hurting others for pleasure" was not a groundbreaking revelation for Altera. Of course, given the fact that they are currently sparring, it was possible that Cainabel was provoking Altera so that she would attack recklessly in a fit of anger. However, over the past sparring rounds, Cainabel should have noticed that such mockery would not provoke Altera in any way. Therefore, of the two possible reasons, the first was still the most possible, Cainabel simply enjoyed hurting others whether by actions or words.

"It looks like this tin soldier is broken," Cainabel sighed and then rolled her eyes. "It happens all the time with these mechanical toys, they break from any little things."

"Although they do say that everything can be repaired, even a faulty android," Cainabel smiled, and then rushed forward at such a speed that even Altera had to resort to blocking the attack head on. A course of action that she would prefer not to do in a battle against an enemy with such a monstrous level of physical strength, - "You just need to hit it even harder!"

Cainabel's attack was so powerful that the floor under Altera's feet cracked under the pressure and Altera had to strain all her muscles to remain upright and not simply crumble under the overwhelming force. Of course, the fact that the arena hasn't simply turned to rubble was due to the many reinforcing spells and barriers that were placed on the training room that was designed for sparring between Servants. Even then, the overwhelming strength of the two battling combatants still caused untold amounts of destruction to the arena. If Altera used her Crest of the Stars and Cainabel began to fight seriously, transforming herself, then the entire training hall would simply be swept up into dust by the hurricane-like forces involved.

After Cainabel's attacks were stopped dead by Altera's blade, a punch from Cainabel followed. Even though Cainabel's position, floating in the air, and lack of a firm foothold means that the force behind the punch would be greatly weakened. Still, the complete surprise over such an unexpected attack still caused Altera to dodge backwards. Such nonsensical attacks caused no end of troubles to Altera.

After Altera easily dodged the attack, Cainabel immediately followed after Altera and attacked yet again. After gaining some distance Altera was able to avoid the attack but was only able to give a light counterattack in response. Altera's counterattack was light enough that it would stand no chance in breaching Cainabel's defense, still Cainabel evaded the attack by jumping backward. Altera quickly realized that it was not because she was afraid of the attack itself, but because she simply did not want to give Altera even a chance to touch her. Perhaps this was the reason why Altera was able to spar with Cainabel for so long even though she was outmatched in the Singularity.

Cainabel, after landing with a light pirouette on the ground, rushed forward and delivered a sweeping blow towards Altera, allowing her time to counterattack after evading the sweeping blow. However, unceremoniously, Altera's counterattack was easily blocked after her blade was handily grabbed by Cainabel's free hand. The deadly deadlock was broken when the blade was immediately released after a moment, as if Cainabel felt that it was unpleasant even just holding on to Altera's weapon.

Altera leaped back again to gain some distance. If she was to use her skill then it would not be a problem for her to turn the entire training hall into her preferred battlefield. However, this, like battling with full force, was forbidden due to the destructiveness of such a course of action.

Cainabel, not lagging behind, threw herself forward toward Altera with another attack - this time using her small umbrella in the manner of a small one-handed spear. She attacked Altera with a series of quick stabs, each of which Altera was able to easily parry away from herself.

"An opening!" - after parrying one of Cainabel's stabs, Altera sharply countered, putting all her strength into the blow.

The sound of torn fabric informed her that her attack had reached its target, piercing through Cainabel's body.

A few words in a language from which Altera wanted to instinctively pinch her ears closed informed her that her only successful attack was inconsequential.

A second later, a sharp forceful blow knocked Altera away, sending her on a short flight to the wall. A sharp cracking noise of concrete mixed with the cracking of bones, notified anyone who could hear it who came out victorious in that collision. However, the fact that Altera was now in a boneless heap and in no position to continue the spar did not stop Cainabel.

"Filth!" Cainabel struck Altera, who was no longer capable of resisting, again and again, "Don't think much of yourself just because you could hit me!"

Cainabel raged like a wild beast - delivering random blows to random places. Someone stuck in Altera's position would surely try to protect against these blows. But Altera did not consider such a thing necessary. Their official spar was over, which means there was no point in continuing the battle. Now it was not sparring, but rather a beating.

Cainabel beating were without a special purpose - just like the way she fought. This made her a problematic adversary.

Altera, being gifted in everything related to the conduct of warfare and especially in battle tactics, found Cainabel a problematic adversary precisely because tactics were useless in battling her.

Altera could analyze any fighting style that she saw - but Cainabel did not have a fighting style. Like a wild beast, she acted solely relying on her brute physical strength and overwhelming speed, delivering random shots that were inflicted without any style or skill relying simply on her instincts.

Another of Altera's ribs cracked, after which Cainabel slowly pulled away from her.

"Hm," Cainabel, now with a hole in her chest, from which not even a drop of blood dripped down, nevertheless pulled away from Altera after several blows, "Whose victory is this?"

"Yours," Altera answered emotionlessly. Cainabel asked this every time after their sparring session, as well as the next question, - "Score; thirty-nine - zero in favor of Cainabel."

Cainabel, pulling back, exhaled and grunted, - "Exactly. Thirty-nine... I'll finish at sixty-nine and then that's it."

Altera slowly rose from her boneless stupor, completely healed, after which she extended her hand forward, another part of their sparring 'ritual'.

Cainabel, after grabbing Altera's hand, jerked it sharply toward her mouth and then dug her sharp fangs into the outstretched hand. After a second, Altera felt her mana supplies being emptied along with the blood that Cainabel was drinking from her. After a second Altera would witness the wound that she inflicted on Cainabel started closing. Even the ruined clothes on Cainabel's body were being mended, of course such an occurrence was not an anomaly as a Servant's clothes were part of them after all. After a few more sips after she was one hundred percent healed. Cainabel recoiled and slowly exhaled.

"Ha... For all your weaknesses and shortcomings, your blood is of excellent quality," Cainabel exhaled and her cruel expression morphed to that of a slightly silly smile - like that of a drunkard who had just tasted a fine wine would show. Then, with a shake of her head, she looked at Altera with an appraising look, "What did you understand from this spar?"

It was a slightly newer addition to their 'ritual', in contrast, the first ten sparring sessions Cainabel simply defeated Altera, waited for her to heal, then started beating her again. After which, probably after releasing some steam and with Cainabel muttering something about "relaxation for the soul" after each sparring after that Cainabel began to demand from Altera her perspective on what happened in their spar, particularly on why Altera lost.

"I prioritized attacking the enemy whose defense had opened up, forgetting about my own defense in turn," Altera always answered with short answers, but, honestly? She didn't particularly understand the meaning of such questioning.

"Why?" Cainabel looked at Altera with the same look with which a genius, very cruel and smugly, would look at an idiot.

"This was one of the rare opportunities to attack the enemy, which proved unassailable to me in any other conditions," Altera answered mechanically, after which she let go of her iron tight control over the biological functions of her body for a second, slowly exhaling her held breath and blinking.

"And what would you do next after inflicting only one minor wound to an opponent that is superior to you while opening yourself up for retaliation?" Cainabel snorted. "I drank so much of your blood that I know more about you than you yourself do. But, I admit, I'm starting to doubt the efficacies of my own abilities. You are supposed to have the Tactics skill, but looking at you now, I begin to doubt if you have the ability to reason at all. On the other hand given that you are a mechanical idiot, I am not even particularly upset with the facts that have been revealed to me. You can't have the ability to reason if you don't even have a brain…"

Altera just glanced at Cainabel without responding to her diatribe. Strictly speaking, this was the problem of her battles with Cainabel. Altera was not so stupid as to rush into going on the offensive while knowing that she would die after inflicting only a small wound. The main crux that made it difficult for her to fight Cainabel was that she couldn't expect in advance any of Cainabel's actions. Sometimes, when she struck, Cainabel would respond with a counterattack of incredible ferocity, sometimes - on the contrary, she would go on defense. Altera could not predict the course of the battle, and therefore was forced to use every opportunity to inflict any damage. The most positive outcome being that she managed to inflict three wounds on Cainabel, followed by an immediate defeat.

"This is due to the incompatibility between our fighting styles," Altera replied coldly.

"What kind of a fool…" - Cainabel exhaled, - "That is the point, if you are fighting with an unpredictable opponent that is superior to you in everything then using Tactics does not work in such a battle. Damn you, Attila the Hun! Feel the battle in which you fight! Watch how the blood of the enemy glistens on your blade! Enjoy the battle!"

Enjoy the battle...

Altera must have enjoyed fighting. In fact, that was why she existed. Altera, the child of destruction, was created as an instrument for the destruction of civilizations, an ideal warrior. She had to enjoy the fight...

After a second Altera was distracted by the feeling of her bones crunching into place. Altera quickly realized that Cainabel is using her Noble Phantasm to quickstart Altera's regeneration by using her own blood.

"If I need to beat you another hundred times, do it again and again so that even your rusty brain remembers this. Believe me, I will beat you a hundred times," after which, Cainabel began to ramble yet again, "And another hundred for making me beat you a hundred times to convey such a simple lesson that even a dumbass - no - even Jeanne! - could perceive from the tenth beating."

Altera just nodded, after which she glanced at Cainabel, after her body finished regenerating she got up from the ground. It seems that their next round would begin soon.

Three two one…

"Oh! Ahem… " Altera froze in place after hearing an unexpected voice. A voice that was familiar to her and yet unfamiliar at the same time, - "It seems that you are quite busy here…"

Cainabel, the adversary with whom Altera had kept her eyes on all this time, unexpectedly ceased her aggressive stance. As if she had not threatened to beat Altera down another hundred times her body language changed so abruptly and then she turned away from Altera, "Oh, my lord! What a fortuitous meeting!"

"Cainabel," after gaining confirmation that Cainabel wouldn't rip her guts out anytime soon, Altera was able to turn toward the speaker, "Altera."

Altera glanced up at her new Master, Ainz.

The creature in front of her looked... Horrific? Unbelievable? Mighty? It was difficult to find a specific word to describe the creature in front of her.

Ainz, a creature without flesh and blood, made a very strong impression on Altera. The mantle on his shoulders fluttered from a barely noticeable draft, fluttering like the ever encroaching darkness of death that swallows a person in the most unexpected hour of their life. The black gaps of his empty eyes blazed with the crimson flame of malice and primordial strength, as if they were capable of sending the soul of any mortal to the very depths of hell. Eyes that could send a person to hell simply with a gaze. His snow-white bony hand as if created by an unknown master... Held the door to the training room open.

The beautiful epithets stopped coming after that strange image.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to distract both of you," Ainz nodded slowly.

"Oh, my lord!" Cainabel hastened immediately, "How can you distract us with your presence! We are forever glad that you have decided to honor us with your presence, my lord!"

"Ahem, yes..." Ainz coughed into his fist, then looked around the training room, and after noticing the widespread destruction, came to the obvious conclusion, "Oh, it looks like you were in the middle of sparring..."

"Just finished, my lord," Cainabel smiled, but Altera managed to hear Cainabel's muttering under her breath "rather, it's like trying to teach a stupid dog a trick..."

Altera probably should have felt some indignation from such words, but she received the insult with the same unchanging facial expression as before.

"Hm, I see...," Ainz nodded, after which, looking at Cainabel, he asked a question, "Are you two getting along?"

"Oh, my lord," Cainabel grinned, "I really enjoyed our spar."

"Hm, that's good," Ainz nodded, after which he suddenly looked at Altera, "and you?"

Altera thought for a moment, after which she slowly looked at her hands and her blade, which she continued to hold in a tight grip.

"I suppose..." Altera was silent for a second, evaluating her emotions, "Yes."

Ainz just nodded at this terse reply. Indeed, in any ordinary human speech, the "I suppose yes" construct was a standard way for confirmation. However, in Altera's case, the situation was somewhat more complicated because she really only assumed her own feelings rather than actually feeling them.

More precisely, as a child of destruction, Attila, the leader of the Huns, an instrument of war, she should have enjoyed battles, sparring, and spilled blood. Did she really enjoy it though?..

It was extremely difficult to find an answer to Altera's pondering. Despite the fact that she was not at all blind to the emotions of others, her own emotions remained a big mystery to her.

"Is that so?," Ainz nodded. "Then I suppose you will not mind if I observe one of your sparring sessions?"

Cainabel froze, after which her gaze suddenly became focused on Altera. She, realizing that an answer was expected from her, nodded in response, "Yes."

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel answered after hearing the reply from Altera, after which she took a step back, slowly returning to her original position before Ainz entered the room. Altera wanted to ask if Ainz wouldn't be risking his safety if he were to remain on the sparring field...

After a second, Ainz's figure disappeared into the air. Altera froze trying to figure out what had happened. After a few seconds she realized that even if Ainz's figure had disappeared, Ainz's presence was still felt in the room. After even a more close observation, she could see his translucent outlines not far away from them.

"Transitioning into spirit form..." Altera nodded. Of course, that was the ability that most of the Servants possessed - on the other hand Ainz... Didn't look like a typical Servant...

"Ahem, Altera," suddenly Altera heard Cainabel's voice, "If you would be so kind, please take your position across from me."

Altera felt a jolt of surprise. She could easily identify this emotion, given her abilities.

In their earlier spars, Cainabel would definitely throw a remark like "I understand that you are only a little tin soldier, but that does not mean that you are allowed to just stand still and not move" - however, this time Cainabel showed incredible courtesy for her by using such polite words like "please." This surprised Altera most of all.

Cainabel, for all the time that Altera was lucky - or not - to know her, showed so many personality traits, but politeness was one of the few that she definitely did not show at all.

Cainabel... Is afraid of Ainz.

This realization caused Altera's mind to blank out. Fortunately, her endlessly trained reflexes still forced Altera's body to raise the blade to her preferred stance even without any direction from her paralyzed mind.

"Three…" - Cainabel started counting out the beginning of their spar, - "Two... One... Start!"

After that, Cainabel launched immediately into the offense. However, unlike her usual sweeping attacks this time she acted... With caution?

Altera, even though she was currently being distracted by her thoughts, easily parried the attack, but restrained herself from counterattacking, taught by bitter experience, and instead went on the defensive. Cainabel, noticing this, attacked again - however, this time... She did not look like a beast. Her attacks, although it was still a series of random attacks without adhering to a particular style, did not paralyze the target with pressure and rage, but for some reason Cainabel's current demeanor was guarded and careful.

'Why?' - Altera glanced at Cainabel while diverting another attack, and then another and another.

Cainabel fought... softly. Extremely soft for some reason.

Altera dodged back from another blow, after which ,trying to confirm her theory, decided this time to counterattack instead, turning her defensive posture into an attack. A sharp blow forward...

Cainabel failed to dodge the attack and Altera's counterattack left a small bleeding scratch on Cainabel.

Altera immediately retreated just in case Cainabel decided to attack ferociously in reply. Another jolt of shock ran through Altera's mind as she was focused at the small drop of blood that fell to the floor...

Blood…

Altera blinked in shock - a mistake that she would have never made under any other conditions. If this was their usual spar this mistake would be immediately taken advantage of but which went completely unnoticed in the current one.

Cainabel... Bleeding.

Though in previous spars Altera have managed to injure Cainabel, Cainabel had never before allowed — even if it was a grievous wound — to allow her blood to spill onto the floor. What has changed now?

Altera launched several more minor attacks, placing close attention to Cainabel assiduously... Still she restrained herself from committing herself to counter attacking.

Another scratch traced Cainabel's cheek.

The only change in their situation was the presence of Ainz. But how would Ainz observing their spar lead to Cainabel suddenly allowing her injuries to show its effects?

Altera repulsed several blows, after which her mind came up with a suitable conclusion.

'She is trying to show to Ainz... that this is a difficult battle for her.'

Blood was a kind of indicator for Cainabel. If Cainabel's blood was flowing, it means that for her this battle was so difficult that she couldn't afford the distraction of always controlling her own blood not to spill from her wounds. That it was a battle in which she is trying her best.

Altera blinked again, and then decided on taking a risk.

Having struck another blow, Altera deliberately positioned herself so that he would be open to a counterattack. In any other spars, this would mean a terrifying blow would immediately follow that would end the sparring session in a heartbeat...

A sharp pain immediately pierced through Altera's body, but instead of an absolute attack that would end the spar, Cainabel only dealt a sharp blow to Altera. The attack was weak enough that it only caused a, relatively speaking, shallow wound on Altera. After dealing this inconsequential wound Cainabel immediately put some distance between them as if expecting some kind of great retaliation.

It seems that Cainabel is not trying to end the battle with Altera right now because Ainz was looking at her. In other words, she is trying to... Show Ainz an interesting fight.

Altera blinked, after which she looked at Cainabel seriously.

A similar change of priorities caused by Ainz...

Altera could not even imagine a reason for this. Of course, she had heard the story that Ainz had killed her in the past, but such a dramatic change in behavior...

Was Ainz really that dangerous?

Altera repulsed a few more blows, after which, becoming a little bolder, she lunged forward. Cainabel easily repulsed the attack, after which she launched a series of counterattacks, gradually increasing her speed...

Altera suddenly felt...

That she's starting to enjoy this battle.

* * *

The battle with Cainabel did not take too much time - but it was Altera's best result at the moment. The six minutes during which Cainabel gradually increased her aggressiveness were... Interesting? Enjoyable even, to some extent...

Altera, of course, lost in the end. However, unlike almost every battle before - her loss did not end with a sharp overwhelming blow that would drive her into the ground, and after that a series of attacks, beatings, from Cainabel. Rather, Cainabel, who had suffered several scratches, was, in the course of the spar, able to significantly hurt Altera, to the point where the winner became obvious. After which Altera, not seeing the point in continuing the battle, admitted her loss. Cainabel, then took a step back, and just as easily retreated from the defeated Altera.

"The win is mine, my lord," Cainabel nodded.

"Hmm…" - Ainz thought for a second, - "Of course, I'm not a professional, but it seems to me... That in Altera's fighting style there are too many obvious attacks that would open her defence for retaliation... And you, Cainabel, are lacking the ferocity in your attacks to take full advantage of it…"

Ainz's tone remained fairly even - and because of the low reverberating voice of the magician, it was extremely difficult to determine his intentions. Moreover, Ainz's face… his skull, didn't show any of his emotions, because of which Altera was forced to conclude that Ainz could easily see through the actions of Cainabel and was able to see that she was sandbagging. Since, of course, even a layman could easily notice the consciously made mistakes in the battle between two warriors, especially for a creature of such caliber like Ainz. Most likely, he is speaking with sarcasm.

"Oh…" - Cainabel, apparently having come to the same conclusion, slowly lowered her head, - "I understood."

"Good," Ainz nodded, ending the conversation in a hurry as if saying that he could no longer tolerate such tomfoolery - "In this case, as I see, you are working tirelessly. It's good that everything moves as it should…"

After that, Ainz froze and shook his head, "Hmm... By the way, Cainabel..."

"My lord," the vampire, whose wounds were already beginning to heal, looked at Ainz in a confused manner.

"Since we had finished the big countr... Singularity", - Ainz interrupted himself halfway, - "I would like to ask you... What exactly do you want as a reward?"

Cainabel froze, and then lowered her head, "My lord, serving you is the highest reward that I can be honored with."

"Ahem, of course," Ainz nodded, after which he shook his head a little, "But still..."

"My lord," Cainabel nodded slowly, after which she glanced at Altera, "I already got everything I wanted."

If your Master handed you to me, then from now on I will be your Master, until Ainz decides otherwise. So I'll even make a stupid dog like you worthy of my servant. Is what Altera could pick up from Cainabel's glance.

These were the implication of Cainabel's gaze and Altera could not disagree with them. More precisely, she, as a Servant, was a tool of the Master, and if her Master decided to give his Servant to another, then she, as an obedient tool, could not do anything other than just to nod and follow the new rules. As an android and a child of stars, she was accustomed to such things.

However, Ainz thought differently.

'Hah…' - Ainz looked thoughtfully at Cainabel - 'I never thought... That is, all this time she just wanted to get herself... a partner?'

Of course, Cainabel did not give the impression of a sociable and easy-going person... No, probably, this was the problem with trying to please a Servant who is recalcitrant. One way or another, all people want company - and Cainabel, who found it hard to get along with people, probably also wanted it. Most likely, she simply lacked the communication skills and therefore finding her a partner - or even, rather, a younger colleague in her care - a kouhai as it is - was pleasant for her.

'However…' - Ainz thought for a moment, looking at Altera - 'Even if Cainabel wants to spend time with her - Altera can be hard-pressed to deny her advance because of Cainabel's character... Hmm, maybe in this case she also needs some kind of compensation?'

"Altera," Altera flinched when Ainz looked at her, "What do you want?"

Altera pondered the question for a while.

It was unlikely that it was such a comprehensive question as in 'whatever she wanted' it's likely that Ainz wouldn't use the grail to fulfill her wants... So she had to choose some more or less logical answer that Ainz could fulfill...

Altera looked at Cainabel - so quiet and submissive in the presence of Ainz - and then nodded.

"I would like to fight you, Master," Altera looked up.

Her past battles with Cainabel proved to her that in a sense she still liked to fight. And of all the possible choices of opponents that are available to Altera right now, the opportunity to cross blades with someone who made even Cainabel tremble with fear seemed extremely interesting to Altera.

"Oh, ahem," Ainz glanced at Altera, "I see..."

After Ainz spent some time looking around the room, he glanced at Altera again, - "How many rounds of sparrings have you done?"

"This will be the forty-first," Altera nodded.

"Forty-first, ahem, with me..." - Ainz thought for a second before nodding slowly. "If it's the forty-first, then, like Ainz Ooal Gown, it will be suitable for me... However!"

Ainz looked at Altera. "Forty-one is a huge number. Even if you are a Servant, I still want it to be your last round of sparring - after that... Ahem, take a rest somewhere, probably…"

"My body can withstand many more rounds", - especially given the treatment she received from Cainabel. And also thanks to Ainz's endless mana, she doesn't need to worry about her mana reserve during training.

"It is indeed possible for you," Ainz nodded. "But I would not want you to force yourself to exhaustion. Definitely, all people need some amount of relaxation."

People, ha...

Altera felt a strange emotion hearing such a statement, but she did not have time to really think about it.

"Drink this," Ainz handed Altera a flask. "This is a _healing potion_ and _endurance potion_."

Altera instantly took the potions offered to her, and then drank them. To battle Ainz, she most likely really needed to be in her best shape.

A moment later, all of Altera's wounds were healed, after which she felt her fatigue — the insignificant part that still managed to accumulate in her tireless body — disappeared completely. After a few moments revelling in the feeling she rose from her place.

Cainabel, looking at the fight that is about to take place she started grinning and took a step away from the two combatants. Unlike Ainz, who she didn't really know the full capability of, given Cainabel's capability she will most likely be completely protected from any consequences of the battle. As much as the abilities that the combatants could bring out, none of it would endanger Cainabel without totally destroying the entire room. On the other hand…

If Ainz saw through their fake battle, and judging by his comments he did, this meant that he wanted Altera not to restrain herself in this battle at all and he himself most likely would not either.

Of course, the use of Noble Phantasms was still prohibited - and judging by Cainabel's reactions and stories, it would not be strange if Ainz did not even need anything like this to defeat Altera. However, even without resorting to their Noble Phantasm, this round of sparring will definitely create an untold amount of destruction. It would not be strange if the whole room, except for the protective barriers, was destroyed during the battle. Altera understood this reality and therefore did not plan to underestimate Ainz in this battle and go all out.

Slowly retreating to her preferred position, Altera stood at the ready.

"Yes, ahem, an important clarification," Ainz nodded to himself, after which he looked at Altera, "I understand that you most likely want a battle in full force... But I do not want to kill you."

Altera objected, "But I can be summoned again."

"Yes," Ainz agreed, "But the killing of a Servant - my Servant... Especially with my own hands - is absolutely forbidden."

Altera thought for a second before Ainz hurried to speak out to her - "Attack me at full strength, however. I'm just saying that in this case, something else must be considered as the conditions for victory."

"In that case," Altera thought, "Inability to continue the fight could also be considered as a lost."

"Good," Ainz nodded, and then slowly made his position several meters in front of Altera, "Cainabel, if you would count us down please."

"Three." Cainabel raised three fingers up.

Ainz... He was a magician, as far as she knows. So, of course, Altera had to force him into close combat as quickly as she could.

"Two", - Apparently, his specialization is area of effect attacks and necromancy... However, given that there were no bodies around the room suitable for necromancy, it could be assumed that Altera should only be wary of wide area destruction spells, - "One…"

"Start!" After a moment, Altera rushed forward.

"Ainz Ooal Gown won", - Altera did not even have time to take a step before Cainabel announced her loss.

"Hah?" - Altera turned to Cainabel, before she understood what was said - "But how..."

After that, Altera felt something strange with her body and raised her hands to her face to inspect it.

Her hands, the color of mocha coffee, were almost completely transparent. In other words, Altera was in her spirit form.

A second later, Altera tried to materialize - but she could not.

"I'm sorry," Ainz suddenly appeared next to Altera. No, it seemed that he had somehow evaporated from his previous position and unexpectedly just appeared next to Altera, - "I used the "_Etherial form_" spell on you. You cannot materialize until the spell effect passes or I remove it."

Altera turned her gaze toward Ainz.

Her skill, Civilization Erosion, was one of her greatest trump cards. The ability that allowed Altera to break any spell, transform any weapon, and control any object that she could infuse with her mana. There was only one exception.

This skill did not affect herself.

Altera glanced at Ainz - shocked.

The battle - if it could be called that - took less than a second.

A second later, Ainz cancelled his spell, allowing Altera to materialize again.

"But... how could you cast the spell so quickly?" Altera was not inclined to self-praise, but her agility was of the highest A rank. In other words, it was difficult for many Servants to even react to her movements, not to mention surpassing her in speed and having enough time to neutralize her before she even took one step.

"Oh," Ainz shook his head, "You had demanded for a battle with my full capabilities... So I stopped time."

Stopped...

Time…

Altera blinked, unsure that she had heard what was just said correctly.

"Hm, in that case, if that's all..." Ainz shook his head, "I'll leave you two to it."

"Of course, my lord," Cainabel smiled immediately, looking after the departing figure of Ainz.

Altera just kept standing still.

"It was interesting to watch you in the stopped time," Cainabel grinned.

"You..." Altera turned her gaze to Cainabel. "Didn't you also become frozen with time?"

"Of course not!" Cainabel was clearly indignant at such an assumption, "Stopping time is a basic trick for someone of mine — or Ainz's — level."

Altera felt her worldview crack, and then she nodded, "I understand."

"Hm, it seems Ainz had ordered us to stop our spar," Cainabel sighed. "Well, orders are orders."

"Little tin toy," Cainabel turned to Altera, "let's go, at least have a bite of something… Or someone..."

Altera nodded slowly, after which, looking up at the ceiling, she stared at Cainabel purposefully, "You... Can you tell me more about Ainz?"

Cainabel, who had looked at her with almost tangible contempt before, thought for a moment, after which she grinned and her face bloomed into a smile, "Oh... For such a thing you came to the right place..."

* * *

**Name**: Attila

**Race**: Heteromorphic

**Title**: Great King of Destruction

**Occupation**: Servant of Ainz Ooal Gown

**Residence**: Chaldea, training room in the residential wing

**Karma**: +100 (Neutral Good)

**Race** **Level**: Golem (15)

Automaton (10)

Child of Stars (5)

**Class** **Level**: Swordsman (15)

Destroyer of Civilizations (5)

Tactician (3)

Others (20)

**Total**: 30 Racial Levels + 43 Class Levels = 73 General Levels

**HP**: 80

**Mana**: 60

**Physical** **Attack**: 60

**Physical** **Defense**: 0

**Agility**: 80

**Magic** **Attack**: 0

**Magic Defense**: 60

**Resistance**: 80

**Special** **Abilities**: 90

**Ability**: Photon Ray

**Level**: 80

Extremely strong physical attack capable of striking covering some distance, that's all. Just an extremely strong physical attack imbued with piercing damage. Nothing more. Although the damage done is certainly beyond praise and can, if it hits, even kill a player of the eightieth level. Of course only if the player decided that taking a luminous drill to the face is a good way to spend their time and prepared no defenses or countermeasures

**Player Comments**:

\- Just a very strong build for dealing physical damage. True, without any physical defense... Well, seriously, everything in the build went so well and such a cool build would have turned out quite powerful, and then for some reason decided that a physical oriented build needs no physical defense… Glass cannon indeed.

\- Child of Stars? Destroyer of Civilizations? Damn, someone is really lucky to find such unique classes...

\- The ability is simple, strong, and yet without any additional effects in play. For any ordinary MOB it will do. But then the moment she encounters any opponent with physical damage immunity... to be demolished by a first-level ghost…

\- Physical defense! Urgently raise the physical defense! And sweetie, if you do it would be an honestly good build! How can you miss such an elephant in the room...

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**What level of item can he make with (Create Greater Item)? - Hmm... That's an honestly interesting question. Technically, no item he creates by this spell can be truly magical artifact, food or drink. He also can't create consumables, such as scrolls and potions by this. But at the same time, things he creates by this spell are stronger than adamant - which doesn't mean shit for YGGDRASIL, since adamant was viable max up to the level 35. But here, given that adamant is stronger than orichalcum, which is stronger than mythril, which is absolutely trampling steel... I don't know. It could probably be higher in his own area of creating things than A rank, but since he is not very versatile... I don't know, maybe B++ rank or something.**

**This story is one thing, but how about creating your own book with your own story. - I actually planned to do it at one point in time in the future - but I really can't predict things given that all of my time right now basically goes to this fic.**

**Would he be still able to summon baal from yridassel with the grail or would he just summon the Baal that he kill in the singularity? - YGGDRASIL one still.**

**How many more subscribers would you need to write full time? Do you have a minimum goal before you do it or is this all theoretical for now? - As of now, it's purely theoretical, but in a year and a few months, it would be a practical issue. Right now I don't have a real number calculated, but I suppose something like a thousand would be pretty neat and actually worthy of taking the risks of living by your pen.**

**So in a body the da Vinci made aniz cant use magic above a certain tier, but if that is the case why does he not use perfect warrior to use weapons? - Simple. Because Perfect Warrior is the 10th tier spell.**

**Would Pandora's Actor get along well with Da Vinci or is he skilled enough to piss her off too? - He could piss her off, but not by his regular antics. Da Vinci would probably be full onboard for this and would enjoy their time and conversations together since she would not view PA's actions as annoying.**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 7 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	75. Chapter 75

Da Vinci sipped the steaming tea from her cup with pleasure while looking at her notes.

Ainz, Cainabel, Baal, the incineration of humanity, the Grail, Data crystals and much, much more.

It is amazing how she was able to gather such a massive amount of information within such a short amount of time. If she were to publish what she found out in the Mage Association she would probably be hailed as one of the greatest geniuses of the age, not that she isn't one already. While the information contained within is not strictly a result of rigorous experimentations, the information that is revealed by her interaction with Ainz would break generation-held truths. However, for the same reason, Da Vinci herself would not do such a thing lest she found herself easily accused of heresy, a magical heretic, what a joke. No matter how strange it may sound, a group of people searching for the way to reach the Root of all things are also, paradoxically, very conservative. While she won't be burned at the stake, at best she would be censured, at worst a Sealing Designation.

No, while it's not true that the leadership of the Mage Association consists of only people that were of such stupidity, greed, arrogance, smugness, stubbornness, narrow-mindedness, and bull-headedness that they would censure ground-breaking discovery, although they most certainly display some of these characteristics. But still, the information that Da vinci had managed to discover was so revolutionary that even with all her genius she cannot fully envision the consequences of divulging what she had learned.

What will the discovery of "anti-spirititons," a variant of antimatter for mana, lead to? How far will the Magi go in search of more information, should it be revealed to them that even the Root itself was not the final instance of existence? What will it do to the balance of power when it is revealed that the two unrivaled existences on Earth, Alaya and Gaia, have something that can compete with them on Earth? Oh, the spectacles that would unfold were she to divulge such revolutionary discoveries were...

Great.

Of course terrifying as well, but still, great beyond measure.

The fact that Da Vinci, a person capable of using her genius intellect for something other than unravelling the great mysteries of magic and scientific problems, albeit infrequently, was not capable of fully envisioning the consequences meant that the information she discovered was that revolutionary. And this great genius was only able to collate such word-rending discoveries, discoveries that would turn the whole modern theory of magic on its head into reams of papers scattered around in her Workshop in a barely coherent mess. Not to mention the fact that on each page rather than neatly written notes on her discovery it was filled with hastily written notes filled with scribbles on its margin. The mess of information on each page is so unreadable that no one other than Da Vinci herself could understand what's written on it

Da Vinci, sipping tea, looked at another page scattered around her, after a few seconds she wrote several corrections and wrote it to the level of absolute unreadability, after which she sighed and placed her teacup down.

What a strange situation...

She was like the explorers of old, like Magellan or Columbus, men who staked their life in their search for discovery and prestige. Of course unlike those explorers she had no reassurance that she wouldn't simply fall to the abyss in her search for the truth. There are no stars to guide her path, no previous explorers that could show her the way, and no assurance that she had reached her destination at all.

It was like assembling a puzzle with thousands of small pieces. Except it's even worse than that, the puzzle has no definite picture it could make up, there are even various 'correct' configurations for the puzzle and no indication which one is the 'right' one. What's worse is that Da vinci didn't possess all the pieces of the puzzle, with bits of additional puzzle pieces given out by various individuals and not all at the same time. With all the pieces she has managed to collect and figure out she could only manage to create, at best a simple sketch of the full picture, at worst, barely a framework. In other words, it was an unanswerable riddle.

Any person obsessed with the search of knowledge and the truth when confronted with such an inability to complete the picture would become infuriated. Da Vinci on the other hand...

"It's the best time to be alive!" - Da Vinci felt some unhealthy pleasure in solving this puzzle. It was like an unending obsession with the idea of finishing the puzzle itself.

"I don't understand how these two facts are connected" turned into "I will have so much fun figuring out how these two facts are connected!"

Da Vinci didn't purr under her breath with pleasure, ripping the fifth or maybe the five hundredth? - page of her theoretical research solely because she did not purr at all. But if she knew how to somehow express her mood in other ways other than a broad smile, then she would definitely be doing it right now.

Da Vinci, however, having no such habits, only smiled at her cup of tea while imagining the prospects opening up to her.

Yes, it may take a thousand years - as the Lord Himself as my witness - she will achieve her goal and solve this riddle. Even if she has to be reborn another hundred thousand times. Because she was Da Vinci. And so she did not leave a single riddle unresolved.

Da Vinci took the last sip from the cup, after which she got up from her seat, slowly moving to the next room in her Workshop, after which, going inside, she looked around the room.

Although, perhaps, to call this place a 'room' was incorrect - rather, this place should be called a warehouse. Tens and hundreds of bodies, each prepared for meticulously for any occasions, some finished and ready to use and some barely a framework. Most of the bodies were female, although she had a pair of male ones just in case - but all, without exception, are beautiful and of such high quality that anyone who finds themself at this place would probably consider them for to be made not by the hands of an earthly artist but by a divine hand. Though it's not like anyone would actually dare to enter Da Vinci's workshop, not like Da Vinci had put any traps in her workshop unlike any other Casters or even normal Magi. It's simply a human sense of preserving their own life 'do not enter another magi's workshop' is a common sense so ingrained that no one would be stupid enough to do so, even less so if the Magi in question is powerful. In fact compared to any other Magi's workshop Da Vinci's are quite normal in comparison, well except for the fact that in these rooms were hundreds of disassembled human bodies.

Although, of course, it was not correct to call them human - rather, they were just puppet golems, not so different in fact from homunculi - but many people were superstitious enough to ignore such an important scientific clarification.

Da Vinci glanced along the rows of the prepared containers - after which her gaze was caught on something that stood out from the rows of tables with unfinished bodies and racks where each ready-made body was displayed in its place like clothes hanging on a hanger. Although, of course, a simple mind would instead say something as stupid as "bodies in the slaughterhouse."

It's not that Da Vinci didn't understand how uncomfortable people would be if they were inside this room and how frightening she could appear to people given the hundreds of lifeless bodies hanging in racks. She certainly didn't deliberately try to look intimidating to other people, she simply didn't consider other people's feelings to be meaningful.

"Genius is allowed to have some eccentricity," said Da Vinci.

"You have a disassembled body of a twelve-year-old girl lying on a table!" - what the rest of humanity, well the 20+ humans that's left, would reply with.

In any case, with her attention being grabbed by the body, she began to walk towards it. Unlike the other bodies, this body was placed in its own row with no other bodies placed near it, so its specialness could be guessed with only a glance. The only question that remained in her mind was how exactly did this body differ.

"Hmmm..." - Da Vinci thoughtfully examined the body - "Maybe I was planning to put you in a cryocapsule?.."

Despite the terrible incident of destruction in Chaldea, they still had enough cryocapsules that Da Vinci could use one of them for her needs without any issues.

Da Vinci debated about this idea for a few seconds, and then shook her head - "No, I won't remove you just yet. Maybe in the future an even more interesting use for the body would come to mind? "

Of course, not so long ago, Da Vinci considered this body as ideal for her purpose, but after interacting with Ainz, there were so many new ideas in her head that it was a crime to not utilize it.

"In any case, I am not here for this" - Da Vinci looked away from the body and moved to another body lying on one of the tables.

This body was different from everyone else. Firstly, it was of masculine build, which is a rarity in this warehouse, secondly, it was not beautiful, which is even rarer. Of course it is not ugly in any way or form, but if one were to appraise any other body for their beauty, any person could instantly indicate why they are beautiful - "a charming hot brunette" or "a pretty blonde, causing a sense of sympathy to well up". Instead of such reactions when a person would look at the body that Da Vinci is focusing on it was impossible for them to evaluate any specific feature as beautiful. Every aspect of the body was ordinary - as much as Da Vinci hated the word. Ordinary hair of an ordinary black color of ordinary length in an ordinary short-cut hairstyle. An ordinary set of eyes of ordinary brown color, covered with ordinary eyelids with ordinary eyelashes. Ordinary facial features, ordinary cheekbones, ordinary ears, ordinary hands, ordinary body - everything that could be called or described was "ordinary". Yet at the same time, Da Vinci was proud of her work - because despite the fact that every feature of the body was ordinary, together they revealed their essence of beauty. Yes, it was an ordinary face with an ordinary look - but all together with his eyes combined so surprisingly well with its short haircut to reveal a charming masculine look. Ordinary proportions of the body, but at the same time for some reason, standing behind him, it seemed as if the whole world was not but peebles in comparison. An ordinary voice and with an ordinary musculature, not muscular or scrawny but at the same time, even being completely unreasonable, the body looked as if it had been created from the very concept of "reliability" or "will". In truth, Da Vinci, the concentration of beauty of this world, considered this body to be her most successful project - well, except for herself and her additional body.

"Could you do something ordinary?" - Ainz had once asked her.

Of course, Ainz knew that Da Vinci simply could not physically create something gray and dull - and therefore his request was much more intriguing in essence.

"Can you create something that will be beautiful as a whole, and not only with parts that are?" - To rephrase Ainz's words to get to their essence was too easy for a genius like her.

In truth, Da Vinci was not happy with the very first body that she gave to Ainz to use, while she is an unparalleled genius what can be done in only a week? Only a miserable semblance of a priceless copy that is!

Therefore, Da Vinci began to create a new body for Ainz even before she finished the old one and even if Ainz's old body were still used by him - she would ask him to move to the new one. It would be given how much this version was superior to the old one. She was embarrassed, no, even appalled to look at her past work, knowing how much more amazing the version she created was.

But Ainz had already destroyed the old body given to him, so Da Vinci was even glad - no evidence of her past weakness as a creator! From now on, this masterpiece will be used by Ainz as a demonstration of her skills - the best advertisement in the world.

"Only..." - Da Vinci thought - "Maybe I should add some more features..."

No, of course, the puppet body created by Da Vinci was already completed - it was impossible to add or diminish even a single hair in the perfect image so as not to destroy its existing magic of beauty. But Da Vinci was not talking about the body itself.

"A surveillance spell..." - Da Vinci bit her lip.

A small spell created to collect only the most superficial of data - something so inconspicuous and ephemeral that Da Vinci herself did not even need to use any rituals to cast it - just one wave of her hands and everything would be done...

The only problem with it was how Ainz would react when he found the spell that only Da Vinci would have the chance to cast - and he certainly would. In this case, death at his hands as a potential traitor was not the most unlikely thing in the world. And death, in this case, would unfortunately prevent Da Vinci from solving the great puzzle she is currently working on. Not to mention the fact that Da Vinci herself would not want to be branded a traitor because of sheer scientific curiosity.

Da Vinci eventually came to a decision and lifted the body into her arms, slowly leaving the room. Yes, as a Caster and the owner of an incredibly low rank of strength, for a Servant. She possessed colossally low parameters in this area for a Servant , but still, something as mundane as lifting a human body was still a simple task for her, no more complicated or difficult than an ordinary person picking a book from a shelf.

Da Vinci slowly moved toward one of the small sofas in her Workshop, of course as befitting Da Vinci's personality it is littered with several pages. After cleaning the scattered pages Da Vinci placed the body lying on the sofa and stood next to it.

The creak of a door, indicated to Da Vinci that she has a visitor. And while her genius does not include the ability to determine the identity of a person and their strength by presence alone, she has no trouble determining the identity of her guest. Not that such a thing is a hard puzzle to solve. There are only three people in Chaldea that would nonchalantly walk into her Workshop, and the last two already did.

"Ainz," - Da Vinci turned to the man with a smile, - "What can I help you with?"

Ainz stood at the door, frozen. Determining his mood, given the absence of any facial feature was difficult. Just as difficult as determining the direction of his gaze, given that instead of eyes in his eye sockets only a magical red fire was burning. But, fortunately, Ainz's words allowed Da Vinci to determine the reason for his visit.

"Is this... It?" - Ainz, apparently referring to the body lying on the sofa, asked a question.

"That's right," Da Vinci nodded, and then waved her hand. "Come in, don't stand at the doorway."

Ainz took a step inside, after which, after taking a couple more steps, he stopped in front of the body, looking at 'him'.

"He... Is even more beautiful than my previous one..." - Ainz seemed to be unable to speak. This made Da Vinci smile - her skill as an artist could surprise even a foreign godslayer, wasn't this an achievement worthy of being proud of?

"Of course," Da Vinci smiled, "and it's absolutely normal, as you wished. Ideal in its normality is the body, the embodiment of mediocre beauty!"

Ainz froze - unconditionally pondering that Da Vinci was able to fulfill his order in full accuracy and in accordance with all his expectations. However, Ainz did not think about it for long, exhaling slowly, after which he turned towards Da Vinci.

"But don't you think that you are a little… with this body..." - Ainz hesitated, choosing a word, "overdid it? It seems to me... Too perfect."

"Too?" Da Vinci grunted.

Ainz slowly inhaled and exhaled, "Yes, of course... How could I have thought that everything would be different..."

Da Vinci nodded. "I think you can try a little for the savior of mankind."

Ainz just nodded in response, after which Da Vinci turned away, going for a new cup of tea.

By the time the new cup was ready, Ainz's figure completely disappeared from her field of vision, while the new body prepared by Da Vinci opened their eyes and rose from the couch, examining their hands.

"Does it fit like a glove?" Da Vinci smiled, looking at Ainz, slowly inspecting his hands.

"There are a few... Unusual sensations," Ainz thought, "What level of strength can this body withstand?"

At that question, Da Vinci's smile faded a little, - "The same as before."

It's not that Da Vinci spent her time caring more about Ainz's appearance than about the body's capabilities, although she definitely did, there simply was a limit that she couldn't jump over, at least not without using much more exotic, rare and expensive elements. Materials which were impossible to find even in Chaldea, and there's not really much existing outside of Chaldea at the moment. The body that she created for Ainz on her own could be a worthy body for a magi of the Age of Gods, of course a Magi that could astralize themselves of course. Da Vinci would even applaud herself on this achievement. Unfortunately, and fortunately for the prospect of solving the grand puzzles, even something of such magnitude as a "magi of the Age of Gods" seemed to be too deficient to compare with someone like Ainz.

"It's a pity," Ainz nodded. "Well, now I'm interested in checking which particular abilities I can safely use in this body."

"Do be careful!" Da Vinci hastened to warn, "It may take me another month to make a body of comparable ability — if not more."

"Okay, I get it." Ainz nodded gravely.

Seriously, ha...

Da Vinci sat on the corner of the sofa near Ainz, and then sipped tea from the mug.

Ainz, glancing at Da Vinci who was nearby, coughed, and then looked away, - "My throat suddenly became dry…"

Da Vinci handed Ainz the mug of barely sipped tea, "Take it."

Ainz blinked, taking the cup from Da Vinci's hands, and then looked away.

Ainz Ooal Gown, a creature that is stunning to the imagination. A mage, necromancer, wizard, Divine Spirit, savior of mankind, foreign god, incarnation of Alaya, Gaia, a godslayer from another world and a potential diviner who arrived to prevent the Third World War… Hmmm, did she forget anything?

Da Vinci thought for a moment, but in the end she shook her head - no, that's probably all.

"Wow!" - Ainz, sipping tea, smiled, "It seems I have already spent some time without a body that I forgot how delicious tea is..."

Da Vinci looked at Ainz.

The tea brewed by her was of the most average quality that could be imagined, and, of course, Da Vinci had no skills to compensate for the rather strong flavor of tea bags. It's not that she couldn't get it - for a natural born genius, like her, there was nothing impossible, including acquiring some absolutely meaningless and highly specialized skill aimed at improving the quality of served drinks. But, considering that Da Vinci didn't have such a skill, it was the most common tea bag you could get.

The most supreme of powers that be were rarely modest. On the contrary, their ego most often was directly proportional to their level of strength - just as great heroes most often demanded proper respect for themselves, those who held the greatest strength most often did not fail to use it. Not necessarily for terrifying things of course, but surrounding yourself with luxury goods, using only the most expensive and high-quality products, and indulging in their desires was something that almost all people aspired to. Looking at Ainz, it was not difficult to imagine him as some great conqueror or magician of such heights that he did not even need a throne - his throne was already made by his own strength declaring to anyone that saw him as a king. So, to compare him to those who wanted to surround themselves with only the best things should have been easy.

But instead...

"Thank you, Da Vinci," - Ainz smiled and gave the empty cup back to her, after which he became silent.

Instead of being the same as other great beings, Ainz, a creature of unimaginable great power, enjoyed mid-price packaged tea, sitting on a couch strewn with scribbled sheets of paper all around him, and sitting in a room that could not be called clean even by taking the huge discount on Da Vinci's frivolous understanding of the idea of cleanliness.

Da Vinci once again looked at Ainz's body, then smiled - "Beauty in ordinarity, ha..."

"Hm?" Ainz, noticing Da Vinci's gaze, looked at Da Vinci with a questioning gaze while Da Vinci simply shrugged in response.

"No, nothing special." Da Vinci looked away, after which she looked thoughtfully at the ceiling.

Riddles, riddles, riddles...

"Ah, yes, Da Vinci," Ainz thought for a second before breaking Da Vinci's thoughts. "If you think about it... You had created two bodies for me with no compensation, not to mention repairing the Chaldea summoning system..."

Da Vinci just brushed it off - "It's a trivial action for someone of my caliber."

"And still," Ainz nodded to himself, "tell me, Da Vinci, what do you want in return?"

Da Vinci only grinned. "Besides saving the world and humanity, perhaps?"

"Ahem, yes, except that." Ainz coughed and looked away, causing Da Vinci to smile.

'Who are you really? Just answer that question and that's it.'

Da Vinci wanted to know everything about Ainz - her obsession with riddles, the mystery of Ainz himself excited her mind and therefore this request is the one she wanted to ask the most.

But…

Da Vinci categorically refused to even consider asking such a stupid thing. A puzzle is only fun if you complete it yourself after all. To simply ask for the answer to the puzzle that has intrigued her mind all this time is the height of stupidity.

Yet, at the same time, she doesn't really have anything else to ask for…. Other than the salvation of Humanity of course.

Da Vinci thought for a moment, after which she looked at Ainz, "Can you... Put yourself under surveillance?"

Ainz blinked.

"More precisely, I wanted to say, ahem," Da Vinci immediately hastened to correct herself, "I understand that you cannot trust the safety of the observation from Chaldea, but if you independently established a connection between us while working in the Singularity, taking into account the possibility of video surveillance..."

"Ah, this," Ainz blinked, "Yes, of course, if I use my own surveillance spell on myself and transfer the image to the Chaldea's screen... It will be possible."

"Excellent!" Da Vinci clapped her hands and said a little louder and happier than it seemed necessary, "In this case, the progress will accelerate."

"Progress?" Ainz looked at Da Vinci.

"Progress in solving the Singularity, of course," Da Vinci nodded, and then rose from her seat, "Speaking of which... You, just by chance, don't you know when the next Singularity will be..."

"All authorized personnel, please prepare for the reyshifting procedure. Request for all authorized personnel to approach the main office of Chaldea." A mechanical voice that blared out throughout the room silenced Da Vinci.

"I didn't have to wait too long for an answer it seems," Da Vinci shrugged, and then, looking at Ainz, she extended her hand to forward, "Come on then, no need to make the chief wait."

"Of course," Ainz smiled and accepted her hand, rising after Da Vinci.

Of course, Da Vinci will closely monitor Ainz. The riddle of his existence will be so exhilarating to solve, for nothing attracted her more than riddles.

But perhaps, only perhaps ...

Was she attracted to anything else in him?

* * *

**Name**: Leonardo Da Vinci

**Skill**: Golden Rule (Body)

**Level**: 60

A skill that allows the user to use the in-game editor to change the appearance of their character. At this level, even radical changes are possible - such as changing the gender of the game character, however, other than changes to cosmetic effects, the skill does not provide any more advantages.

**Skill**: Pioneer of the Stars

**Level**: 100

A skill that allows the user to accomplish the impossible. At least that's what the skill's lore says. Very little is known about it's specific abilities, as well as about any active or passive effects, however, given the skill level, designated as "one hundred," the effect of such a skill should be great. And yet, there are no allusions to its power in any forums… Though it is expected of a game like Yggdrassil.

**Skill**: Territory Creation

**Level**: 80

A skill that allows the user to edit their personal homebase, guild base or otherwise, selected with the help of guild tools and a console, allowing the user to set traps, change the interior decoration or perform other manipulations - even the creation of NPCs. Unfortunately, the level of NPCs created at this skill rank is limited to eighty cumulative levels. Thus, it is possible to create one NPC of the eightieth level, two fortieth level NPC or eighty NPC of the first level.

**Skill**: Item Construction

**Level**: 80

A skill that allows the user to create in-game artifacts by combining existing in-game items, such as weapons or ore with data crystals, and other enchantment items. This ability allows the player to create items and artifacts up to the "legacy" level.

**Player** **Comments**:

\- Wait... A build of a glass-cannon mage, with the skills of a commander, crafter and even… what the fuck is this skill... WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, PEOPLE?!

\- We have reached such a level of postirony that people play with postronical builds...

\- Skills are top class, no kidding. BUT WHAT THEY ARE THEY DOING IN A MAGE BUILD?!

\- 0w0? Can someone explain to me, what's the point of playing an incomprehensible hodgepodge of a bunch of cool builds that don't work?! Hey, return Attila, at least she was not even half-bad compared to this one!

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Did you come with that idea or something else? - I did come with this joke, but I really want to know what "something else" you meant.**

**Ainz? What's so magnificent about him? - Aren't you 74 chapters late for that question?**

**Are you planning Ainz to use a Super tier spell soon? - Maaaaaaybeeeee...**

**Would Hassan of Serenity's poison be stronger than the Blood of Jormungander that permeates the air of Nazaricks Treasury? - Interesting question. The proper answer is... No. Given that Blood of Jormugandr could kill any level 100 unprotected player in three steps (let's translate this into 3 seconds at best, 1 second at worst) it's fucking ridiculously strong poison. And concentration of the Blood in Nazarick's treasure was pretty low, given that Albedo noticed it only a few seconds after, so Blood of Jormugandr is very rare but is stronger then Serenity's poison.**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	76. Chapter 76

At the meeting between the leaders of Chaldea, on whose shoulders lay the responsibility of saving the world and resolving the Singularities, Ainz arrived last. Somehow having managed to be a little behind from Da Vinci who he was just talking with a moment before. Da Vinci moved along Chaldea's corridors with the steadfastness of the Titanic, of course without its tendency to hit freak icebergs. The moment he reached the meeting room and opened the door - Da Vinci had already settled down on one of the more comfortable places, on one of the free windowsills, pushing the nearby useless objects next to Da Vinci to the side. Olga-Marie, as befits her position as the boss of the organization, was sitting in one of the armchairs with a chic burgundy velvet upholstery, legs crossed and slowly pulling a cigarette with some interest. Ainz noticed that the cigarette was taken from the same pack of cigarettes that Ainz gave her. Roman, as the boss' minion should be, was sitting on an armchair next to Olga, looking at some notes that from Ainz's vantage point looked like it was written with a careless hand in a particularly packed scribbled notebook.

In other words, the picture of the "three saviors of mankind" looked so harmonious and complete that Ainz felt a little unsuitable for this place. But, on the other hand, while all the three leaders supported Chaldea, Ainz alone fought at the forefront - that is, his sole participation was the lynchpin in such a meeting above all else.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, he was not allowed to think about it for too long. Olga, only now seeing Ainz entering the room, blinked in surprise then frowned and was about to say something before deciding otherwise then shook her head. She slowly exhaled and then began examining Ainz's new appearance. Ainz, a little concerned about Olga's strange behavior, looked at her a little strangely.

"It's difficult to get used to your changed appearance," Olga-Marie answering the unasked question answered with a sigh, "I'm already used to the previous appearance and then suddenly it's another one... Well? What are you waiting for, come in."

Ainz hesitated for a second then entered the spacious meeting room. The room was spacious and comfortable, unlike the rest of Chaldea which is rather spartan and sterile looking it was decorated with relatively dark colors. The meeting room that they are using right now was a converted lounge laden with armchairs, several bookshelves - exclusively for decorative purposes - and a couple of coffee tables. The rather comfy looking room did not fit the image for a meeting between the people responsible with the salvation of humanity. On the other hand, if you look at it differently a little and say that Chaldea is now engaged in "deciding the fate of mankind," then the room around him would begin to look more appropriate.

"Chief," Ainz nodded to Olga-Marie, after which to Roman, "Doctor."

"To tell you the truth, I no longer remember the fact that I was once just a doctor anymore..." Roman spoke out in despair, for which he received an elbow poke courtesy of Olga-Marie to his side, - "Hey! I am not complaining, not complaining!"

"Indeed you're not complaining, but whining instead," Olga then sighed, after which she looked at Ainz and smiled, "Well, special operative... I hope your rest was well enough?"

"I hope so too," Ainz replied uncertainly, Chaldea was a great place to put his thoughts in order and recover a little, but for it to be just a week before the new Singularity... Furthermore, this time Ainz was forced to spend his time in Chaldea with his real body...

While it wasn't a problem in itself, it's not like he felt any body dysphoria with his skeletal body - Ainz felt his skeletal body as... His real body. It probably happened because of the thousands of hours that he spent playing as his avatar in Yggdrasil. In addition, it was definitely nice to know that his body would not fall apart if he accidentally used a stronger spell than he should have. Of course, he still could not use a lot of his spells, not that he feels the need to use them, due to the collateral damage that it would cause. For example, he could not use many of his abilities which were... Hmm... 'Organically Incompatible' with his current living space. What's worse is the fact that, due to being confined to a skeletal body with its inability to eat or even taste anything, he was not able to taste Archer's cooking... Which was very unfortunate given the many praise the people of Chaldea gave to his cooking.

"Hah," Olga-Marie grinned, and then shook her head, "Anyway... The connection with the new Singularity has been established."

"Understood," Ainz nodded, after which, after making his way to the chair next to him, he sat down, looking carefully at Olga, "What is known about this Singularity?"

Roman, who had previously silently looked at his notes, sensing the cold look of his boss on himself, looked up.

"Hm, as it were…" he tightened, after which he looked at Ainz, "This Singularity... Its very different to the Singularities we have encountered before."

"Ho…" - Ainz nodded thoughtfully, - "What makes it different from the previous ones?"

"We cannot establish a specific year of arrival," Roman nodded gravely, "and the exact place where the center point of the Singularity takes place..."

"Hm," Ainz thought.

Prior to this, he had visited three Singularities: in the Japanese city of Fuyuki from in the two thousands, in France during the centenary war and lastly in the Roman Empire during the reign of Nero. In all cases, the specific place of arrival and the specific year were determined in advance. To be left without such information at the very beginning of the Singularity... It was a bad sign.

"Why is this happening and where does the Singularity take place?" Ainz looked closely at Roman.

"Well…" - Roman began to wiggle uncomfortably in place, - "If you think of all the previous Singularities like a specific altered point in time and space, then the current Singularity is a kind of blurred time and space gap... Hey!"

Roman's muttering was stopped by the Director's punch on his head. Of course it was not strong enough to cause actual damage, but it was enough to shock him out of his fugue.

"Stop with the unneeded information!" Olga retracted her hand and glared angrily at Roman. "Just answer the questions asked!"

"Chief, you are too cruel..." Roman rubbed the bruised place, but noticing that Olga is clenching her fist while looking at his head again he nevertheless began to speak more specifically, "According to our calculations, this time the Singularity is taking place in the Golden Age of Piracy."

"Hm," Ainz nodded. "I understand."

Ainz did not understand at all.

'The Golden Age of Piracy…' - Ainz strained his memory trying to remember - 'It sounds like something important... But for the life of me, I don't remember what it is about... If you think about the name, then it's about pirates. Ainz remembered that they are something from the time of powder guns or something like that... It seems that in those days Spain ruled everyone?.. Or France... Or was it England?!"

Ainz tried to strain his memory harder while not showing on his face the internal struggle to remember at least something about the aforementioned period.

"As for the place," Roman tried to recall the information, "The Chaldean staff cannot specify exactly where the Singularity takes place. The best that we can find out is "off the coast of Central or South America, possibly in the Caribbean." While in the worst case, "somewhere in the ocean.""

"I see," Ainz nodded.

Ainz did not understand any of it at all.

'Where is that?' - Of course Ainz certainly knew what the ocean was and even, in spite of his extremely superficial education, he knew the name of the continents and could find it without any errors. But what is this 'Caribbean' ? It was a non-trivial challenge for him.

'Terrific, I have no idea where and when the Singularity is taking place in' Ainz breathed out - 'So what? Just pretend that you understand everything that they say to you and one day they will eventually leave you alone.'

Therefore, Ainz took on the most concentrated look that he could, and looked at Roman. Roman, considering Ainz's expression a sufficient indication of his understanding, continued.

"As for the reason for this, we are not sure about it," Roman looked at his notes. "All we can say for sure now is that the current Singularity is... Unstable."

"Unstable?" Ainz looked at Roman seriously. Unlike the previous revelation, here Ainz already understood that the phrase "unstable Singularity" was not a good sign. Not good at all.

"The time frame of the Singularity changes all the time as well as its presence in space," Roman breathed out seriously, "In other words, the fundamental principles themselves of the Singularity, which were to keep the Singularity in order, changes all the time."

After that, Roman looked at Da Vinci, who had not uttered a word for all time. However, catching Roman's look, Da Vinci slowly exhaled.

"Judging by the pattern - Fuyuki, Orleans, Septem - one of the main reasons for the existence of these Singularities is the Grail," Da Vinci looked at Ainz, "And if the Singularity that was created by the Grail continues to change, it means that something equal in strength - equal to the Grail is resisting its influence. I would even go further and say that something equally powerful for the Grail is actively trying to destroy the Singularity from the inside."

"Ho…" - Ainz was shocked by the news. Strictly speaking, the Grail was not the most incredible thing in Ainz's collection. In a way, you could compare the Grail with something like the "Shooting Star" ring, one of two that were in Ainz's collection. But it was still extremely significant. The magic of the ring consisted of three sealed uses of the supertier magic "Wish Upon A Star". In the game, it was one of the more mundane Supertier Magic. Of course, after the lore of the abilities began to mean something in the metaphysics of their effects when Ainz were transported to this new world. It then became the strongest possible Supertier Magic, only being a little bit inferior to World-Class Items. In other words, it was an incredible magic that even Ainz did not want to use for no reason. If something or someone was found in the Singularity capable of withstanding such magic... then Ainz definitely felt a little bit uncomfortable.

Of course, it would be nice to believe that all these problems with the Singularity arose due to technical malfunctions with the Grail in the Singularity. Or even to think that the unknown creature is trying to destroy the Singularity from the inside and was his ally in the event of a battle with the unknown "King". By the way, about the King...

"During my time…" - Ainz thought for a while, choosing the right words, "In my battle with Baal, he mentioned a 'King'... Most likely this 'King' is his boss."

After these words, the atmosphere in the room became colder by a couple of degrees.

Olga-Marie, who had previously ceded the scene to Roman and Da Vinci, was the first to break the silence, - "I think we all initially knew that behind the Destruction of Humanity there was someone more than just Lev. But now, having heard a confirmation - I'm afraid we will no longer be able to cling to the idea that the Singularities are simply an accidental phenomenon."

"Which, of course, is unfortunate," Da Vinci nodded from her seat, not wanting to get off the windowsill, "But in any case, attempting to cling to the idea that only one or a few Demon Kings were involved with our current apocalypse would be very naive."

Ainz looked at Da Vinci carefully, waiting for further clarification, but for some reason, noticing his gaze, she only smiled at him and returned to discussing the situation with Roman, "Demon Kings as minions... Not many people capable of such a thing come to my mind…"

'Hey!' - Ainz was inwardly indignant - 'What about enlightening me on this subject?!'

"In all of history, there were indeed people capable of controlling creatures at the level of the Demon Kings," Roman replied instantly.

'What level?' - Ainz sighed internally - 'Baal... That is, the Baal of this world was not that strong…'

Or, more precisely, he was only capable of using magic which Ainz, with some leeway, could consider on the lower level of the ninth rank. It was even not that weak of a magic - and if it weren't for Ainz's complete immunity to attacks based on dark magic, he could have even scratched a player of the hundredth level a little... And if he hadn't needed to channel the spell, consuming a time comparable to the casting time of Supertier Magic to be casted. No, should he compare Baal with the Servants that Ainz has already consider as... Not always... Approached... By definition... People cut out for battle...

Now to convey his confusion without sounding offensive!

But even so, the Demon Kings did not look like an absolute champion. Someone like Cainabel or Baal could easily deal with him... Altera, perhaps with some difficulty could too. And Nero. And Arturia. And Jeanne. And the Witch... Actually, should he call the Dragon Witch 'Jeanne Alter'? How will she even react when she's called 'Jeanne Alter'?

"Yes," Da Vinci easily agreed with Roman, unaware of the thoughts rumbling in Ainz's head, "But when one speaks of Baal and of Demon Kings... The first name that comes to my mind..."

Roman who was very calm previously, suddenly hearing something in the words of Da Vinci, looked at her indignantly - "He would never have sunk to do such a thing!"

Da Vinci, unexpectedly, agreed easily and nodded. "Perhaps. More precisely, if he wanted to destroy life on Earth - he could have done it thousands of years ago, without the need to resort to such measures now."

'Hey, I'm actually still here!' - Ainz wanted to get up and wave in front of the faces of everyone sitting here, - "Maybe someone will tell me what is happening here?!"

The last sentence was spoken aloud, which made Ainz freeze in horror - fortunately, it was immediately cut off by his suppression of emotions.

'Did I say that out loud?!' Ainz froze, waiting for an answer from Da Vinci and Roman...

"Ah, chief," Roman immediately caught himself and looked at the girl, "I completely forgot about you..."

"Idiot!" The girl immediately crashed a fist on Roman's head, forcing him to howl and ineffectively tried to block the next hit, "I'm the boss here! How could you even forget about me?!"

After that, Olga-Marie looked at Da Vinci, who was watching everything that was happening with a big smile, and clicked her tongue, "Now tell me what you were talking about here?!"

'Well done, chief! Go get them, Olga! Let them know that they must speak openly and with explanations!' - Ainz inwardly gives Olga a thumbs up approvingly. The boss has become his savior at the moment.

"Ahem, yes, of course," Da Vinci nodded, after which, looking at Roman, she nodded again, "We are talking about Solomon."

Silence fell on the room - Olga, making a gloomy face, fell silent, as if something sinister had just been uttered. Roman frowned at Da Vinci, which she only shrugged in reply.

Ainz, as often as it happens in such situations, was lost.

'Solomon' - Ainz strained his memory - 'Oh yes, that is the king who could not be defeated in battle... No, wait, that was Samson! Solomon... I can't get rid of the feeling that I already heard that name somewhere ..."

Ainz most likely heard this name in Yggdrasil - but Ainz, who had remembered information about thousands of different NPCs and mobs, including even their lore, could not remember where he heard the name Solomon mentioned. Except, perhaps, once - it seems, in some of the lores he was mentioned as the son of David - or something like that? David, in turn, was a weak NPC of the fortieth level - he however had some incredible advantage in a battle against high-level players. So much so that some people openly complained about him, considering that he could be defeated by a level thirty player, but constantly beat players of the hundredth level like some kind of bug. Although Tabula told him that this was all based on something...

'I'm thinking of something unnecessary again!' - Ainz shook his head, after which he returned to observing the chief and the others.

However, contrary to his expectations, no further explanations for Olga came from Da Vinci and Roman.

"I see..." Olga only gloomily summed up, "If the King of Magic is involved in the matter... Things would definitely take a bad turn..."

'King of Magic?' - Ainz blinked. It was not a title unfamiliar to Ainz, during his time in Yggdrasil, he managed to kill a couple of Kings of Magic, a couple of Gods of Magic, several Majins, once even an Incarnate of Magic... And they were not really distinguished by any special abilities - and although some of them were bosses and they were all above the eightieth level - Ainz did not have any special memories of his battles with them. They were just ordinary opponents more or less. Although, if he were to fight them now, in another world, the fight, of course, could be completely different.

"That is just an assumption!" Roman immediately crashed into the conversation, suddenly displaying a rather sharp disagreement, "You should not blame a person for such a thing simply because of an assumption!"

"Roman," Da Vinci sighed. "If Solomon wanted to destroy humanity, he could do this in his lifetime in a hundred different ways. There is simply no sense in acting right now and in such a manner for him."

Roman was silent for a second, after which he slowly nodded, as if letting off steam, "Yes, I agree... I just..."

"I know," Da Vinci sighed, "There are only three folders in your computer that you password protected. Porn, idol videos and a complete collection of biographies about Solomon."

"What?" Roman instantly recoiled in surprise. Ainz mentally patted him on the shoulder - Roman definitely did not look like a man who could easily admit to something natural, like watching porn. Not that Ainz did not understand his mortification.

"You're a fan of Solomon," Da Vinci glanced Roman after which she frowned. "Although, to be honest, given your vast collection of information about him, this is more like an obsession. I am sure that should you have a way to summon Solomon - you would definitely be stuck to him like a starfish."

"Kh-hmm!" Roman coughed to disguise his discomfort, after which he looked away, sincerely seeking support and a distraction.

Ainz, mentally pitying Roman, decided to intervene, - "By the way, about the Singularity…"

At that moment, the gaze of all those present was focused on him and Ainz continued his question, "Regarding the Servants and the connection with Chaldea..."

Da Vinci, looking at Ainz carefully, nevertheless decided to stop bothering Roman and returned her gaze to Ainz - "Yes, regarding this."

Ainz slowly exhaled, after which he became focused in his thoughts.

While he could pick any Servant that he wants with him the new Singularity is unstable, different from the previous ones... Ainz would definitely need to take special care about which of the Servants he needed to take with him.

First and foremost, of course, Ainz did not plan to take Servants with him who had died in the previous Singularities. This facet alone has already significantly narrowed the range of possible candidates.

Then…

'Baal and Cainabel definitely,' Ainz nodded to himself. Despite the fact that during his interaction with the two of them only Cainabel showed a tendency to create problems while Baal seemed capable of finding a good common ground with the other Servants, they were also the two strongest Servants at his disposal. So this decision was unambiguous.

After he had come to this decision Ainz reached for his connection and began to comb through the parameters of the Servants.

Cainabel... Her third Noble Phantasm was still completely prohibited of course. Baal... Hm, given the instability of the Singularity - his third Noble Phantasm should also be temporarily banned. Of course, its effects are much weaker than the power of Cainabel's, but in the possibility of it interacting poorly with the instability of the Singularity it was better to play it safe.

Probably, theoretically, just picking those two was enough to deal with any situation. It is unlikely that even all the other Servants together could defeat any of them... Although, if you forbid Baal the use of his strongest Noble Phantasm, they would have a chance... No, it would not even need all of the Servants. It would only take, say, Altera, Arthuria, Nero to win a battle with Baal. Even if just both of the Jeannes fought it would be enough to defeat him, well they would have a very good chance of winning at least...

In any case, theoretically, these two Servants were quite enough for Ainz's needs, however...

'If this Singularity is at least somewhat similar to Septem, and the enemy is someone similar to Baal, then I definitely need not only strong Servants, but also smart ones - and at least a good number of Servants... Even if Baal is ideally suited for digging out information - even he cannot be everywhere all the time... Hmm…'

In other words, he needed the Servants not so much as a fighting force, but as a support. Ainz himself can deal with almost any threat - however, his strength will not mean anything if he simply cannot use it.

'In that case…' - Ainz thought about Stheno and Euryale. Ainz needed to establish further contact with them, however...

'They avoid me like their life depends on it,' Although thinking about it even more, apparently Cainabel and Altera got along well with each other. So it was definitely possible for former enemies to get along. Ainz sighed, then shook his head.

Yes after their meeting in Medusa's room, Euryale and Stheno, usually avoided Ainz with such a decent trajectory that Ainz never managed to even see them after.

'They probably need some time to cool out…' - Ainz nodded to himself. Yes, definitely, he should interact with them more, just… not right now...

In that case, another suitable option would be someone with good abilities in terms of observing and obtaining information... Hmm, mage or ranger… It is either Archer or Mozart.

Ainz took a second look at the parameters of the two candidates, after which, after thinking a little about the options available to him, he nevertheless chose Mozart instead.

Mozart had excellent skills as a support mage, which further supported Ainz's decision of choosing him. However, even so, Archer still looked like a good option. Two observers were better than one, of course...

Of course he needed to take Altera along. Not only is she sufficiently strong, she is also Cainabel's kouhai. And it seemed that Cainabel enjoyed her time teaching Altera, so who was Ainz to disrupt their time together.

Well, four Servants have already been picked out. Theoretically, that was enough...

But at the same time, all the time before this, Ainz took six Servants with him to the Singularities. Of course, from a purely theoretical point of view this was not needed right now - Singularities, whatever one may say, were still a dangerous place to be. And at the same time, were he to abandon the other Servants right now... Would Ainz not set a precedent? Something like 'Actually, I don't need you, and after you have died once in the Singularity, I will dispose of you'... Ainz was uncomfortable with endangering the Servants right now, but at the same time injuring them with his distrust was not something he wanted...

'Six it is…' - Ainz exhaled.

In fact, he had only three Servants whom he could take with him to the Singularity - Mashu, Archer and Nero...

And although, definitely, from a logical point of view, Archer, as a front line fighter with ranger skills should have been an obvious choice. Although given the fact that the logical side of the issue was not so important at the moment - thanks to Cainabel, Baal, Mozart and Ainz himself - the choice was quite obvious.

'I really want to see Nero using her skill,' Ainz nodded.

Mashu... Hmm, Mashu...

Mashu was a special case. Mashu was Ainz's first Servant. The first person to speak to him in Chaldea. The one who was next to him at the moment when he found himself in this world bewildered and in confusion. From one point of view, these facts would lead him to believe that he should have left Mashu in Chaldea, in a place where she was not in danger. On the other hand…

Mashu was probably one of the weakest Servants at the moment. Her Noble Phantasm - and even part of her skills - were unknown to her. Speaking directly, she was at the bottom of the Chaldea's Servants food chain. But still…

She tried hard. She sincerely tried. Ainz knew that she spent all her time training, sincerely trying to increase her value as a combatant. Unfortunately, this was not enough. Among the glorified killers, great magicians, powerful warriors and monsters that bewilders the imagination, Mashu was just one person. Even with all her training, she could not achieve something truly outstanding.

Perhaps that is why Ainz should give her a chance to prove herself.

"Cainabel, Baal, Altera, Mozart, Mashu and Nero," Ainz eventually nodded to himself and looked at Olga-Marie.

"Good," the chief nodded to him. "Honestly, I would like to know why you chose them... But I trust your judgement."

'I trust your judgement, ha…' - if only Ainz trusted himself as the chief trusts him...

"In that case - I will notify them," Roman rose from his seat, after which Ainz set out to do the same.

"Oh yes, by the way," but before Ainz managed to get up from the couch, Da Vinci managed to call Ainz, causing him to pause, "Ainz, may I have a second of your time?"

"Yes?" Ainz looked at Da Vinci carefully.

"Regarding the Grail - and palingenesis," Da Vinci clearly noticed the interested looks from Roman and Olga, but did not bother to explain.

"As I said, experiments on the Servants are forbidden until their usefulness and complete safety are proved," Ainz nodded gravely.

"Yes, yes, I remember," Da Vinci frivolously dismissed Ainz's words of concern, after which she glanced at him. "That's what I wanted to talk about. The fact is that there was some problem…"

Ainz looked at Da Vinci, waiting for an explanation.

"Even a natural born genius, like me," Da Vinci didn't fail to point out herself, "Sometimes an object I am investigating is required before I could conclude a theory. Theoretical calculations, alas, are not omnipotent."

Ainz continued to stare at Da Vinci, waiting for the point of her speech.

"In that case, I'm sure that you still have at least one Grail in your possession," Da Vinci looked at Ainz. He nodded a little, making Da Vinci clap his hands, "Fine! Could you give it to me to study?"

Ainz thought for a second, formulating an answer in his head, but before he could argue, Da Vinci hastened to explain, "Is this the original Grail that you received in Fuyuki?"

"Yes," Ainz said eventually.

"In this case, you don't have to worry that I will do anything permanent with the Grail," Da Vinci answered Ainz, "This is the Grail won during the Holy Grail War, which means that it chose you as a victor. I will not be able to use its power even if I wanted to. If you found the Grail by accident, then anyone could use its power, but in its current situation, I'm afraid the Grail will not recognize anyone but you."

"So..." Da Vinci looked at Ainz curiously, "Can you lend me the Grail? Just for a while."

Ainz hesitated for some time, after which he nevertheless extended his hand into his inventory - and a second later a golden goblet appeared in his hand, the Holy Grail itself.

"Excellent," Da Vinci took the goblet from Ainz's hands, after which she glanced back at Ainz, "And, by the way, about placing the connection with Chaldea... I think we should do this now - it should not take long."

"Well, I hope so," Ainz nevertheless rose from his seat, after which, looking at Roman and the boss, he smiled with that. "Can you call the Servants for now? It does not take long."

Olga-Marie only nodded to Ainz, after which he headed away from the room.

* * *

The New Singularity... Ha, humanity was destroyed and another Singularity emerged - especially given that this new Singularity was unusual relative to the rest, it should have inspired, if not horror, then at least a heavy sense of danger, like a parachute jump, not knowing whether their parachute would open or not. But actually…

"I sincerely hope that this time everything will turn out more interesting than the last," Cainabel exhaled, after which she glanced at Altera.

Altera simply nodded slowly, not taking her eyes off Ainz.

"The time has come for the Emperor of Rome to make her move ~ umu!" Nero flashed a bright smile, continuing to look at Ainz, "Lead me forward, the-one-to-whom-I-have-not-yet-come-up-with-a-title ~ umu!"

Mashu, although she did not show her joy as much as Nero, also continued to smile, looking at the audience, - "I can't believe that I get to visit another Singularity. Another adventure…"

"I can't believe that work awaits me..." in contradiction to Mashu, Mozart looked much less pleased with the prospects of the battles in the Singularity, "I hope that I will not die..."

"My friend, no need to worry," Baal smiled at Mozart, placing a comforting hand in his shoulder, "As long as you are under Ainz's protection and your humble friend, me - the only thing that could be dangerous for you is the slight frenzy and uncomplicatedness of my colleague."

"Tell me this again, burnt chicken?" Cainabel instantly cast an angry glance at Baal.

"Oh, it's just the wind my dear," Baal smiled at Cainabel, after which he looked at Ainz, "Speaking of which, will we be leaving soon?"

"We are ready," came the voice of Olga-Marie a moment later, after which Ainz nodded.

The new Singularity filled him with a sense of a new adventure...

* * *

**Skill:** _**Supertier Magic**_

Perhaps one of Ainz's strongest skills, second only to YGGDRASIL. The interweaving of concepts and forces beyond mere mortal understanding. A force created from a thorough understanding of magical laws - the unbridled power of Divine Authority - and knowledge from Root. Something that is not True Magic, not Divine Authority, and not Magecraft. Instead, something that is made from the junction of the three, incorporating their features. The Magecraft system, the power of Authority and the disregard for the laws of the universe from True Magic.

Even if Ainz possessed the parameters of an average Servant and no more skills besides this one, he would still remain one of the strongest Servants that could be called from the Throne of Heroes.

Assuming, of course, that the Throne of Heroes could even contain his spirit.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**So Ainz is going to use a supertier spell in the next singularity against a potential dangerous army to his weak servants? - No, not this one.**

**Velber vs Ainz Ooal Gown... I knew this may not happen but, Who will win? - This will not happen, but, I mean, do you really need to ask this question? Isn't it obvious?**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	77. Chapter 77

As soon as Ainz felt his feet standing on the solid ground of the Singularity he instantly looked around, trying to determine where he currently was.

After a few moments of observation Ainz had determined that he is currently in what would be best described with the phrase "uninhabited island". Ainz was currently standing on a golden yellow sand that carpeted and scattered in front of an endless blue sea stretching into the horizon. Behind him was, at a respectful distance from the location dominated by the beach, a cornucopia of vegetations rising to the sky in the form of numerous trees, shrubs and tall grass.

"Ha..." - Ainz chuckled for a moment. In Septem, he was so excited to see the sea that he has never seen before - and now, there is only the shining sea as far as the eye can see...

The problem, the only one in fact, that he could see right now was that with the boundless sea in front of him he doesn't really have any idea of where to go right now.

"The sun, the beach and the sea..." - Ainz turned to the source of the voice, seeing Mozart looking with interest at the vista of the Singularity that had opened to him. "I admit, I expected something much more sinister and strange..."

"Under any other occasion, I would suggest that we stay here for a while..." Nero sighed, after which she lit up the already light-flooded beach with a radiant smile, "But our mission cannot wait ~ umu! Ainz, what awaits us next?"

After Nero's exuberant words, the eyes of the rest of the Servants became focused on Ainz, forcing him to begin to tremble internally.

'I would like to know that myself…' - Ainz exhaled, after which he looked around the beach again.

As Ainz could see the island itself was very small, well as far as a person who never actually saw a real island could tell anyway. Ainz saw that at a certain distance, just a couple of kilometers, he could see the end of the beach, seeing only the sea instead, hopefully outlining the border of the island. In other words, the island definitely did not look too big from his vantage point.

"Well, then..." Ainz nodded. To make sure that he could take better care of the Servants, then this means that he needed to act rationally.

After a second, several small black clots separated from Ainz's shadow. These small clots, after a moment, began to slowly shape into huge birds of prey, consisting entirely of rotten flesh and in various places only bones. After they were completely formed they began to caw with a sound that can only be described as screams, they instantly soared upward.

"If you think about it, this is the second time that Senpai uses necromancy..." Mashu said softly, "Although, if it does not require bodies, can this be considered necromancy at all?.."

The four _Bone Vultures_ created by Ainz were only of the twentieth level, and therefore Ainz did not expect that they could defeat any of the opponents they could meet on the island. However, after their destruction, Ainz could determine where on this island there was something worthy of interest. Or, if the vultures had not been destroyed at all, then Ainz could determine that there was nothing interesting on the island without wasting time exploring and bothering the other Servants.

However, this process takes time - and although it was only an hour or even less, his summons would most likely cover all the island. He considered it impractical to spend this entire hour on the beach.

So, while his summons are engaged in surveillance - it was best for him to decide on where he should go now.

And before that - how to go there.

Ainz looked once again at the parameters of the Servants he brought with him, trying to find among them something suitable...

"Cainabel," Ainz turned to the girl, who is currently trying her best to blot out the sun with her umbrella "Your second Noble Phantasm... Do you have any ships?"

Cainabel, hearing the question, made an expression of grimace and displeasure, - "To my regret, when I was collecting my army, I... I was not particularly interested in a fleet…"

"Unlike my dear friend, I will certainly find just a meager ship, my lord," Baal instantly interrupted Cainabel's reply, causing her to send him an evil glare, "A whole fleet, if you wish."

"Using your third Noble Phantasm in this Singularity is temporarily prohibited," Ainz warned Baal.

Of course flying was much better than sailing nine times out of ten. But flying with no concrete direction and not knowing if they have anywhere to land is assisted suicide at best. What's worse, by flying in this cludless coverless sky they would become a beacon to any enemy in a very large distance. And even worse than that by flying it would make themselves defenseless and make scouting anything on the ground even harder.

"Hmm..." Ainz thought about it some more then shook his head. 'Apparently, there's nothing else that can be done here... oh well.'

A second later, Ainz extended his hand forward, "_Create Greater Item_."

After another moment, Ainz's magic responded to his spell as it began to surge, after which, a small black blot fell into the water of the beach. In an instant the small blot began to spread to the sides, then the enlarged darkness surged upward from the water. This dark shape began to form a frame of a ship. Then the smudge of dark frames turned into a fast-flowing black stream, outlining the matte black shapes of a ship. The dark hull which did not reflect light began to form everything that was necessary for such a ship - cabins, a steering wheel and even tall masts, on which, after a moment, large black-and-matte sails were flown. On each of the sails a golden symbol was embroidered - it looks like that of a stylized seal, the symbol of the guild Ainz Ooal Gown took its place on the sails. After another moment, when the ship was fully formed by a spell, Ainz exhaled and lowered his hand.

'Creating such large items really does take a lot of mana…' - Ainz shook his head. Making a ship with _Create Greater Item_ took him as much mana as using five spells of the tenth rank — an insignificant price for someone with his mana reserves, but given that _Create Greater Item_ was a spell of just an eighth rank — the cost of using this spell for such a trick was truly astronomically ineffective.

"Umu!" Nero's delighted exclamation resounded suddenly, "Great, that-for-who-I-still-didn't-come up-with-a-title! This ship is worthy to be my personal flagship!'

When Baal heard this, he thoughtfully lifted an eyebrow, after which he looked at Mozart and pretended to quietly inquire, "Does she realize that she has as much relation to this ship as all the other Servants?"

"Her ego makes Nero a little bit…" - Mozart tried to find the right words, - "Special in terms of perceiving the world…"

"That is one way of saying it," Baal nodded.

"She's dumber than a roadside stone," Cainabel rolled her eyes. "At least the stone didn't burn Rome."

"This is the second way of saying it," Baal impartially assessed Cainabel's words.

"Excellent!" - however, Nero, not listening to the conversations, managed to get to the ship faster than anyone else, after which, with just a small jump, she was on board, "I am the first - and that means - I declare myself captain of this ship!"

Ainz blinked at such a silly development.

Well Ainz doesn't really need to contest the captainship of the ship. After all, It's not like he has any idea of their destinations so not being the captain of the ship is no loss. And it's not like Nero being the captain gives her any actual control over the ship, Ainz could easily, with a flick of the wrist, destroy the ship completely so any mutiny would be doomed from the start.

"Good," Ainz agreed easily, after which he glanced at the rest of the Servants and, nodding, with the help of a flight spell, boarded.

* * *

Balam was in a bad mood. Well, it's not that he was usually joyful and cheerful - but today his mood was worse than usual. There were several reasons for this.

The first reason is Focalor, which annoyed him in the morning.

"Is everything prepared?" Balam hated this question with such vehemence that he almost cracked his alarmed face — it's counterpart's — with his hand — or its counterpart again.

"YES!" Balam could not resist, "YES, EVERYTHING IS READY, NOBODY SUSPECTS ANYTHING, NOBODY GUARDS ANYTHING, THE SERVANTS HAVE NO IDEA, ALL OF OUR TRACK ARE ERASED, ALL MY MAGIC IS ERASED, AND IF YOU ASK SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN - I WILL ERASE YOU FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH!

Focalor was silent for a second and Balam was able to exhale - or to produce an analogue of such a movement for the Demon Kings.

"Are you sure?" Focalor asked innocently.

"GO FUCK YOURSELF!" Balam howled, smashing into the place where Focalor was supposed to be with a powerful blow of magic. Focalor, however, demonstrating his incredible intelligence, chose to escape a little earlier.

Balam exhaled viciously several times, after which he sighed.

There was, clearly, a reason why the Demon Kings did their errands alone, uniting only under the direction of their King. Because the Demon Kings, united by a single plan and a single fidelity to the King did not have to love each other like siblings. Strictly speaking, the Demon Kings getting along with each other were the exception rather than the rule - and at the same time a very rare exception. In most cases, their relationship to each other was more like the manifestation of competition, animosity, or constant fraud. While it almost never came to open hostility between them, even if one of the Demon Kings died, the others would sooner have ridiculed him than tried to support him. Partly, of course, this was due to the fact that the Demon Kings did not believe in their mortality.

But even so, having learned that two of their ranks had died with their final death, the Demon Kings were more worried about their own lives, and not about their comrades...

Therefore, even now Focalor bothered Balam only in order to calm himself. But, since the life of Balam himself also depended on his actions - Balam, even without the constant reminders from Focalor, utilized his powers to the fullest while engaged in the preparation of the trap. And Balam was completely pleased with the final result.

Of course, his King could easily find the threads stretching from Balam to the other participants of the Singularity - but it was his King, a kind of constant and the peak of strength. And even if the unknown adversary somehow managed to find an opportunity to bypass the King on one side of his multifaceted abilities - then this would rather indicate that the King's strength in this facet of his abilities had a flaw that could be used than something else.

At least that's what Balam sincerely wanted to believe in...

In any case, after preparing such a trap, there was practically no chance that an unknown enemy would be able to bypass the nets placed on him so easily...

"Are you prepared?" Focalor's voice made Balam fall into uncontrollable rage...

* * *

"But determining the course of the sail is the captain's main duty!" Mashu genuinely tried to convey her thoughts to Nero.

"The captain must always be able to distribute duties to his deputies!" Nero objected to her.

"But you have already assigned all the responsibilities!" Mashu almost resorted to grabbing her head in frustration. "You called yourself the captain, but you gave all the duties and rights of the captain to other people! This means that now the title of captain does not mean anything!"

"Umu umu umu umu umu umu umu!" Nero closed her ears and immediately began to fire a tirade to block out Mashu's voice...

How did Altera end up in this situation?

She remembered how she fought with Mark... More precisely, with Mars, the God of War. Before that, there were only vague memories hidden in her head - in which she destroyed dozens of gods. She also remembered - with some difficulty - that she served Baal...

Altera's gaze then came upon Baal, who watched with some pleasure the actions of Mashu, trying to reason with Nero, and Nero, sincerely avoiding all attempts to convey at least a little common sense to her.

To another Baal. And her goal was to gain control over Ainz's strength and, having received from him as much information as possible, destroy him.

In other words, the question again arose in her head - how did she find herself in the current situation?

Probably the destroyed gods of Olympus had cursed her to constantly get herself into such situations...

"Oh, what a pity, my little pet got bored," Cainabel's voice brought Altera out of her thoughts, "Or not, wait a minute, problems of outdated software? If you are buggy, then I will definitely take you apart to see what exactly has gone wrong with you."

Altera turned her gaze toward Cainabel, who was next to her.

Cainabel was another unexpected factor in Altera's worldview. Because, before meeting with her, Altera sincerely believed that there could be no creatures like her at all. And yet Cainabel was quite real, material, and, unfortunately, in fact, was the current mistress of Altera.

Looking at Altera carefully, Cainabel sighed and rolled her eyes, leaning back at one of the rails on a ship moving slowly along the waves.

"Hey, pet, I'm bored," Cainabel turned to Altera, after which she looked at her with a frown, "Dance for me."

Altera blinked, and then glanced at Cainabel carefully, "What kind of dance exactly?"

"I don't know," Cainabel shook her hand in the air. "Striptease?"

Altera blinked, then nodded slowly, "Okay..."

But a voice that rose as if from nowhere did not give her the opportunity to engage in such an act.

"Bearing in mind that you called Altera 'pet' and now ask her to dance a striptease, should I tell my master that you are into bestiality?" Baal kept a slight smile on his face while uttering these words, because of which his overt insult sounded more like a friendly joke.

"Come again, burnt chicken?!" Cainabel looked at Baal with undisguised hatred, "Or is your courage manifested only in third-party remarks?"

"No," Baal smiled a big smile, "My courage comes when I know that you cannot kill me. And oh god, look at the time!"

After that, Baal rolled up his sleeve pointedly, glancing at his empty wrist without a watch.

"It's time to convey that you are trying to rape the Servant entrusted to you!" Baal smiled, looking at Cainabel.

"Oh, are you envious?" Cainabel did not deny what was said, instead going on the attack, "Indeed, after all, you were emasculated upon the orders of the Eighth Emperor... By the way he was a lovely fellow - he loved to talk about how easy it was to crush you in battle!"

Baal's smile faded for a second from mentioning a sour fact of his biography before returning to its place "Indeed, however, I was summoned up as strong as before. Which, of course, cannot be said about you - O True Ancestor Of Failure."

"VAMPIRES!" Cainabel immediately rushed forward, grabbing Baal by the neck and lifting him into the air, making him cough from the pain of a strangled throat, "IF YOU DARE TO SQUANDER MY TITLE THEN I WILL..!"

"What is happening?" Ainz's appearance next to the two Servants made them freeze for a second.

"Friendly spat," Baal grunted through a strangled throat, smiling.

"Training sparring," Cainabel answered Ainz also calmly, continuing to hold Baal aloft on her outstretched arm.

"Oh, ahem, I see..." - Ainz froze for a second, after which he looked at Altera. "They are not bothering you?"

Altera, who was the least significant variable in this situation, blinked, after which she slowly shook her head.

"Good," Ainz nodded, after which he looked at the two Servants, Cainabel, who continued to hold Baal on an outstretched arm, and Baal, who continued to smile, "Of course, ahem, if your communication happens this way, then I won't interfere, but... I ask, can you be somewhat less... Loud?"

The message of such a request was clear to both Cainabel and Baal.

"You are free to fight each other as much as you want and how you want, as long as it doesn't bother me."

"Of course, my lord, how could it be otherwise?" Cainabel blurted out with a smile, after which, for a second, clutching her hand on Baal's neck a little stronger than before, she let him go.

Baal, having fallen from Cainabel's grip, cleared his throat a little, after which he still got up and looked at Ainz with the same unchanging smile that he always kept on his face. "No problems, my lord, everything will be done as you will."

"Good," Ainz nodded, after which, once again giving Altera a look, he headed off.

And Altera kept thinking.

How exactly did she end in this situation?..

* * *

Mozart continued to enjoy the incredible vista of the ocean in front of him, the light salty sea breeze and the sun's rays illuminating his face.

With pleasure, Mozart closed his eyes, exposing his face to the rays of the sun. His long golden hair was pleasantly ruffled by a gentle wind...

Bang!

With a loud sound, another Servant landed right next to him, forcing Mozart to slightly open his eyes.

Mashu seemed exhausted, as if she had just fought in ten battles at once, but Mozart knew much better than anyone else that the reason for such a fatigue was completely different.

"This is simply impossible!" Mashu breathed indignantly, "Nero does not listen to me at all!"

"Yeah," Mozart assented, not opening his eyes fully, enjoying the sea breeze.

"I simply tried to convey a simple truth to her, but she just can't ever admit that I was right!" Mashu looked at Nero, who continued to do in the distance what she thought the captain should be doing. That is, strictly speaking, nothing useful.

"Absolutely," Mozart answered calmly.

"She doesn't listen to anyone at all," - Mashu thought for a second, - "Besides, probably, Ainz."

"Exactly so," Mozart felt as a gust of wind patted his neck.

"I'm generally wondering if I should just leave Nero alone in this case..." Mashu breathed out thoughtfully.

"Rightly so," Mozart sighed.

"Hey!" Mashu turned to Mozart, "Are you even listening to me?!"

"Naturally," Mozart exhaled, after which he felt a sharp movement of a hand shaking him, "Hey, I'm really listening! With my ears, I could not help but hear you even if I didn't want to."

After that, Mashu looked at him in surprise, "Then why do you answer only with such simple answers?"

"I simply answered with what I actually think," Mozart exhaled, then, realizing that his sense of calm pleasure had passed, he opened his eyes, "and I think you should not bother Nero with something as banal as "logic"."

"But..." Mashu blinked in confusion, "Why?"

"Because it is a futile task to try to argue with a Servant," Mozart breathed out, "Especially someone who has such an... Interesting view of the world as Nero."

"But…" - Mashu tried to find an objection to Mozart's answer, - "It's just illogical! She declared herself the captain, and then entrusted Ainz with control of the crew. Which is logical, given that the entire crew is made up of his Servants. Then she gave up controls of the ship, determining the course of the ship. But now, with nothing to do, she can not calm down, calling herself the captain of the ship! This is simply illogical!"

Mozart, when he heard the tirade, sighed, "Mashu, I must admit, I don't know you so well - but for the time that I spent with you, you didn't seem to me particularly fixated on "logical" behavior."

"Well, ahem," - Mashu coughed a little, - "Such a thing is not important to the core of the question…"

Mozart blinked, after which he turned his eyes to the distant waters of the ocean, "Then what does this concern?.."

"Ahem..." Mashu then became silent.

Mozart, however, knew that she would continue to speak, so he did not rush her, continuing to look at the ocean. Ah, he liked this Singularity so far...

"It is simply wrong..." Mashu finally managed to construct her thoughts while looking away, "Senpai was supposed to be the captain..."

Mozart blinked, then shook his head - 'Ah, there it is…'

"But, as far as I can understand - Ainz seems not too eager to be a captain," Mozart shrugged.

"Yes, but at the same time he was entrusted with all the duties of a captain - and he was not given the title of captain!" Mashu stamped her foot, after which she looked at Mozart indignantly.

Mozart froze for a second from such illogical words, and then smiled, "This is... A little bit too childish, don't you think so, Mashu?"

Mashu, hearing the words, looked away, "But how can he not be the captain?! This... This is wrong, I read that it should be different!"

Mozart shook his head. "Reality and books differ much more often than one might think."

Mashu exhaled, and then looked at Mozart carefully, - "But it should not be so!"

"Ideally, of course, it shouldn't," Mozart easily agreed with her, "But we, I'm afraid, do not live in an ideal world. Expectation and reality intersect in general much less often than anyone might want."

Mashu frowned, and then shook her head, looking at Mozart, "But it's just... dishonest!"

"Life is a dishonest thing," Mozart shrugged, and then looked at Mashu, "I understand that you want to give Ainz something pleasant..."

"Ahem!" Mashu began to cough at the unexpected reply as soon as Mozart mentioned it, but he continued to speak.

"But, apparently, he is living quite well, even without the title of captain" Mozart looked at Mashu supportively, after which, making sure that she heard him, looked away, "Nero cannot be convinced anyway, so it's better find another way to give Ainz something pleasant."

"Okay," Mashu nodded, after which Mozart smiled and closed his eyes.

Ah, the sun and the sea and complete peace...

"In that case, Mr. Mozart," Mashu nodded. "What is a better way to please Ainz?.."

And no way to enjoy it...

* * *

Ainz hoped that Nero, who had assumed the title of captain, would take charge of the ship's management. Naturally, his expectations turned out to be meaningless...

"I have no idea where we are going..." - The four created _Bone Vultures_, having examined the island and not finding anything interesting on it, were already dispelled. So Ainz had to create four more and send them around his ship making them fly at a decent height and distance, hoping to at least find anything around the sea. Unfortunately, so far, everything that Ainz saw around was a boundless sea without any hint of changes on the horizon. Also…

"I was not even given the title of captain!" - Ainz frowned slightly offended. No, he was not opposed to cede the captain's title to another person... If such a person would do the duties of the captain. But Nero, declaring herself the captain, instantly lost interest in controlling the ship, leaving the job on Ainz's shoulders. Ainz was not happy about this turn of events - especially considering that the only possible consolation in such conditions, the title of captain, was literally stolen from under his nose!

Ainz frowned once more, after which, slightly adjusting the course and speed of the ship with magic - one of the positive aspects of creating things with the help of spells - then he sighed.

"I have no idea where we are going, what we are doing and what our goal is..." - Ainz thoughtfully nodded to himself. If his body could withstand magic of the tenth rank, then he would definitely now use some kind of spell like _Blessings of Titania _or_ Lead of Yatagarasu_, showing the path to his goal... But, unfortunately, his body could not withstand such spells. Which, of course, was disappointing - since without any clues Ainz would plow these seas for who knows how long. Only some crazy amount of luck could now lead him to...

One of the _Bone Vultures_ instantly vanished, giving Ainz the feeling that it had just been destroyed.

Ainz blinked, then looked up at the sky.

Among the clear blue sky there was still the unknown black abyss.

Sometimes Ainz wondered why it was that his luck was not at all natural for someone of his position...

* * *

**Skill: _Supertier Magic_**_ (A+++)_

Although it may seem strange that the skill responsible for almost omnipotent power has not reached the EX rank, this is the peculiarity of the Supertier magic. In itself, this skill is responsible for controlling such omnipotent-like forces, before which many mysteries fade and True Magic pales, Divine Authority and Magecraft recede, giving way to its supremacy. In other words, the EX skill rank denoting the "incomprehensible power of ability" simply cannot be applied to a skill whose very essence lies in incomprehensible power. In other words, the rank of the skill A+++ is the highest applicable in this case. However, anything higher is definitely not required for a skill whose essence is omnipotent strength.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Will the guild members be summoned to Chaldea? - Absolutely no.**

**A few comments - lol. It seems like now I'm not allowed to comment on other works and state my opinion about them. And for violating this rule I'm now punished by the greatest weapon of the Internet. Faceless anons' shitposting.**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	78. Chapter 78

Unfortunately, a summoned creature like the _Bone Vulture_ did not give Ainz any other information other than the fact that it was destroyed, so Ainz himself was not sure what he was supposed to find in the last position that the _Bone Vulture_ had been in. Maybe the vulture was killed in one blow, and equally as possible that it managed to survive in a long and fierce battle, in which it died only by accident. If Ainz had used the "_Undead Slave Sight_" he would have been able to control the undead like a puppet, but such an ability would have needed Ainz's direct control. And since he still needed to pay close attention to his surroundings, he was forced to simply use the summons as a net to blindly gather information. Namely, by the fact that for whatever reason, his summoned undead were destroyed.

Of course, while the destruction of the summoned creature should be taken as an act of hostility, Ainz was fully aware that the undead summoned by him looked like a crazed monster to most people. So while his summoned creature was destroyed, it doesn't naturally mean that the one that destroyed it was an enemy. And given Ainz's very non-confrontational nature - he sincerely believed that he would be able to establish peaceful contact with these new people.

If not... Well, data crystals were also a very useful find.

The ship under Ainz's control moved with incredible grace, easily dissecting the waves and ignoring the weak wind that should have hindered it's path, easily moving at a speed enviable even for modern, to Ainz, ships. The ship easily sailed through tens of kilometers in a matter of moments. Fortunately, being created by a spell, Ainz's ship was protected from the many unpleasant accompanying problems of moving at such speeds, like wind or sea waves. And therefore, after only a dozen minutes, Ainz could see a black dot slowly rising on the horizon.

After seeing his quarry, Ainz slightly reduced the speed of the ship and, regretting the lack of a powerful scout with the ability to see far-away things like Archer, extended a hand to his inventory. A second later, a huge mirror the size of a grown man appeared in his hands - the heavily gold-framed _Mirror of Remote Viewing_ hung in the air when Ainz released it from his hands.

"Wow!" Nero, who appeared just a moment later next to Ainz, looked at the new shiny toy with childish enthusiasm, "You have a lot of treasures up in your sleeves ~ umu!"

Ainz felt a small amount of pride when he heard these praises, it made a smile to appear on his face, while he nodded. "This mirror comes in handy in my work."

After a second, the mirror, which at first only reflected the appearance of Ainz and Nero, changed. The mirror which before only shows the reflection of those who stand before it now shows something else instead - his backside, a feat impossible to a normal mirror. A second later, raising his hands to the mirror, Ainz was able to slightly change the image shown, after which, with a couple of manipulations, the invisible observer from behind Ainz rose from its position and went forward at an incredible speed.

"Magnificent! The many applications I can see for such a thing ~ umu!" Nero's exuberant voice made Ainz smile, but her further remark caused his smile to slightly distort, "Finally, a mirror in which you can see how you look from behind! "

"Ahem..." - Ainz nodded, "I suppose it can be used like that, of course... But usually it is used for other things."

"Espionage is such an unreasonable affair," Nero thoughtfully waved Ainz off. "But many people would have sold their souls for the opportunity to see themselves from behind in the mirror!"

Ains, not sure how he should react to such a remark, only nodded in reply, and then looked at the mirror.

A moment later, in front of Ainz, a clearer picture of that "black dot" seen earlier on the horizon appeared. And it seems that it was not just one thing ..

"Huh, it's a whole fleet!" - Ainz felt his surprise being suppressed, after which he looked even more attentively at the image before him. The black dots on the horizon they are approaching turned out to be ships - a whole host of ships, at least several dozens in various sizes. Moreover, each ship looked very impressive - Ainz was by no means a military historian, but he assumed that the ships, which looked as if it had just stepped off the pages of a historical chronicle, was festooned with three or even four masts several tens of meters long, was supposed to be very large.

Ainz then looked at his ship to compare. No matter the way you see it, Ainz's ship, despite the fact that it cost a huge amount of mana to create, was much smaller, barely reaching three tens of meters in length and possessing only two masts. In addition, Ainz's ship didn't have any defensive weapons - the creation of magically enchanted guns or autonomous guards would require Ainz to use data crystals, and the final result would be very ineffective without the bonuses from crafting classes. To compare, all the ships he could see on the horizon carried on board several dozen cannons. On the other hand, Ainz could console himself a little that the objects created by his spells had a strength superior to that of Adamant, so a simple powder weapon would have to try very hard to sink his ship... However, to Ainz, being stronger than Adamant is not that great of a boast. In Yggdrasil, albeit rarely, one could still see Players of the fortieth level carrying Adamant equipment...

In any case, another look at the mirror allowed Ainz to identify the ship which, apparently, at the very least also participated in the murder of his summon. At least such a fact was hinted at by the presence of a person who was currently standing in the very center of the deck, continuing to look with interest at the sky. No, taking a closer look, Ainz noticed that the figure was not alone and another figure was approaching the person looking with interest at the sky. With that observation done, Ainz pulled the mirror's vantage point back a little to see a couple more large ships separated from the main mass, approaching the leading one.

"Calico Jack" - shifting the observer's position a little, Ainz looked at the inscription on board the ship, and then he looked closer to the figure that he spotted earlier, with a closer look it turned out to be a female.

A female of medium height with a luxurious mane of golden hair, almond-colored eyes and a burgundy camisole, wide open so as not to hide...

'Where did she get such a big chest?!' - Ainz felt how his suppression of emotions, which usually intervened in moments of panic, rage and confusion, had to manifest itself when he looked at the girl's really huge… Goods. However, this did not happen because of his libido suddenly bursting out, but because of the real shock that he experienced when he saw in reality a chest the size of the head of an adult man. In duplicate, as expected of a female breast.

"I don't like her anymore," Nero said, next to Ainz.

"And to me - it's quite the opposite," the voice of Mozart, calmly approaching from the other side of the mirror, sounded much more interested than the voice of Nero.

Unfortunately, the mirror could not transmit sounds, so Ainz could not hear the girl's voice. But he could see a huge old musket, that looked disproportionately large in her hands, appeared in her hands. As much as Ainz could tell, the musket was clearly longer than the girl herself was tall - and, judging by the light haze still rising from the muzzle of the musket, it was responsible for the death of the Bone Vulture, it was clear to Ainz that his summon was shot.

After a second, another character appeared in the field of view of the mirror. To Ainz's surprise it was a girl of very short stature, about the height of Cainabel. However, since the one who just appeared was wrapped up completely in a closed gray cloak with a high collar that hid the entire lower half of her face, it was difficult to say. Only her turquoise eyes and frowning eyebrows, as well as short white hair, were clearly visible. On the belt that held her cloak closed hung a blade wrapped in red paper that was — again, disproportionately large to her, the curved saber was almost the size of the girl herself.

Apparently, the girl wrapped in a cloak, said something, causing the girl with a musket and more than outstanding breasts to laugh and wave her hands in response.

"They look to be in a pretty peaceful mood..." - Ainz nodded, after which he thought. He definitely should make some kind of contact with the newly-found Servants… At least he thinks that they are Servants, though their 'unique' appearance suggests such. However, formally, they still had attacked his summon. Of course, Ainz did not consider this a significant detail, but it was not known whether the two girls in front of him considered it something worthy to call offense about... Moreover, Ainz was definitely not the best person to negotiate, so, looking away from the mirror, Ainz looked at a much more suitable Servant to address such issues.

* * *

Teleporting, to Baal, was as natural as trying to walk with his own feet - and, more importantly, much more efficient in terms of time and effort.

Therefore, moving to the newly discovered opponents on their ship was a very easy act for Baal. Moreover - he was very joyful - for a simple reason. His goal was to find out as much information as possible and, if possible, persuade a possible adversary with the possibility of an alliance. Or really submission, if you were to compare these two 'Servants' with the real capabilities of Ainz and his Servants, then only total submission would make sense. In itself, this act was not only easy enough - and, most importantly to Baal, it served as an excellent card that he could play against Cainabel. In other words, the mission entrusted to him could not but cause Baal to smile and joyfully anticipate the moment when he would be able to climb another step, a position in which he would find it more convenient to spit on Cainabel.

Therefore, when he arrived on the deck of ship of his targets and he found his chest being pierced by the short cloaked girl's blade, Baal did not experience a single bad emotion.

"Who are you?" The girl's voice was slightly muffled because of her high collar, but still quite distinguishable.

"Well, if you wanted to ask such a thing, why did you start right away with poking with sharp pieces of iron?.." Baal sighed mockingly while looking at the girl. Hmm, yet another fact of her appearance struck Baal - the girl's face, hidden behind a high collar, was obliquely crossed by a large old scar - however, it does not particularly spoil her appearance in Baal's eyes, - "As for who I am... Hm, as they say - **Speak of the Devil**..."

A wonderful feature of the first Noble Phantasm of Baal was the amazing invisibility of its activation. No one felt a single change in the mana surrounding them - but Baal seized the initiative when his Noble Phantasm was activated.

"Who are you, I ask again?" The blade in the girl's hands, however, was a little weakened at the moment when Baal did not demonstrate his danger.

"My name is Baal, my title is that of the Seventh Uninheritable Demon Emperor," Baal stepped back, flourishing with a bow, and then looked at two girls, "Now, please, will you tell me your names? It seems to me that politeness should be answered by politeness…"

The girl who had previously held the blade at Baal's chest nevertheless slowly lowered it and exhaled, - "Mary Reed."

After a second, a second one, a full-bosomed blonde, who still held a musket in her hands, approached Baal and started introducing herself with a smile- "Anne Bonny. And now I ask - who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Oh, of course I am ready to answer all your questions," Baal nodded slowly, "I am only a Servant under the control of my Master. I believe the same will be true for you?.."

"We don't have a Master," Anne answered calmly, not noticing how easily she answered the stranger's questions.

'Hm, apparently... They make a single Servant together…'

"Fascinating!" Baal smiled, looking at the two girls at once, "As for my goal, it is simple. I arrived here by order of my Master to make a friendly contact."

"If you are from that golden bastard, you can pack up and run away from the ship right now," Mary answered coldly, while still lowering her blade completely.

'So they don't know about the problems of the Singularity, they are fighting against a certain "golden bastard", man... There is too little data to analyze.'

"Oh, I can assure you that my Master is not golden and not a bastard at all," smiled Baal, "and he has never crossed paths with you at all."

"The golden bastard didn't cross paths with us," Anne answered, leaning on her musket, after which she looked at the slowly approaching large ship, "He crossed paths with the Admiral - and she is very angry with him for that."

'Pirates, admiral of the pirate fleet... There are not many candidates for such a role - especially considering that there were not so many naval commanders among the pirates. Perhaps the most famous of these is…'

"IN THE NAME OF THE WORLD GOVERNMENT, YOU ARE ARRESTED FOR VIOLATING THE PIRATE CODE OF GRAN BLU!" - After the very loud shout, a man suddenly jumped aboard the Calico Jack. He wore a luxurious blue admiral's uniform with an excellent body and looked to be pressed with a steel press, and while the uniform itself was impressive, the man was anything but. He wore a completely stupid look in his eyes, with an unkempt large black beard and mustache on his face, and his hair looked completely dirty and was currently disheveled by the wind - "Just to think, you have the privelege of Fleet Admiral D Teach himself judging you all by pirate laws!"

"Him again..." Anne, who had previously been smiling at Baal, instantly rolled her eyes as soon as the newcomer appeared on the deck next to her.

Baal spent several seconds studying what had just appeared, after which, having come to a certain conclusion, he smiled a little with a shake of his head in a hint of a respectful bow, "Edward Teach, I assume?"

Teach, hearing his name, rolled his eyes, and then approached Baal. Surprisingly, despite his seeming thinness, he decently towered in height over Baal, appearing to exceed two meters in height.

"Blackbeard, I prefer to be called by the nickname," After that instant reply Blackbeard began to look suspiciously at Baal, "And what is an ikemen doing in our fleet here?! Do take into account that these two are a hardcore yuri-pair, even my charms honed by years of 4chan do not work on them, they could not be seduced by men at all."

Baal blinked, trying to catch the reason for such a conversation. All of Baal's intelligence could not fathom why Edward Teach, the most terrifying pirate widely known by the nickname Blackbeard, would be talking about such a thing. No, of course, as a properly summoned Servant, he had received all the information that was supposed to help him with modern culture, but Blackbeard's manner of speaking somewhat unsettled him.

"Teach, shut up," Mary's voice sounded angry, but in the current situation, Baal could not blame her for this, "Keep a distance of three meters from me. If you come any closer, I'll kill you."

"Even the Yonko would not be able to win a battle with the Shichibukai so easily!" Teach instructively raised a finger up.

Baal thought for a second, trying to remember exactly what this reference was to, before the answer to the puzzle in his head took shape.

'How interesting, what unexpected details…' - "Speaking of which, about this…"

"STFU ikemen!" Teach instantly reacted, after which he turned to Bonny. "What happened here, by the way?"

"About this, Baal was trying to tell you," Anne, clearly annoyed by the appearance of Blackbeard, tried to interrupt his conversation, "And if you interrupt us again, I will tell the captain that you tried to touch us again ."

"2ch is dead, they can't stand even a little bit of shitposting," Teach rolled his eyes, then looked at Baal, "Well, what do you want, ikemen?"

Baal thought over the words of Blackbeard. He was capable of understanding demonic speech - and he hears them more often than you might think, Cainabel sometimes cursed using it. Enochian - usually in battle, when he killed another armada of angels. And a couple of unpronounceable languages of the Alien Gods - rarely used, but Baal had to do it.

And not one of these languages caused such a strange rejection and misunderstanding as the language used by Blackbeard.

"Indeed, as they say - **Speak of the Devil**..." - Baal used his Noble Phantasm once more, after which he smiled, "In general, I wanted to find out about what you are currently doing with the whole fleet..."

"We were tracking this one asshole," Teach sighed. "He stole something of great value from the Yonko!"

'There are not many things of great value in the Singularity…'

Baal smiled. "Oh, I see. A debt of honor…"

"Something like," Blackbeard yawned, after which he looked once again at Baal, "Damn, I thought that it would be a good fight, flew in with such an edgy battlecry!"

"Hang me if you are not a disgusting cockroach," Mary looked at Blackbeard with contempt, "What Yonko? What are you talking about?!"

"No matter whom I ask - no one knows about One Piece! What for do you live so long at all then…" Blackbeard muttered offendedly, and then turned toward Baal, - "So what did you say there, ikemen?"

"I think it's really best for me to discuss this with your admiral," Baal smiled when he saw a Servant coming to Calico Jack from the largest ship in the fleet. The last of the Servants in this fleet, if his senses has not failed him at least..

"In the name of Francis Drake, if someone doesn't explain to me what is happening in my fleet right now — I will fucking hang you all, motherfuckers!," the appearance of the loudest person announced to Baal that his assumption was true.

"The most famous great naval commander and pirate," Baal glanced at the girl approaching him, "Francis Drake."

The girl wore a bright red camisole on her shoulders, her pink hair descended to the level of her lower back, and, being completely unkempt, lay in complete disarray. Her huge breasts — even larger than Anne's — almost jumped out of her clothes at her every step, and in her blue eyes, on a face crossed by a huge old scar that almost divided her face in half, reflected bewilderment, anger and some interest.

"Anne Bonny, Mary Reed - as one Servant, Edward Teach, and Francis Drake' - Baal smiled - 'Only Bartholomew Roberts is missing for the full picture... Well, what can you do, this is real life after all.'

Baal smiled, after which he canceled his Noble Phantasm. He had already received all the information that he wanted. And most importantly, during the conversation between the Servants he had enough time to examine each of the Servants in much more detail than anyone could have imagined.

Yes, he could not easily study magic signatures like Da Vinci and was not so skilled, in truth, in magic... But mindfulness was a very important skill - for demons and for emperors. And if you live and experience as much as he had lived and experienced - then you definitely learn to notice various small details. Therefore, he should pass some information to Ainz...

The score is one zero in favor of Baal.

* * *

Teleporting, to Ainz, was very easy even when considering the need to transfer all his Servants temporarily aboard another ship. Fortunately, his spell-crafted ship was still fully under his control even at a distance, so Ainz was not worried about the need to leave it unchecked.

No, Ainz was currently worried for another reason.

"Fight me," these words and the pistol aimed at him — judging by its appearance, was from the golden era of pirates — met Ainz the moment when his legs touched the ship.

Ains blinked at the unexpected change in the situation in front of him and then looked at the one who had demanded a battle from him - Francis Drake - "I'm sorry?"

"I said - fight me," Drake just grinned, not even changing her pose and still continuing to point her gun at Ainz.

"Ahem," Ainz shook his head, "but I arrived as an ally..."

"Fight first, then talk," Drake continued to grin, not even changing her expression an iota, while moving her pistol a little to the side, pointing it at Cainabel. She, having seen such an action, only grinned, "Whatever you would like and what you were planning to tell me, I am ready to listen to you only after you prove to me that I should bother listening to you. Prove to me that you have the power to make me listen - and then we'll talk."

Ainz blinked in confusion once more.

No, of course he was 'lucky' enough to meet not one or two NPCs operating with the logic "prove your strength, and after that we will listen to you". And he had even met some players with the same mentality, like his guildmate Takemikazuchi, who valued a good battle above all tactics and agreements. But, frankly, in this new world Ainz forgot a little about the existence of such a personality.

"Ahem, I see," Ainz nodded, after which he looked at Drake, who only smirked in response to his actions , "I understand."

Despite the many interesting abilities of the various Servants, Ainz was confident that victory over Drake, if necessary, would be given to him without any problems. However, at the same time...

'It can lead to many extraneous problems,' Ainz looked at his surroundings. The easiest way to deal with the Servants without killing them was a spell like "Ethereal Form", but this spell was of the ninth rank. In other words, Ainz could not cast it at the enemy without putting his body at risk. It would be nice to also be able to win by casting one of the spells for restricting the movement of the target, but Ainz was not sure that he would be able to defeat anyone this way. As Altera's fight with Cainabel showed, a Servant could well have a way around these actions.

And, of course, a battle with combat spells was absolutely forbidden - just one spell like "_Explosion_" could wipe out a dozen of the ships from the face of the earth. In other words, the only choice Ainz was left with...

"Okay," Ains nodded, after which he glanced at Drake. "Will you fight with your Servants against me?"

"Depends on how many of your summoned friends would fight on your side," Drake grinned.

'Hmm, she somehow had managed to determine that I was a necromancer or summoner..." - Ainz felt a prick of apprehension - 'In that case... I'd better fight seriously.'

For a second Ainz felt Baal trying to contact him, but he dismissed it, he needed all the concentration he had. Ainz then took a step forward, "In that case... I'm ready."

Drake looked at him, then shifted her gaze to the Servant behind Ainz and spread a wide smile, "Ha, you are a damn brave guy! Alright, show me what you got!"

After that, Drake symbolically lowered her hands, giving Ainz the opportunity for a first strike. Ainz did not bother acting like a noble knight and took full advantage of the opportunity to the fullest.

After a second, Drake, who was before looking at Ainz with an easy smile, fell to her knees, after which she fell to the ground.

The alleged battle took less than one second.

Silence reigned on the ship. On the part of Anne, Mary and Teach - out of shock, on the part of Mozart and Mashu - out of surprise, on the part of Altera -of understanding, on the part of Nero - of admiration - and only on the part of Baal and Cainabel was the silence out of boredom. They were the only ones who know such an unbalanced fight would end.

Ainz blinked, then glanced at the collapsed Drake, who was still lying on the ground. "Huh?"

Ains planned not to stretch the battle for too long - first he was to open the battle with "_Remote Paralysis_" to determine Drake's resistance to magic and abilities that limited her actions. Then, after determining whether this type of affliction would be useful, summon undead of the appropriate type, and then strengthen its abilities while retreating to a position where he could act from the back rows. And finally when the next Servant would intervene in the battle, use teleportation on him to place him at some distance from Ainz, giving Ainz the opportunity to deal with Drake before he needs to deal with the teleported Servant.

His plans broke on the first point when Drake fell to the ground from the effect of his spell.

"Are you still planning to simply look at the girl lying at your feet?!" - Blackbeard looked at Ainz indignantly, - "Either remove the paralysis - or use it to the fullest!"

"Shut your filthy mouth," Mary sent Blackbeard an indignant look, forcing him to roll his eyes and murmur something under his breath.

Ainz, not completely sure of the correctness of his actions, lifted the spell from Drake. After which, feeling a little awkward from what had just happened, took a step towards the girl while giving her a hand to lift herself. Drake slowly raised one hand in response, after which she took off the ground and...

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" - the first thing Ainz saw when Drake lifted her face was an expression of sincere surprise and joy, accompanied by sincere laughter, "Damn me if that was not a fun defeat!"

Ainz looked at the girl a little confusedly, expecting words of bitterness from her.

"Damn, it was either self-confidence that struck me in the head — or I was lucky enough to run into the most badass motherfucker in these seas!" Drake, not a single bit upset by her loss, looked at Ainz, while keeping a huge smile on her face, rising from the ground, "Well, so we had decided whether I will listen to you or not."

Ainz then began to prepare to speak. Well, that was before he was caught completely unprepared by Drake's next words..

"What's your orders, Admiral?" Drake glanced at Ainz, still holding a huge smile.

"Ha?" Was the voice that came simultaneously from the Servants of Ainz.

Blackbeard, retaining a sour expression on his face sighed, - "But I wanted to beat her myself and become the admiral…"

"Ha?" This voice then came separately from Baal, who blinked in incomprehension.

"The admiral was replaced, long live the Admiral," Bonny and Reed said quietly enough, but clearly.

"HAAAAAA?!" Lastly the loudest voice belonged to Ainz himself.

* * *

**Skill: _Supertier Magic_**_ (A +++) (Case)_

As expected, the reason for the existence of this skill is purely because of the game Yggdrasil. As in the game, Ains has thirty super-tier magic spells, four of which he can cast once per day. Perhaps the only difference from the game conventions of this skill is its connection with "Yggdrasil" and the fact that [DATA_CORRUPTED]

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Seeing as current Zeltrech is past his peak as a magician after his fight with crimson moon, what would there level both be? - I have no info to accurately judge it.**

**Altera's relationship with Cainabel is kinda making me uncomfortable... - Exactly as it should.**

**Uh so Cainabel and Baal have memories of other OP players? - Yes**

**If Ainz is this terrifying, what would Ulbert and Tanula be like..? - Ainz is very terrifying due to his lore and in-game achievements. OP-payers may be very terrifying too, but there are very few equally powerful by their lore beings as Momonga and close to none that can stand toe-to-toe with AOG.**

**Lol the author says that he is not allowed to comment his opinion while the only thing he is doing is just copy pasting someone else's comment into other authors' stories - Are you referring to my comment that other people answered me with?**

**Does Baal literally have no dick? - Now he has.**

**Is this version of ainz kinder than his canon counterpart? - IDK, I'll let the other people judge this.**

**Will there be any lemons for Ainz? - Probably, but not explicitly written.**

**Will we ever see Ainz so mad that his actions would eclipse the level of pain and suffering that he made Medusa's sisters go through, like for example, denying an opponent the sweet release of death? - There is some plan to trigger Ainz ultra-hard once in the future - but we already look in the future way too much.**

**Got nothing to say but keep up the good work, wait what work was it you commented on? - The one you mentioned in your review, about Ainz in the NW 10 years before Nazarick.**

**Cainabel is really the worst character. Any chances of killing her off? - Absolutely zero percent.**

**If ainz can summon creature from yggdrasil, couldn't he summon new World item with the grail? - No.**

**Are you planning ainz to summon abby and hokusai in the future ? - I want to do it in the future with Abby at least, but no promises.**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	79. Chapter 79

The procession of incredulous events forced Ainz suppression of emotion to activate, allowing Ainz to slowly exhale and calm down

'This…' - Ainz looked at Drake, who continued to look at him with a huge grin - 'This... Is such a thing really supposed to work like this?'

On the one hand, The Great Tomb of Nazarick, his guild base - and part of his current Noble Phantasm - were obtained exactly in such a way. Ainz Ooal Gown, who had just established themselves as a guild, had conquered the Great Tomb of Nazarick Dungeon, after which, as a reward for clearing the dungeon they received the right to use the tomb as a guild base. They later expanded it to its current finished form that was part of Ainz's Noble Phantasm. As Ainz had encountered such a thing before - it was impossible to say that Ainz never faced 'the winner becomes king'- kind of logic, but at the same time, up to this point, Ainz never thought that this logic could be applied to his current situation and this new world.

'Although…' - Ainz thought, recalling the lore of Yggdrasil - 'Quite a lot of beastmen tribes choose their kings by battle royale... And not to mention that most of all the kingdoms of Yggdrasil were formed when there was a powerful warrior who was able to unite a large group of people in one conquering campaign... '

'Well, in that case such a thing occurring now is not really extraordinary…' - Ainz slowly exhaled once more, after which he looked at Drake again. She, having caught his attention, only nodded towards Blackbeard, - "By the way, if you want to throw him into the sea - just tell me, I will do it with the utmost joy."

"Shut up, old hag, I'm helpful!" Blackbeard instantly spat out a curse at Drake.

"You were a captain only because we had too few Servants before now," Drake did not let the insult bother her, "Now, when this problem has been resolved, I vote to hang you on the nearest post."

"There are no posts in the sea, idiot," Blackbeard snorted.

"We'll find one just for you," Drake answered instantly.

Baal glanced at Ainz, and seeing… something, he took a step forward, "I'm sorry, but as my lord's deputy, I believe that I will be given the privilege to bring the majority's sentence to execution..."

"Hold, Ikemen!" Blackbeard instantly recoiled, after which he looked at him in surprise, "Bros before hoes!"

"Isn't it good in this case that you and I have not managed to become "bros" yet?" Baal smiled, "Indeed, of course, how could I testify against my friend..."

"Wait a minute, discount Satan," Cainabel sharply dug her clawed hand into Baal's shoulder, forcing him to hiss without causing any change to his perpetual smile from his face, "and who appointed you the deputy of my lord? It seems to me that you do not understand a little where your place in this hierarchy is…"

"Not fair!" Nero's voice was completely out of place in this conversation, "Why is he an admiral?! I wanted to be an admiral!"

"But you already took the title of captain," a small fraction of satisfaction was heard in Mashu's voice, "What do you have to complain about?"

Ainz slowly sighed. Well, and he thought he had trouble managing with only six Servants - and now there are ten of them... Truly marvelous.

"Silence," Ainz gave an order, after which all his Servants, who were all frolicking about, became silent, turning their eyes toward Ainz.

'Ha, they do listen to me!' - Ainz nearly broke into a smile. If someone like Cainabel and Baal began to listen implicitly to him, did it mean that he had reached the position of a respected boss? That would be great!

Although unknown to Ainz, the reason all the Servants listened to him was because Ainz could easily just blink all the opponents fighting against him out of existence if he were to be displeased, and not out of the Servants great appreciation of his position as leader. Although leadership gained from a position of strength was still a legitimate version of leadership.

"Drake," Ains looked at Francis Drake, who nodded to him showing her attention. "As far as I know your fleet's actions were directed with the goal of chasing someone... Who stole something valuable from you?"

Drake, when she heard of this, nodded in confirmation, "Yeah... One beautiful golden cup to be exact."

"A beautiful golden cup..." - Ainz blinked. "Don't tell me..."

"Ha, finding the Grail - so fast?" Nero managed to connect the dots first, "Wow, such a short Singularity!"

After that, she fell silent for a second and then frowned, "On the one hand, this means that our work will be easy... But on the other hand, it means that I will not be able to show all my beauty and power!"

"Oh, hmm..." - Ainz only nodded slowly, after which he looked at Drake, "In that case, definitely, we must catch the thief."

Drake glanced at Ainz, then smiled. "Well, you are now the admiral, so your word is law."

"Well, in that case - we're going at full speed after the thief," Ainz smiled. His smile then became very strained when he realized that Drake hadn't told him at all of where the thief is.

'But... Which way should we go now?!' Ainz was once again very glad that his nature as an Undead didn't allow him to express strong emotions.

* * *

"He subjugated the pirate fleet, captained by the most famous pirates in history - and he did it all in... An hour?" Olga-Marie looked at Da Vinci, who was sitting next to her, and they were eagerly watching what was happening in the Singularity. An opportunity they only have because Ainz allowed a connection to be created with Da Vinci's spell..

"Yup," Da Vinci picked up a croissant from a plate placed nearby and then grinned. "Definitely, he did indeed just do that."

Olga-Marie looked at the picture before her. It was…

Just plain inhuman.

"Can he instead be… just that lucky?" Olga looked up at the ceiling. "Just... How can this happen by any other way?!"

"Theoretically, of course, such a thing happening due to luck is possible," Roman replied to Olga. "Of course, with the approximate probability that any random coincidence of events is possible at all. But chief, if you think about it logically…"

"Don't talk to me about 'logic'," Olga snapped at Roman, and then looked again at one of Chaldea's many screens, which currently is displaying what Ainz and his Servants are doing - including new ones, "I know… I know that what happened can't be just coincidence... But it's just ridiculous! This is already beyond the bounds of what can be imagined by the human mind!"

"Don't forget who we're talking about here," Da Vinci looked at the screen carefully, "This is Ainz, a creature that surpasses everything that you knew and have heard before. I would not be surprised if it turned out that he already knew of everything that would happen just before he entered the Singularity."

Olga, hearing this, looked at Da Vinci, and then shook her head, - "Your explanation... It's just…"

Olga looked at the screen, "We don't even know anything about him... Almost nothing - and even what we know is simply our assumptions and what he let us know about him."

"But he is fighting for the benefit of mankind," Roman shrugged and smiled, "So... I see no reason not to trust him."

"I trust him," Olga sighed, "I mean... He is our last and only hope. Even if I didn't trust him, we still would have no choice but to look at what he was doing."

"Doesn't this make our observation even more exciting?" Da Vinci smiled and then waved her hands, "Hush, a new series of 'adventures in the Singularity' is starting!"

Olga, Roman and Da Vinci attention was then glued to the screens for a second before...

"What the fuck are they doing?!" - Olga could not stand what she was seeing before her eyes.

Ainz's spell that allowed an image to be sent to Chaldea, although it indeed followed him, could be moved within a small radius from Ainz's body. With that ability it could capture the actions of the other Servants. For instance…

* * *

"0\10, would not smash again", - Blackbeard snorted at Mozart.

"But just imagine!" Mozart tried to convince his new comrade, "A chest of astronomical size, the beautiful hair, those piercing eyes — with these she is at least eight out of ten!"

"Drake is an old hag," Blackbeard crossed his arms over his chest and huffed in indignation, "My heart belongs only to lolis!"

"He who does not understand the attractiveness of mature women does not understand the charms of women at all!" Mozart sighed joyfully. Oh, he loved Marie Antoinette, but her presence was somewhat... Let's just say that it 'prevented' him from some of his more 'peculiar' emotional outburst. Not as vivid as Blackbeard's, but still worthy of the definition of a 'man of culture.'

"Why do we need an old hag if there are so many other beautiful and young girls around?!" Blackbeard looked at Mozart with a blank expression, "Just look at that one!"

Blackbeard extended a finger, pointing towards Cainabel, who was still in a heated 'debate' with Baal at the moment.

"Goth-loli-vampire-dominatrix!" Blackbeard's eyes lit up with an unhealthy enthusiasm, "Oh, that marble-like skin, those snow-white hair and red eyes... It drives me crazy!"

"My friend, I'm sorry to upset you, but you probably chose the most unsafe option in the world," Mozart sighed.

Mozart was not the smartest person in the world… But, even he is not that foolish.

Furthermore, in another way, despite his weak image and not the most impressive strength, he had a couple of trump cards hidden in his sleeves, which gave him some advantage over many other Servants. His phenomenal hearing was one such trump card.

And, although among the Servants capable of wiping mountains and devastating countries in the blink of an eye, a phenomenal hearing should not have been a trump card - Mozart was not just a musician, but a Child of God. In other words, his absolute musical hearing surpassed the physical limitations of a simple thing like "hearing" and reached ridiculous heights where he could 'hear' more than was uttered. Therefore…

"Cainabel is the third most dangerous creature in the world that I know of," Mozart shook his head in resignation.

"Doesn't that simply add a certain charm to her?" Blackbeard then broke into a smile, "Yeah, sure, I am a degenerate, but is she not ideal from an aesthetic point of view?!"

Mozart sighed and still looked at Cainabel from the point of view of pure aesthetics.

"Hair... Eyes... Face... Body…" - Mozart sighed, - "Well... Nine out of ten."

"Hah?" - Blackbeard looked at Mozart in confusion, "And for what, pray tell, you took off a whole point?!"

"I prefer it when the pupil does not blend in with the iris," Mozart sighed and looked at Blackbeard.

"You don't understand the essence of monster girls!" Blackbeard accused him while placing a finger in his chest, "Monster girls hold the entire modern civilization on their fragile shoulders!"

Mozart only sighed again and looked at Blackbeard.

Blackbeard had long wanted to find someone with whom he could immerse himself in his highly sophisticated conversations. And, just his luck, he found Mozart, perhaps the only Servant, that would not have escaped from at the first opportunity. The only Servant who could play a part in the plan of Baal...

No, can Mozart Mozart consider it to be Baal's plan, if Ainz could improve it in a second, when he just noticed it? How did Ainz even guess that the situation in this Singularity would develop in exactly this way?

Was it Divination? Clairvoyance of the EX rank? Or something different?

Mozart shook his head and then looked at Ainz.

The second most dangerous creature that Mozart knew of was Baal. How was he able to uncover the Demon King's plan with just a minute of conversation?

However, even Baal needed a few seconds to decipher Ainz's actions regarding Blackbeard... Although Ainz didn't even need a second to come up with such a brilliant plan.

Mozart sighed and shook his head.

"Hey, hey, what do you think about Mashu?" - Blackbeard threw a grin at Mozart, "It's a minimum of 7/10!"

"I would even say eight out of ten..." Mozart smiled.

Blackbeard had found a friend, but not for the reasons that he could have imagined. Even Blackbeard himself had instantly become a pawn in Ainz's plans...

The first and most dangerous creature that Mozart knew of was, of course, Ainz Ooal Gown...

And considering which creatures walked alongside all those three all the time — damn, it was an achievement...

* * *

"I have no idea where we are going..." - Ainz sighed to try and empty out the block of hard steel that is currently sitting in his stomach. Managing one ship was a difficult act in itself... Managing a pirate armada was even more difficult.

Ainz only knew that a certain "blonde bastard" had stolen the Grail from Francis Drake, and then fled with it, but... He did not even know which way he was supposed to go to find him! It was just ridiculous - he literally sailed at random, hoping for an accidental coincidence of circumstances.

"Of course, it would be very lucky if I just stumble upon this "blonde bastard" now. But really, he should live in reality instead of looking at pipe dreams, even my luck is not that endless!"

Ainz then exhaled after the rant he just spewed out. He definitely needed to work to achieve anything worthwhile, and Ainz's luck would sooner or later run out, so he needed to put in the effort. It's just that Ainz was not sure whether or not standing still was the better option rather than just sailing in a random direction without any idea of where the enemy is... Ainz was not the smartest person in the world, but even he knew that the Earth was round, so he would not be surprised if he had managed to sail around the whole globe on a round-the-world trip and without actually ever meeting the enemy.

In addition, Ainz was greatly bothered by his knee-jerk thought when he heard Drake's story...

"Ha, why would anyone steal the Grail?" - Ains thoughtfully rubbed his forehead.

As far as Ainz knew, the Grail should have been the root cause of the Singularity. So from the very beginning it should have been in the hands of the enemy. Does this mean that Francis Drake was somehow connected with their enemy? Or perhaps even with the cause of the instability of the Singularity?

Ains sighed once again.

Baal said for sure that neither Drake, nor any of the other Servants in the entire pirate fleet has a Master... Although, it seemed that Baal wanted to tell him something about Blackbeard?..

Ainz recalled that Baal's attempted to establish a telepathic conversation with him when Ainz arrived on the Calico Jack and even managed to say something, but Ainz waved him off then... And after that Baal didn't even bother to clarify it with Ainz. Hmm, was it about something good or bad? Perhaps Baal had changed his mind about telling Ainz what he wanted to say at the moment - or did something else happen?

Ainz shook his head and exhaled, he seemed to be doing that a lot in this Singularity, and it hasn't even been a day!

A slight knock rang out on the door to the captain's cabin, after which a voice that Ainz expected the least was heard, Altera's voice, "Master?"

"Altera?" Ainz was surprised for a second, after which he hastened to rise from the table on which he was leaning on and to take the pose that he supposed was fitting to the image of a boss, "Come in."

A second later, the door to the captain's cabin opened - and Altera appeared on the threshold.

The cabin that Ainz used as his living space was not different from all the other cabins in his summoned ship. The cabin was created with the same black metallic substance as the rest of the ship with only a couple of windows to break up the monotony. Other than these things the room was completely bare with only a chair and a table furnishing the room. Not only that, the room was small with only a few meters of walking area, with only Ainz and Altera, the room looked cramped.

"Altera," Ainz nodded, then smiled. For some reason, sitting at a table opposite his Servant, Ainz felt like a full-fledged boss from his past world for the first time. Although, this comparison... Not that it did not flatter his ego - but the memories of the bosses from his past world made Ainz grimace. He definitely didn't want to look like them in front of his Servants - therefore, holding out his hand, Ainz once again cast a spell, creating a chair for Altera - "Please, sit down."

Altera, looking at this, nodded, and then sat across from Ainz.

"How can I help you?" Ainz smiled at the girl.

Altera looked at Ainz for a few seconds, then at the chair created by his magic, then at Ainz again.

'Ha, say something, please…' - Ainz felt Altera's unblinking gaze literally piercing through him. It seemed as if the roles of the boss and the subordinate had been reversed if one were to judge from the participant's level of nervousness.

"Cainabel wanted to know exactly how she can prove her loyalty and usefulness to you." Altera looked at Ainz seriously.

"Cainabel?" - Ainz blinked.

"Oh, ahem…" - Ainz blinked in surprise. It was a little... It was an unexpected request, - "I see…"

Ahem, Cainabel, then... She's trying... To curry favor?

No, that would be a rude thing to think about her - rather, Cainabel must have simply tried to ask Ainz for additional work. In fact, there was nothing wrong with that - even more, Ainz should have encouraged such an attitude to help him and take on additional work. Especially since if Cainabel took on more work it could lighten the workload on the other Servants, and maybe even his workload...

'Surprisingly, Cainabel seems to be very considerate of the other Servants…' - Ainz shook his head in surprise 'Although you can't say this by her normal behavior... Is Cainabel perhaps... A tsundere?!'

To any other logically thinking person, the intent of Cainabel's actions would be obvious. She was simply trying to get 'ahead' in the race between her and Baal. Cainabel, noticing Baal's complacency in their trip, has decided to try and gain Ainz approval by using Altera to ask for a job from Ainz... But Ainz, who had decided to take care of his Servants, was much more inclined to see something more positive in their actions rather than what the Servants intentions were. In the end, Ainz still considered Baal and Cainabel to be very reliable and respectable Servants...

However, even in such a situation a problem had arisen...

'I have nothing to entrust to Cainabel!' - Ainz shouted in his head.

Ainz did not know even what he should do and where to go, so he couldn't pass anything on to Cainabel. And yet at the same time...

'If I tell her to take it easy for now, will I set a bad example for her?' - Ainz exhaled. If you tell a person several times that "there is no work for you now" - will this not sound like an attempt to get rid of them? Or something like "I don't trust you enough to do my errands". Not to mention, he had found a job for Baal before, and those two were extremely competitive for some reason.

In addition, up to this point, Cainabel rarely showed concern for the other Servants. Why did such a thing happen right now? Some of the events that had happened must have influenced her somehow, but which one? The only thing Ainz could think of was...

'She took Altera as a kouhai!' - Ainz smiled at his conclusion. Surprisingly, was Cainabel really only needed a kouhai in order to reveal her secret good personality traits?!

Ainz was certain that he had definitely chosen the right path when he told Altera and Cainabel to stick together.

In any case, returning to what job he should give Cainabel - as he didn't have anything to do, he couldn't come up with anything good that he could entrust to Cainabel... But at the same time, Ainz definitely knew that he had to entrust Cainabel with at least something - and then definitely praise her for the work done... Even if he had to instruct her to do something completely useless.

"Ah, I got one," after a rather long period of silence, during which Altera did not utter a single word, simply continuing to look at Ainz, Ainz finally came to a decision "In that case, hmm... Definitely, I have an important one - I would even say a critically important job…"

Altera carefully looked at Ainz.

"Yes, definitely, I need Cainabel to go back to the island where we arrived initially," Ainz nodded gravely, "I think this is extremely important."

'Right!' - Ainz smiled. 'This is an absolutely useless and simple task, for which I can praise Cainabel a little later!'

"Okay," Altera nodded, and then slowly rose, "I will tell her right now..."

"Wait!" However, Ainz stopped her. Altera, stopping immediately in her tracks, looked at him carefully.

"Ahem, before you leave..." Ainz added. Well, since he began to act like a "good boss", then he definitely would have needed to follow through, - "Could you tell me a little bit... About yourself?"

"About myself?" Altera blinked in surprise - an extremely rare sight for Altera.

"Yes, about yourself," Ainz nodded. "How are you feeling? Do you get along well with Cainabel? Maybe you need something… ?"

Altera blinked again, after which she looked at Ainz, "If I can ask you... Why do I need to answer these questions?"

Ainz sighed. "Nothing serious. I just want to know more about the status of my Servants."

Altera nodded slowly, "I see."

"I feel..." Altera began to answer mechanically, glancing at her body, "Within normal limits. My relationship with Cainabel..."

Altera began to picture the limits of the permissible relations of a mistress, like Cainabel, to her Servant, after which she nodded, "Within the norm for the positions in our relationship."

"I also do not need anything at the moment to maintain my fighting potential," Altera finished with a nod.

"Hm, that's good, I suppose ..." Ainz was a little embarrassed by her dry answers, "But, if not to maintain combat potential, but maybe... I don't know, maybe you want something else at the moment? Maybe you need something to help in your situation... Or something like it?"

Altera blinked again, after which she was deep in thought.

Something that she would like... Something that she needs to help in a certain situation...

Hmm, probably Ainz was hinting at something that she might need to fulfill the mission entrusted to her?

In that case... Perhaps she would need something to hide her presence?

However, if Ainz was really hinting at it... Why not just say it bluntly?

Altera was not sure of this, but still, she did not dare to ask further clarification, simply answering Ainz's question.

"Yes, maybe I need an artifact to hide my presence," Altera nodded.

"Hmm, I see..." - Ainz thought for a moment, after which he muttered to himself "a strange choice for a present, but, I suppose, why not?" - "Can you wait for a moment?."

A second later, a ring flashed into Ainz's hands.

"This ring contains the spell_ Perfect Unknowable_, the strongest concealment spell that I know of" - in this Ainz was a little disingenuous, he knew several specialized spells that were even stronger than _Perfect Unknowable_. But this was really the strongest spell from those Ainz himself could cast, - "It can be applied once a day for five minutes. But if you were to attack during the duration of the spell, then it will automatically subside."

"Good," Altera took the ring from Ainz, then put it on right away. "In that case, I suppose I'd better go to Cainabel."

"Of course," Ainz nodded, after which he smiled to himself.

At the moment, he literally was a picture of "the best boss in the world."

* * *

Mashu was looking at Altera, who just came out of Ainz's cabin, with a somewhat complicated expression, exhaled.

"Jealous?" - an inner voice of Mashu asked.

"What?!" - Mashu blinked - "No, of course not!"

"You're lying," the voice grunted. "You can't lie to me so easily. I am inside of your mind - I understand all your feelings and see all your thoughts. You are damn jealous!"

"Well..." - Mashu grunted internally - "I would not call it jealousy..."

The voice sighed and in the end grunted - "Well, well..."

"That is..." - Mashu shook her head - "We have been together for two months now, but I still couldn't manage to talk one on one with him even now..."

"Some girls are constantly clinging to him, how dare they!" - finished the voice exaggeratedly and indignantly.

"No!" - Mashu shook her head with such force that for a second it might seem as if her head would fall off.

"Don't shake your head so hard, it starts spinning in here!" - the voice was indignant before continuing - "Seriously, look at yourself. You seriously asked Mozart how to "give something pleasant to Ainz." It seems to me that there are not that many ways to make a man happy..."

For a second, the voice stopped and then muttered something to itself like "I would not want to mention my father in such a way...", then continued - "Listen, just do it. Go to Ainz and tell him that you like him and..."

"NO!" - Mashu instantly reacted to these words, after which she shut up - "That is, of course, he is kind, smart, strong, generous, sweet..."

"How difficult it is to cooperate with you," the voice sighed. "Okay, then if you can't just be... Well, just start gradually. Go to Ainz and say that you would like to do something useful - are you at least capable of this?"

"Um..." - Mashu thought - "But he has so many other Servants stronger than me... How can I be useful?"

The voice fell silent, then sighed - "Ah, that's indeed the problem..."

After that, Mashu joined in - "Indeed, the problem..."

"Okay, listen, I will help you in this matter..." - the voice sighed - "But with only one condition. You must stop constantly thinking about the things that you constantly think about! "

"I don't think of anything like that!" - Mashu instantly went into denial.

"Oh, come on," the voice grunted. "I'm inside of your head, believe me, I know what you think about... even right now!"

Mashu, instantly became embarrassed, shook her head as if in denial...

And only then did the realization hit her...

"Who are you and what are you doing inside my head?!" - Mashu, only after a few minutes of dialogue, did she realize that her inner voice was supposed to be female. On the contrary, the very masculine voice that was speaking with her did not fit with her voice at all.

However, the inexplicable feeling of kinship that she felt from the voice was also to blame for her not noticing the discrepancy.

"How can you not recognize the one whose abilities you are constantly using?!" - the voice became angered for a second - "Though very badly at that..."

Mashu blinked and then asked the question - "A Servant?"

"I'm a part of you, a demi-Servant, that is the Servant," the voice sighed. Mashu froze.

"You... You were silent for sixteen years!" - Mashu instantly bursted out with anger.

"And I also saved you when you were supposed to die - in that explosion, two months ago," the voice sighed.

"But... why now?" - Mashu asked the question to the Servant.

"Ahem" - the Servant was embarrassed, after which he shook his head - "Let's just say... The plans have changed... And I got tired of your inner whining!"

"I do not whine!" - Mashu instantly shook her head.

"Yes you do, yes you definitely do!" - The Servant almost put out his tongue in a childish way - in a metaphorical sense, given that he was currently only a voice in Mashu's head - "In any case, let's deal with the crucial things first, and then we will decide whether you whine or not later."

"As for my identity..." - the Servant exhaled...

* * *

Ainz did not know that he had teleported from his captain's cabin exactly a second before Mashu had burst into his cabin with the incredible news. This was probably an occurrence of bad luck to balance out the good luck that had recently happened to AInz.

However, it's not that he had teleported aboard the Golden Hind for no reason at all. No, he went to the Golden Hind for a specific reason - a reason that made him , once again, became afraid of his luck.

Ainz, standing next to Drake, instantly turned his gaze into the distance to an object pointed at by Drake.

The ship that he saw in the distance was unlike Ainz's ship, nor any of the ships on the pirate fleet. The closest thing that Ainz could think of in comparison with that ship was his recollections of some random pictures that Punnito Moe showed him about the ships of antiquity.

However, it is not the ship that Ainz was concerned of at the moment. The thing that really bothered him at the moment was Francis Drake, who continued to look at the ship slowly approaching closer and closer with a grinning smile.

Ainz shook his head before glancing at Drake, "I suppose that they were the ones who stole the Grail from you?"

"Yeah," Drake smirked, "The first legendary pirates to leave their mark on history The Argonauts. And their commander, that blond bastard, Jason."

Ainz nodded slowly, and looked away into the distance, looking at the slowly approaching ship. Only one question remained in his head.

'Who the hell is Jason?!'

* * *

**Noble Phantasm** \- A crystallization of the legend of a Servant. Each Servant has a trait that distinguishes them from the rest, a thing makes their legend truly theirs. Arthur's sword _Excalibur_, the _Twelve Labors_ of Heracles, _Gae Bolg_ of Cu Chulainn. Noble Phantasms are the whole legend of the Servant, compressed to the limits of one ability. A final trait that makes the Servant exactly who he is. A sword, crown, story, or a song - something that makes a Servant a Servant.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Will Ainz will ever summon the nazarick or perhaps his "cute baby goats"? - Not right now.**

**Did the writer turn this into a crack fic? - No, it's just a Blackbeard being Blackbeard.**

**So is Nazarick and all its denizens in a kind of stasis inside Ainz and do they have any idea what is happening? Or are they just open of meandering around inside, lost without any purpose? - It's his NP. More info about it - wait and see.**

**Is Ainz able to pull items out of Nazarick's treasury or just his inventory (without summoning Nazarick)? - He can pull items from Nazarick's treasury, but it still will require invoking his NP.**

**Is there a reason Ainz hasn't asked Jeanne to remove Olga Marie's curse? Or is it that she can't? - She can't**

**If you were to make Olga Marie a master in a holy grail war which servant would you want her to get? - She, technically, can't be Master at all. But if she could - we really have no info about her mana reserves and all that, so without additional info - Solomon, I think. It will make her win after all.**

**Does Romani actually manage to get some sleep in this or is he pulling a lot of Olga's weight too? - He is getting some sleep, but not much.**

**Do you have a link to your pat reon? - This site deletes it. But you can easily google it.**

**I wonder will ainz at some point summon the monster from the anime ? - Which one's?**

**Maybe summon his trusty second in command demiurge? Or have cocitus go at it against some "knights" of a table somewhere? Maybe unleash a vampire against Vlad? Or release the beast ( albedo) ? - This is not going to happen for quite some time. Don't plan for anyone from Nazarick appearing during the Singularity crisis.**

**WHY does Blackbeard/Edward Teach talk like that and know about anime? - Because canonically Blackbeard is an 4chaner otaku.**

**not before, nor after using his Nobel Phantasm "SPEAK OF THE DEVIL" [and what even IS THAT anyway] - Currently I have no plans to disclose this info.**

**What is "OKEANOS"? - Name of the current Singularity.**

**PREGUNTA HAY ALGUNAS HISTORIAS CON GUDAO COMO SHOTA PLANEAS EN ALGUN MOMENTO QUE AINZ SE CONVIERTA EN UN SHOTA? - No.**

**How do you write so fast man!? - I... Don't really know. I just tell myself "you need to write", vape, scroll through the things I follow - and write.**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	80. Chapter 80

Ains looked at the approaching ship -The Argo - and began contemplating.

'The Argonauts…' - Ainz strained his memory once again. In Yggdrasil, The Argo existed as a rarely seen wandering boss, the ship was like the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship. Many uninformed players on their first battle with The Argo would begin the fight by attacking the rather weak mobs spawned by the wandering boss, the 'Argonauts'. The killing of which would take almost no time and effort, this of course was a trap killing these spawned mobs would slowly deplete the attacking players resources. As these same mobs, these 'Argonauts', would spawn endlessly as long as the ship itself is intact. In fact, the main target of this boss encounter was not the ghost ship's mobs, but rather the ship itself, The Argo. Which, after receiving a certain level of damage, would transform into something like an undead golem, starting the real battle with the players... And although The Argo itself was a very weak boss - actually the same level as Cainabel - given that usually before people realize that the ship was the real enemy they had to spend considerable resources killing the endlessly spawning mobs - many players considered The Argo a disgusting boss... Although, given the shitty devs' nature - every second boss was somehow disgusting in something... Oh, how much Ainz cursed the developers during Ainz Ooal Gown's first battle with Shub-Niggurath - he was even ashamed of how quickly they were TPK'ed when they tried a new unknown boss without any scouting or using any guidelines...

'But,' Ainz shook his head. 'I'm thinking about pointless things.'

As far as Drake herself had told him, in this world The Argo was not a ghost ship at all and was hardly the same existence as the one in the game, a ship created with the help of technologies taken from Romulusremus, the new defender of civilization. So, at least on this side, Ainz was calm.

On the other hand, as Drake herself told him, in this world the "Argonauts" themselves were much more important. That in this world they were not just mobs for the Player to mow down, but were Servants themselves. And one of these Servants had kept the Grail with him. Just what Ainz needed at the moment, that was sarcasm by the way.

"Hah," Ainz sighed and shook his head.

Ainz initially planned for Baal to manage all the new Servants and for him to be the first contact with any other Servants - but this plan was instantly spoiled by Cainabel's complaints. She, for some reason, was against Baal doing these tasks - and even specifically asked Ainz for more work to be just as busy as Baal. If Ainz instructs Baal to do one more job, then Cainabel is unlikely to be happy with such a thing. Especially so considering that Ainz created the task given to her at random and that she may well suspect something is wrong if Ainz simply sends her to some other island as her next job.

'How difficult it is to be a good boss!' - Ainz then looked around to his Servants.

Unlike Cainabel and Baal, the other Servants had not demonstrated any desire to do additional work. And Ainz's authority, which had finally begun to take form, would clearly crumble if he immediately began to transfer all his duties to his subordinates. Not to mention that none of them could teleport. So…

"I'll go to them alone," Ainz nodded.

"Yo, admiral," Drake who stood next to him drew attention to herself, "You have proved that you can stand up for yourself, and I respect courage - but do not confuse courage with stupidity. These are the Argonauts!"

Ainz nodded. "I'll be careful."

For a few seconds, Drake thoughtfully scrunched her eyebrows, and then shrugged. "Do what you want, but do keep in mind that I do not want to change Admirals for the second time today."

Ainz nodded.

'If the Argonauts themselves were not even given any special notice in Yggdrasil, then it is unlikely that they were anyone significant' - Ainz grunted 'I mean, like Heracles... Oh, I remember the battle with him - it took us twelve attempts before we were able to kill him...'

Before teleporting, Ainz had remembered Tabula saying something about the Argonauts and Heracles, but he dismissed such unnecessary thought. He had a more important problem to solve now.

Be a good boss!

* * *

"ATTACK! ATTACK!" - the golden-haired blond currently trying to kill him proved that "being a good boss" was still a very difficult job.

A second later, a muscular column of flesh appeared next to Ainz swinging down a giant blade - the giant of a man was as tall as Ainz's true body. The gigantic man was so muscular that Ainz thought for a second that the man had at least a few racial levels of a giant.

In an instant between breaths, before the large giant finished his swing, several large, bright rays of light crashed into Ainz. The laser-like spell was sent by a magician girl standing next to the blond. Fortunately, the magic rays that were currently hitting Ainz were weaker than that of the eighth rank and did not do any holy or fire damage. So because of Ainz's immunities the rays simply dissipated without doing any damage.

'I just wanted to talk…' - Ainz sighed and then stared more seriously at the large bulk of a Servant that is currently swinging a huge blade towards him. Although, rather, with a closer inspection Ainz could say instead of a sword that it was actually more of a club with a cutting edge crudely chipped into it - 'Hmm, apparently it will probably be doing slashing and bludgeoning damage…'

And if receiving slashing damage was a relative non-danger for Ainz, then Ainz had to place a more significant attention to the bludgeoning damage as Ainz had a weakness to it.

"_Resistance To Bludgeoning Damage_," Ainz used a spell to increase his resistance to bludgeoning damage, negating his weakness. Ainz casted the spell just in time because after the spell effect began, the giant's blade crashed into Ainz. Although the sound of impact sounded catastrophic, the blade simply bounced back, without even inflicting a single point of damage.

"What?!" the screaming blond was greatly shocked by such an incongruous display.

Without giving Ainz any time to comment, several arrows then crashed into Ainz. However, as it would inflict piercing damage being a ranged weapon and, additionally, being weaker than the minimum level of attack force capable of injuring Ainz - the arrows simply crashed into Ainz without doing any damage and instantly breaking from the impact with his body.

Ainz turned his eyes on the girl that had shot him with a bow. Her cat ears caught Ainz's attention over her other attributes.

After another second, another blow of the giant crashed into Ainz, after which several more spells struck Ainz from the side by the girl-magician. Although, judging by her age - should he use another term? Wizard-girl? Mahou-shoujo maybe?

"Jason!" The girl, noting that casting even more of her spells would have no effect, instantly took a step forward, apparently obscuring or maybe even to defend the blonde man, "Retreat! This is a monster that we cannot defeat!"

"I know damn it!" Jason glared at Ainz with horrified eyes.

Ainz slowly exhaled and then cast another spell, - "_Mass Hold Species_."

After a moment, several circles of light appeared around all of Ainz's opponents, completely paralyzing them.

"Good," Ainz nodded before noticing, "Ha, is he still resisting?!"

The giant who had attacked Ainz with a giant club was also exposed to the seventh rank spell, but unlike the rest who had become completely paralyzed, he is obviously still trying to resist. His muscles were swollen and judging by the steam coming from his warped face and the low growl, he is trying to resist Ainz's magic with all his might.

Not that such a thing was a great achievement - especially considering that for someone of Ainz level, this spell would not have any effect at all. But even so, at the moment, it was the first adversary who could, even if just partially, resist Ainz's magic.

"How interesting..." Ainz was intrigued, but before he would be plunged into his thoughts about experiments, he forced himself to return to reality, " Jason, I presume?"

Ainz looked at the blond, who seemed to be the commander of the combatants. Unfortunately, due to the paralysis, he could not even speak, so Ainz was forced to be creative, "Blink twice, if I'm right."

Jason, paralyzed by Ainz's magic, blinked twice as fast as a completely paralyzed person can.

"Good," Ainz nodded. "I didn't come here to fight. I just wanted to talk with you and, perhaps, come to a mutually beneficial agreement."

Jason blinked slowly in confusion..

"If you agree, please do not attack me after I remove the spell," Jason blinked again in comprehension and Ainz lifted the spell.

"Herc, wait!" Jason gave the command immediately, after which the mountain of muscles froze in place. Presumably this 'Herc' person is a bit hot-headed. After another second, Jason shook his head and glanced at the two girls on his side - the magician and the archer - nevertheless looked at Ainz, - "Who are you?"

"My name is Ainz," Ains nodded. "And the simple fact is, I need the Grail."

After that, Jason, as if realizing what was said, sighed, - "I knew that he could not be trusted…"

"He?" Ains looked at Jason.

"Yes, the guy in the cloak and hood," Jason explained. "I have not seen his face so I have no clue who he is."

At that moment, the magician girl next to Jason shifted from foot to foot and looked down.

"And how exactly does this relate to the Grail?" Ains asked a question, looking at Jason carefully.

Now that no attacks are going to hit him anytime soon, he was able to take a closer look at Jason . Not that such a thing is necessary, he was simply a curious person. The captain of The Argo appeared to be a blond with short golden hair, whose eyes matched the color of his hair, and he looked handsome. A special kind of beauty that makes people think of "casanova" or, possibly, "boy toy". His armor - if one could call such a thing as 'armor' - consisted of only a few gold and black plates, barely placed on his body, leaving more than a decent amount of bare skin open.

"He told me that we need to steal the Grail from Drake," Jason shrugged.

"And I had told you that it was an idiotic plan," the archer, whose cat ears twitched from time to time, instantly snapped - verbally that is - into Jason.

"Medea vouched for him!" Jason immediately spoke in defense.

Medea - who appears to be the girl standing next to Jason, looked downwards, forcing Ainz to look at that one carefully.

The girl - in fact, looked to be just a girl barely fourteen years old in appearance - she was dressed in a translucent peignoir, barely hiding her young - but, judging by the small chest - still clearly female, body.

Ainz, realizing that he is currently looking somewhere that would probably land him in a lot of trouble, immediately looked up, appreciating the girl's face.

Medea's appearance was certainly beautiful - and although there was some teenage awkwardness in it her appearance is definitely one of her strong points. With her sharp nose, lips folded into a smile, large purple eyes that looked at the world with curiosity, and even her long purple hair tied up in a high tail, descending to the knees - everything in her was so childishly beautiful that Ainz for a second had a desire to protect her from the whole world.

Of course, if she had not attacked Ainz, then he probably would have been fascinated by her beauty. Now however, Ainz's mind suppressed this emotion.

"Then you are saying that you did not steal the Grail on your own volition," Ains looked at Jason in askance.

"That's right," Jason breathed, "And frankly, we no longer have the Grail itself. The guy in the cloak stole it as soon as we got it from Drake and then fled with it."

Jason nearly spat on the floor of his ship, but, glancing upon the unimpressed gaze of the cat-eared archer, restrained himself.

Ainz looked at the last girl - although he thought he recognized the archer for a second. In the end, Ainz still couldn't remember where he had seen this girl before.

The girl's long hair, which seemed to change color on its own whim — turquoise, peach, pinkish and golden locks were mixed together — went down to her knees. Fortunately for Ainz's currently wandering eyes she still looked older and was taller than Medea, so Ainz doesn't have to worry about being put to jail if he were to stare at her for too long. However, the dress - or rather, the corset along with the dress also left indecently many open areas - and if it weren't for her bestial ears, and long enough tail that with a small tassel, and the big bow in her hands, she would have looked more like the visitor to the social events that Peroroncino liked to talk about rather than a Servant.

"So you no longer have the Grail," Ainz breathed. Sadly... This meant that this meeting was a useless endeavour for Ainz, - "So you are useless to me…"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Jason waved his hands in a hurry, while the cat-eared girl slowly lifted her bow, "We can help find him!"

"Really?" Ainz looked at Jason carefully.

"Of course!" Jason nodded right away, "Medea can find him with magic... And we can bring you to the Grail! For us it will not even be work!"

"Oh, is that so?" Ainz was surprised, "Great. In that case - could you please guide my ship?"

"No problem!" Jason smiled at Ainz, "Just... What should we do about Drake and her fleet?"

Jason pointed to the slowly approaching pirate armada.

"Oh, no need to worry," Ainz nodded and looked at the approaching fleet. "They are under my command."

Jason, having heard this, froze for a few seconds before retreating and nodding, - "I see, it's even logical if you think about it…"

"What?" Ainz, hearing Jason mutterring, asked him a question.

"Nothing, but if there is anything else you need, just leave it to Jason!"

After that, Jason smiled again with such a bright smile that for a second Ainz thought that he was blinded by a second sun.

"Hm, yes, of course," Ainz nodded, "In that case... How long will it take for you to find the Grail?"

"Mmm," Jason glanced at Medea, who slowly shook her head.

"A day..." after answering, Medea looked at Ainz again and shuddered, "But this is the worst case possible, we will find it as quickly as possible!"

"Great," Ainz smiled in genuine joy. Unfortunately, of all the things that Ainz could scry the location of, perhaps, the only thing - The Grail- . Ainz could not so easily locate the Grail in the Singularities... Because he had given his Grail to Da Vinci. A simple wish could lead Ainz to whatever he wants to be found, although perhaps using an all-powerful wish to simply locate an object might be overkill.

'Just a bad luck, I suppose,' Ainz breathed and teleported away.

* * *

"Why..." Atalanta glared at Jason, then turned her gaze to the slowly approaching armada of ships, "Why did you agree to work for him?"

"Why?" Jason glared back at Atalanta. "Is your brain clouded by a catnip again?!"

"Another joke about my cat ears - and I'll stuff this arrow into your ass!" Atalanta pushed one of her arrows menacingly forward, shaking it in front of Jason's nose.

"Atalanta, please," Medea spoke out as a voice of reason while taking a step toward the archer, making her sigh and slowly placed the arrow back into the quiver. However, even though Medea had defended Jason, she still looked at Jason expecting at least a minimal amount of explanation from him. No, of course, placating words like 'it was necessary' from Jason would have completely eased her mind. But, nevertheless, she still would like to know the reason why Jason gave the order to attack Ainz as soon as he had appeared on board of The Argo, after which he so easily rescinded the order.

"Medea," Jason looked at the girl seriously, after which he shook his head, "you know, I'm not the best fighter..."

"And also as a commander, leader, strategist, man..." - Atalanta began to list Jason's qualities.

"Yes, yes, I know!" Jason shouted at the girl immediately, and then sighed, "Precisely because I am not the best fighter."

"Did you get scared for your life?" Atalanta raised one eyebrow and snorted. "I always knew that you were a worm whose destiny was to crawl in the mud and..."

"Enough already!" Jason shouted at Atalanta, after which he sighed and rubbed his face tiredly with both hands, "In short... I'm not the best fighter and have always been a coward... One of my skills grew out of this."

"Insight at the Jaws of Death," Atalanta grinned at the skill that symbolizes Jason's existence as a coward, but this time did not interrupt Jason's explanation.

"Yes, the skill that makes me stronger the greater the danger in front of me," Jason breathed out, "But this skill... It has a second function - it also determines how great the danger is in front of me. And…"

Jason shook his head, "If I were to say that my 'danger sense' in a fight with an ordinary person is one, in a battle with Atalanta a thousand, and in a battle with Heracles - ten thousand - then a battle with Ainz exceeds... I don't know... At least a million, I just can't even get my head around just how dangerous this Ainz person is.

"A Million?!" Atalanta snorted. "Maybe you miscalculated halfway?"

"Oh, yes, really?!" Jason glanced at Atalanta, "Well, in that case, do I need to remind you that he blocked your arrows, then Medea's magic, last but not least a blow from Heracles of all people - and then he paralyzed us all with one spell?!"

These words finally silenced Atalanta's complaint.

"I have no idea who this 'Ainz' is," Jason rubbed his forehead and wiped the slowly budding cold sweat on his brows, "But I can tell you at least one thing. Do not even try to fight him - he will kill you so quickly that you will not even have the time to understand what has happened to you."

Atalanta, although clearly wanting to object to Jason's words simply solely because of her character, was silent. Unfortunately, no matter how much Atalanta would laugh at her commander, in his ability to assess an enemy's strength, she trusted him explicitly. In the end, Jason was a coward, whose great reputation was built solely on surviving in any kind of trouble. If there was even one skill that he really had honed to mastery, it was his ability to evaluate his chances. And if Jason, with the support of Medea, Atalanta, and Heracles, said that they had no chance against Ainz, then that must have been the truth.

"That's good and all, but why did you sell yourself to him?" Atalanta still looked at Jason with indescribable disgust.

"What could I do?" Jason looked at Atalanta with an offended look , "We don't have much of a choice, you know! Either this monster would kill us right now - or I could prove that we are useful and that we should be left alive for now. And after that we could find a way to get out of this situation somehow…"

"Lord Jason," Medea nodded slowly, "I am touched by your concern for us..."

"Ah?" Jason glanced at Medea and blinked. "Ah, yes, and you survived too. Hurray me!"

"Jason…" - Atalanta frowned at Jason's surprise, - "Don't tell me that you only wanted to save your own skin... Although, why am I even surprised…" With her disappointment mounting, Atalanta began to move her hand forward to choke the life out of her 'captain'.

"Don't touch me, go away!" Jason immediately avoided Atalanta's attempt to grab him, "I'll complain to Ainz, I'll say that you are interfering with our work!"

"He won't believe you," Atalanta took another menacing step toward Jason.

"He will believe me! Herc, support me here!" - Jason turned toward his friend - Heracles, unfortunately, he is summoned as a Berserker and therefore without even a speck of all rationality.

A second later, Heracles burst into a loud roar.

"That doesn't count as confirmation!" Atalanta instantly protested Jason's decision.

"It counts!" Jason immediately answered her back, after which he avoided a sharp slap in the face, "Wait, don't hit the captain!"

"Lady Atalanta, please do not hurt Lord Jason," Medea suddenly spoke out, "Well, at least not very much..."

"I knew that I should not trust any Medea in the world!.." - Jason let out a desperate cry, feeling the tenacious hands of Atalanta slowly dragging him into the abode of pain.

The immovable block of meat that is Berserker, full of hatred and primordial rage, stood motionless... However, an accidental observer might say that in Heracles' eyes, usually full of anger, for a second, a slight smile appeared from watching his captain spending his free time.

* * *

Cainabel, who had just teleported to an empty beach, sighed.

"Ha, why did I get such a menial job..." - Cainabel sighed, surveying the empty beach of a deserted island, where Ainz and his Servants originally appeared from.

"Although, on the other hand, this is Ainz we are talking about, and if he said that this job is really important, then it is so" - Cainabel glanced at Altera who she had brought along, and then shook her head, "Hey, tintoy. Feel anything?"

"No," Altera calmly shook her head in the negative, forcing Cainabel to breathe out of her mouth in disappointment.

"Ha, what then is my job supposed to be..." - Cainabel sighed and looked around the empty beach.

No matter how one might look at it, the island where Cainabel currently is was completely uninhabited - not a single living thing could be felt living on the island. Cainabel was sure of this, because she could feel any living creature within a radius of kilometers from herself. And therefore, she was absolutely sure that nothing was alive on this island.

"Ainz couldn't just be sending me to check the island?" Cainabel couldn't even imagine Ainz, Death Incarnate, Destroyer of Worlds and the Killer of the Gods, sending her on a futile mission... Why? No matter how one might look, this island was empty and completely uninhabited - such a task as scouting it was pointless.

Would Ainz give her a useless assignment?..

No, of course he wouldn't - someone as smart as Ainz made each of their decisions for a specific purpose - and not randomly or without any meaning to it. He acted so that every movement of his finger meant something in the overall picture of the world. Absolute victory over Drake in one spell... Subjugation of the whole fleet... Protecting Blackbeard - , of course, only an idiot would not notice the purpose in his actions - each of these actions made sense. But Cainabel could not grasp what exactly was the meaning of sending her to a distant uninhabited island.

"Well, what this means..." - Cainabel exhaled - "It's worth spending my time thinking on it."

Cainabel did not like to think, she instead loved to just smash her enemies head on with overwhelming force and then devour their remains. But this did not mean that she could not think or that she is stupid in any way shape or form. Maybe in Yggdrasil's overall picture she wasn't that great - but her goals were great, And her position as the... Hm, as the Higher Beings called it... "Boss" was earned not only by her ability to fight, but also her ability to think. Thus Cainabel was quite able in the thinking department.

"Why did Ainz send me on this particularly important mission?" - Cainabel thought. Of course, Cainabel herself had demanded work from Ainz - but since Ainz was not so stupid as to entrust, in his own words, an "extremely important" job to someone inappropriate - he clearly considered Cainabel to be the most suitable for this job. What distinguished Cainabel from all the other Servants?

Personal strength is the first that comes to her mind. The one closest to her level was Baal, and the fact that Ainz had sent her and not Baal meant that strength was not the reason for him to choose Cainabel instead... Hm, thinking about it, Baal would be a difficult opponent to defeat, but against her third Noble Phantasm he had no chance of victory despite any possible sleights of hand that he owned. But without her third Noble Phantasm... And if there were no other opponents around that Cainable could 'refresh' herself with. Cainabel decided to abandon this line of thinking.

What about her abilities... As a magician, her abilities were centered around dealing damage, strengthening herself and weakening the enemy. Meanwhile her tracking or search skills were "mediocre" at best. The only full-fledged general ability that she possessed was an ability to sense and control blood.

Hmm, blood... It seemed that she was closing on to the truth..

If the work entrusted to her was really important, then it obviously concerned at least the Demon Kings or the Grail. Cainabel indeed could collect a lot of information from an individual - but exclusively by the absorption of blood...

"No, not exclusively!" - Cainabel froze and then looked at Altera.

In the past Singularity, Ainz had demonstrated to her that she was also able to receive information by destroying mana constructs, not just by absorbing blood. But…

Cainabel looked around her. However, even with her paying close attention, there was nothing on the island that was created from mana.

On the other hand…

Cainabel looked at the sand beneath her feet.

The current Singularity was unstable, which means Cainabel could maybe... 'Absorb' the sand that was created by the Singularity itself.

However, even given the instability of the Singularity, nothing beneath her feet contained mana that Cainabel could destroy. Or…

Cainabel turned her gaze to Altera.

"Ha..." - Cainabel grinned in a smile - "What a diabolical plan..."

"Is something wrong?" Altera looked at Cainabel carefully.

"Your ability," Cainabel smiled. "You can nourish any object with your mana, and then control it... This means that an object controlled by you can technically be considered as a mana construct."

In an ordinary Singularity, if there were actually such a thing as an 'ordinary' Singularity, Cainabel could not have done such a thing. Given that even when nourished by mana an ordinary object would remain as a stable part of the Singularity. However, if the Singularity was actually unstable...

"What a terrifying mind," Cainabel said quietly.

Initially, she did not plan to take Altera with her at all - but when she found out that Ainz had personally given her an artifact, she decided to take Altera along with her. In other words, Ainz was able to easily manipulate Cainabel's actions in such a way that she didn't even know about it.

"Really terrifying," Cainabel nodded, after which she turned to Altera, "Hey... I need you to flood this beach with your mana."

Altera looked around her.

Her mana reserves as Servants go were great, but to infuse her mana to the entire beach, stretching for kilometers around, was too big of a goal even for her.

"I would need Master's mana for this," Altera nodded slowly.

"So? Just do it," Cainabel snorted, after which Altera froze after feeling the deluge of mana being transferred to her. After a second, a huge peak of mana rose to heaven - and after only a few moments, every grain of sand on the island was saturated with Altera's mana. After a few seconds, she felt a pulling sensation - after which the small beach instantly turned into a wave of sparkling dust, and then was absorbed by Cainabel.

After a few more moments, when the riot of magic had finally subsided, Cainabel began to grin, and then laughed.

"THis is great!" Cainabel could not restrain her laughter, "Hahaha, how wonderful... Oh, I got something to wave in front of Baal's nose! That idiot fell for the bait - he would kill only one bird, allowing the second to gain knowledge... Haha, awesome!"

"What exactly are you talking about?" Altera looked at Cainabel carefully.

"I say that while the Demon Kings believe that they had trapped Ainz - Ainz had instead caught them in their own net, ha ha!" - Cainabel laughed again.

"I see..." Altera nodded slowly, "But... Was this really Ainz's plan?"

After a second, Cainabel's laughter instantly ceased, as if it did not exist at all - "Come again."

"I'm saying that if it really was Ainz's plan, then why didn't he just say about it to you?," Altera glanced at Cainabel, forcing her to raise one eyebrow and corner of her mouth in an expression of disgust.

"And what do you suppose?" Cainabel grinned. "That all of this was just by chance?"

"This is…" - Altera thought for a moment, - "One of the possibilities."

"Ha, little tintoy," Cainabel grinned, "Tell me... Didn't he say that he was entrusting us with an "extremely important" mission?"

"He did indeed say that," Altera nodded.

"And when you were about to leave to tell me — did you calmly leave his cabin and went for me?" Cainabel grinned.

"No..." Alter was forced to say, "He stopped me and asked me about my status as a Servant."

"And maybe he just let you go without asking any suggestive questions?" Cainabel enjoyed the confusion in Altera's face and her position as the one who would open Altera's viewpoint of the world.

"No..." Altera finally said again, "He asked me if I needed anything for 'my current situation'. I asked him for an artifact for disguise."

"And maybe he gave you a _Cloak of Invisibility_ after that?" Cainabel grinned, "Or, perhaps, any other of the thousands of artifacts that fit your description?"

"No," replied Altera, "He gave me a ring with the strongest concealment spell in it and explained to me that it could only function for five minutes and that it would disappear if I made an attack."

"That's right," Cainabel grinned, "after which we went to this island. If he had not given you an artifact, I would not have taken you with me. If you had not appeared here, then I would not be able to find out the Demon Kings' plan. If this did not happen, then even with Baal's plan, we would still have at least one Demon King roaming free. And, of course, if it weren't for the explosion of mana that was caused by you asking Ainz for more mana, then the second Demon King would not have come here. And if it were not for the spell of concealment sealed in the ring, then you would not be able to catch him."

"And so, tell me, tintoy," Cainabel grinned, "Is such a chain of coincidences in any way possible due to luck and chance?"

"This…" - Altera finally surrendered, - "No, such a thing is very unlikely to happen."

Cainabel grinned confidently at Altera, as if telling her 'That's all'.

"But, in that case..." Altera glanced at Cainabel, "Why did Ainz not just tell to us bluntly about his plan?"

"Ha, just how stuoid are you?," Cainabel rolled her eyes, then sighed, "Because he is simply too big for this world."

"Too big?" Altera glanced at Cainabel askingly.

"I had told you about his achievements hadn't I? - And you still did not understand it?" - Cainabel grinned, "What is happening right now is just like fussing in the sandbox for Yggdrasil. The destruction of humanity in one world, such an event is so insignificant for my - and Ainz's - original world that only adventurers completely drowning in boredom would even bother engaging with it, and while hardly even utilizing the peak of their strength at that. In the best case possible, the creator of these Singularities, this so-called 'King' of those Demon Kings, would not even be noticed by the absolute majority of the Higher Beings. And those who indeed knew about him would only leave a small note about him in the annals of history."

"That's the problem," Cainabel grinned. "For Ainz, the scale of these 'Singularities' is just so small that he simply cannot move freely here. Half of his at least somewhat serious abilities will simply tear your whole miserable world to pieces. And this fact also applies to his great stores of knowledge. Just one random word from his mouth can break the whole history of this world, just one careless thought spoken out can carry so much wisdom that even my mind would stagger - not to mention someone at the level of a normal Servant, which receiving his knowledge can cost the mind, life, soul or even something more."

"Something more?" Altera glanced at Cainabel questioningly.

"Life, the soul - all these are small bargaining chips in the great game of Yggdrasil". Of course one must consider the fact that Cainabel came closest to the essence of Yggdrasil with this very formulation of thought. However, given that she used the terms figuratively, means that she was all also far away from the essence of Yggdrasil, -

"He restrains every part of his being - whether it's his magic, artifacts, even his own mind. Because he is Gulliver, who is trying to get along with the Lilliputians, he must put those restraints on himself. It is simply too dangerous for him to do something directly - fortunately, he does not need to do this. He can guide his subordinates with only a couple of movements to do his biddings - and therefore he does it in exactly the same way."

After that, Cainabel was silent, giving Altera the opportunity to process the information she had just received.

"Is he so significant?" Altera looked up at Cainabel.

"You don't know the hundredth, but worse, you don't even recognize the thousandth of his significance," Cainabel grunted, and then looked at Altera, "In any case, we need to wait at least a few more hours here... Therefore..."

Cainabel created for herself the likeness of a throne with her magic, and then sat on it.

Altera thoughtfully compared Ainz's actions with Cainabel. Ainz at least had created a chair for her.

"You can stand, you can sit at my feet, it makes no difference to me," Cainabel grinned, and then became contemplative, "Where should I start... Oh yes, perhaps, from the moment our world was born..."

* * *

**Name**: The Goal Of All Life Is Death ~ The Last Hour Strikes

The first of the three Noble Phantasms of Ainz Ooal Gown. This Noble Phantasm was created from the nature and abilities of Ainz as the Eclipse of All Life.

A terrifying Noble Phantasm, which could be called the epitome of absoluteness, if not for the three negative sides of this ability.

First - this ability has a delay, a twelve seconds delay.

The second - this ability can only be used once every one hundred hours.

Third - this ability has no limit of application, it affects everything, and it has no ability to designate its target.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**R u depressed? Cuz I am from these SCHEDULES AIDNWJNXJSSJENXJSNDJD I CANNOT - Is this really a thing to be depressed from? I thought that fast updates are a good thing. **

**But like who's gonna get dicked down by Ainz first spill the beans . which male servant? Which female servant?**

**LClupu - Sorry, I couldn't understand your questions.**

**Will all the YGGDRASIL servant be evil inclined or will Ainz summon any Hero type Servants from YGGDRASIL? - Can't say for now. I have a few ideas, but let's see how it unfolds.**

**when we will get 3 gorgon sister interlude - All of the sisters at the same time? Probably never, or at least it is so far in the future that you shouldn't think about it at all.**

**Ahora la pregunta: Ainz se encuentra en negación de los sentimentos de algunas de las chicas hacia el (Mashu, Olga, Medusa, Jeanex2) debido a su diferencia de edad o es simplemente denso? - Both**

**Curious question why would Marie still have the curse if her body was made by ainz ? - Wait and see**

**And hey - interludes of all Servants and even the three first chapter of Okeanos is out! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	81. Chapter 81

Da Vinci slowly put the relic entrusted to her by Ainz on the table - a golden radiant goblet, to be more precise. After which she proceeded to her seat next to the table. A second later, after she had sat down, she looked at a rare visitor to her workshop.

"I thought you were engrossed in watching Ainz's actions without looking up from the screen and missing a second," The visitor, Olga-Marie, grunted out. Da Vinci, not bothering to look up from her current object of fascination, who instantly brought the golden goblet to her hands, and then, nodding, reached for her notes without once looking like she had heard what Olga had said. This, of course, is not true. As a Genius of the highest order, Da Vinci is very capable at multitasking.

"Oh, I'm certainly interested in the adventures of Ainz and, what's more, his actions in the Singularity," Da Vinci nodded, not taking her eyes off the golden goblet, "However, that is not the only thing that interests me at the moment. Also…"

Da Vinci smiled, finally looking up at Olga Maria, - "The Show is on a commercial break. I think Ainz will need to spend at least a few more hours sailing to find the hidden Demon King and the Grail."

"Hm," Olga-Marie grunted in reply, "Looking at his actions, I'm not even sure that it will take that much time at all... It won't surprise me if in the next Singularity he will solve it so fast that if he had made tea in Chaldea then go on the Singularity, he will return from resolving the next conflict before the tea has time to cool down."

"That would be a funny thing to see," Da Vinci answered with a polite remark, after which she immediately returned to observing the Grail. "This conversation is nice, but I don't think you came to my workshop just for the sake of telling me a joke."

Olga-Marie sighed at Da Vinci's blunt reply, after which she looked around at Da vinci's workshop.

Da Vinci's work space, as always, was littered with trash, various pages of loose notes, and other various junks that interested the researcher. It is to the point that identifying something like an empty chair in this heap of garbage was an almost impossible task. As a result, Olga simply went up to one of the scattered chairs occupied by trash, then simply shoved several disordered pages from it. After the chair is cleaned off, Olga dragged the chair closer to Da Vinci.

"You could, at least for appearance sake, try to clean some of these things," Da Vinci nodded to herself.

"And put them where?" Olga then carefully looked at the rest of Da Vinci's office, fully littered with trash.

"Hm, point taken," Da Vinci, looking up for a second and looking around her office, nodded, then returned to her inspection of the Grail, "Hm, interesting..."

Olga fell silent for a few seconds, after which she looked at Da Vinci carefully.

"If you have any questions, then feel free to ask. While I am proud of my title as 'The smartest man on Earth', and am quite capable of defending it". Da Vinci grunted, "But, contrary to popular beliefs, possessing great intelligence does not allow you to read minds."

"The smartest man?" Olga looked at the body of Da Vinci, whose non-masculine forms continued to hang over the Grail. "Doesn't it seem that you have too big a breast to call yourself a man?"

"Believe me, Olga, there are a lot of men in the world with breasts no smaller than mine," Da Vinci nodded. "Besides, "man" and "woman" are a rather vague concept, actually. At least from my point of view."

Olga, having been silenced for a second by the nonsensical argument they were having, looked at Da Vinci seriously, "What do you know about Ainz Ooal Gown?"

"Hm?" Da Vinci was distracted for a second, of course not enough to cause her to cease carrying out whatever kinds of manipulations to the Grail that looked strange enough from the point of view of Olga, "Enough. But in general - no more than you."

"Ha?" Olga blinked, "Didn't you spend days and nights trying to figure out something about Ainz's identity?"

"Yes," Da Vinci nodded. "But by the end, almost all the information I have come to will be useless enough for you. Except for maybe one fact."

"What fact?" Olga looked at Da Vinci seriously.

"He really treasures his past friends," Da Vinci answered exactly that, after which she returned to her Grail examination, "Hmm, I didn't even think..."

Olga waited a little longer for Da Vinci to continue. She frowned at Da Vinci when nothing else came out of her mouth - "That doesn't really answer my question."

"Nothing of what I know will be a satisfactory answer to you," - Da Vinci shrugged, - "Ainz is the Divine Spirit, Servant, Man, Elder God, Destroyer of Worlds, God Killer, Mage, Wizard, Undead, Living disturbance of space, a walking anomaly, Alaya, Gaia, part of the Root - and believe me, these is only the start to the ridiculous list of everything that he is…"

Olga, having heard a similar answer, sighed and looked away, - "Yes, I already understood that he is something that we generally cannot understand…"

Da Vinci nodded at Olga's glib reply, after which she returned to her study of the Grail, again. Olga exhaled slowly out of her nose, exasperated by da Vinci's antics.

"I mean," Olga looked at Da Vinci carefully, "Not the nature of Ainz, but his... Personality. His character."

Da Vinci froze in her place for a second, after which she looked up at Olga. After another second, a broad smile began to appear on her lips replacing an expression that was before that, relatively taciturn. At least what counts as 'taciturn' to someone with her talkative personality. Da Vinci then squinted knowingly — "Ah, there it is!"

"What?" - instantly Olga went into full defense mode, she almost appeared to brim with spikes.

"Nothing," Da Vinci smiled knowingly, after which she returned to her study of the Grail, "Hah, I would never have guessed..."

"What are you talking about?" Olga looked at Da Vinci suspiciously.

"About the Grail, of course," Da Vinci answered easily, after which she looked at Olga, "If you are asking me about Ainz as a person... Hmm..."

For a second, Da Vinci even put the Grail aside; she was so focused on answering, and then nodded. "In that case, I would say that he is a smart, intelligent gentleman of an older age, playing the role of an older brother or father's figure to the Servants. In other words, it's completely your type, so I understand your infatuation. Lev, may he burn in hell, seemed to be the same personality type."

The mention of Lev's name would usually catch Olga-Marie's off guard, but any of her possible reactions to the name of the traitor being uttered was instantly swept away and crushed by another reaction.

"Is that what you are hinting at, you unfinished transvestite?!" Olga immediately shouted her insults, then immediately pulled away from Da Vinci.

"I am pleased to report that being in a woman's body and wearing women's clothes is not transvestism for me. And if one were to argue the point, then my conversion was completely completed, in terms of anatomy and physiology," Da Vinci smiled, and then sighed, "Don't worry, getting swept away by Ainz in your situation is very normal…"

"Who is swept away?! I'm swept away?! I'm not swept away!" Olga immediately tried to defend herself, to which Da Vinci only twisted one eyebrow in reply while continuing to watch Olga with a sly smile.

Olga, seeing Da Vinci's expression, as if saying "I see you through and through," only became more furious - "Absolutely not! I already forgot even about our kiss!"

After a second, realizing a very large secret had popped out of Olga's lips, she immediately fell silent in horror. This of course only made Da Vinci's smile grow even larger.

"Such fine details!" Da Vinci smiled, after noticing Olga's horrified gaze, she immediately hastened to clarify, "I'm talking about the Grail of course, no need to worry."

There was an awkward silence in the workshop as Olga was frozen by what she had just revealed and Da Vinci savoring the moment. After which Da Vinci, after waiting a few seconds for the sake of decency, nevertheless asked the question, "So what about the kiss?"

"It doesn't matter!" Olga immediately shouted at Da Vinci, as if to drown out her embarrassment. And then, with a glare drected at Da Vinci, she rose from her seat, "Well, this was a stupid idea..."

"Tell me, chief," Da Vinci smiled, not looking up from the Grail, "Who are you running from right now? From me, from Ainz, or from yourself?"

Olga froze half a step away from the chair, after which she looked at Da Vinci while almost wincing at what Da Vinci seemed to be hinting at, "I am not running. Escaping is an act of cowardice, and I'm not a coward."

"In the current situation, I would rather say it's of 'indecisiveness' instead," - Da Vinci, thinking for a second, then cast a spell, and then broke into a smile, "Oh, amazing!"

"Why did you borrow this Grail from Ainz?" In an effort to put the last conversation behind her, Olga-Marie changed the topic of their conversation, "Are you planning to use the Grail behind Ainz's back?"

"Hm," Da Vinci simply smiled at her suggestion, "No. If I wanted to use the grail for something, then I will just create something with the same functionality as the Grail... But I will definitely not take one from Ainz."

"Isn't the creation of the Grail considered to be impossible without the use of True Magic?" Olga gave a suspicious look to Da Vinci.

"It is," she agreed easily, after which she slowly raised her hand and gently touched her temple, "But I use this head not only to speak through it. To do the impossible is, one might say, my favorite thing."

"For example, to figure out Ainz?" Olga raised one eyebrow.

"For example, to figure out Ainz," Da Vinci easily agreed, after which she looked again at Olga, "If you came to me to find out his favorite color, dish, and what he prefers to do on rainy evenings, I don't have an answer to that."

"I didn't come to you for such things!" Olga instantly stamped her foot and began to huff indignantly.

"Then for what?" Da Vinci smiled. "So far, everything you have asked from me - apart from the light distractions - is exclusively of what I know about Ainz. Given that his nature does not bother you from a scientific point of view, and you have not shown interest in his history before, all that remains for me is to draw a simple logical chain."

Olga, hearing Da Vinci's points, fell silent, with her eyes glaring at the floor. Her fists clenched for a second, but instead of spitting out something like her previous denials, she nevertheless took control of herself and exhaled slowly. After she had calmed down, she looked up at Da Vinci, "So what?"

Da Vinci, distracted by Olga's uncharacteristic answer, looked up at Olga. And then, unexpectedly, began to speak softly, "You had a difficult childhood."

Olga, for a second surprised by the abrupt change in the topic of conversation, only reacted in the most obvious way, "What?"

"Among magis, a good family is the rare exception, not the rule," Da Vinci nodded. "However, judging by the way you close yourself to others, the very vivid manifestations of anger and attachment in romantic terms to father figures..."

WHAM!

The table in Da Vinci's office was not something created by Ainz's magic, but nevertheless the table was made of a fairly strong yew, so it had very good sturdiness and durability. And yet, when Olga-Marie's fist hit the smooth surface of the table, it rattled plaintively as if from fear of being destroyed.

"Shut up," Olga said sharply, after which she glared at Da Vinci. Unlike the previous times, the anger in Olga-Marie's eyes was not a product of her embarrassment, insecurity, or the somewhat comical anger at her closest deputy, Roman. No, it was real hatred, which burns hot enough to make even Servants to feel it completely.

However, Da Vinci only looked up at Olga calmly. She did not even stop casting spells at the Grail that Olga could not even identify. After a few moments she glanced at the table, which now were fashioned with the imprint of the chief's fist.

The human body is rather weak, however Olga, was not a normal human. She possesses the capability to do magecraft, and with it, she was able to strike with enough force to make the solid yew table crack a little and sag by half a centimeter.

Da Vinci, of course, by normal human standard of decency, was supposed to apologize for such behavior, but she did not do this, instead continuing to simply cast a calm look at Olga.

"I don't want anyone to ever talk about this," Olga looked at Da Vinci irritatedly, "Neither you, Roman, no one."

"What about Ainz?" Da Vinci answered challengingly.

Olga-Maria overcame the distance between her and Da Vinci in a few seconds. After which she grabbed Da Vinci by her collar, and pulled her up from her seat.

"Shut up or I swear by the name of Animusphere - I will find a way to make your life uncomfortable," Olga-Marie looked into Da Vinci's eyes without a drop of fear, but with a burning anger - and with complete confidence in her words, "Remember my words."

Before such an expression of hate, even a Servant would feel their seemingly uncontested position of the strongest rather shaky. However, Da Vinci...

"Well, well, you really are a stupid young girl," Da Vinci slowly ran her hand through the Olga's hair, while keeping a motherly smile on her lips.

Olga-Marie, unable to bear such a thing, pushed Da Vinci away from herself, and then staggered back - "ENOUGH OF YOUR RIDICULE!"

However, unlike her previous words - this time her voice was full not only of malice - but also of a barely restrained sobs stuck in her throat. For a second tears flickered in Olga-Marie's eyes - "ENOUGH! ENOUGH! ENOUGH!"

Da Vinci, looking at Olga's tantrums, only sighed, and then slowly turned away.

Olga-Marie, not paying attention to Da Vinci anymore, fell into a heap on her chair, trying to hold back the tears ready to burst out of her eyes. After which, with a trembling hand, she slowly reached out to a pocket in her chest and took out a pack of cigarettes.

Da Vinci, who had left after Olga's outburst, returned with cups of tea in both hands. She placed one in front of Olga-Marie and sat on the other side, placing the second cup in front of her.

Slowly, while looking at the cigarette smoldering in Olga-Marie's hands, Da Vinci took a sip of tea, and then looked at Olga herself. "Sorry, I would offer you sugar, but I'm afraid I lost it somewhere among my things."

Olga, hearing this, was distracted from her current activity for a second and then grinned grimly, - "There goes the 'smartest man on Earth'…"

Da Vinci just shrugged and took another sip from the cup of tea.

"Why..." Olga took another drag of her cigarette, after which she sipped some tea, "Why did you do this? You have to understand... To know how I will react."

"I knew," Da Vinci sipped a little more from the mug, "And I was ready for it. Even, perhaps, for a slap to the face - and was a little surprised that it didn't happen."

Olga-Marie only threw a murderous look at Da Vinci's direction as her answer and took another sip of tea.

"As for the reasons," Da Vinci slowly raised a finger and held it to her cheek, "Hmm... Like any wound, psychological wounds can be ignored, hoping that it will disappear by itself. However, sometimes they do not disappear, sometimes they give very serious complications instead. And then, at that point, there is no other choice."

"Are you telling me that was, what… Cognitive therapy?" Olga-Marie glared at Da Vinci.

"Rather a provocation," Da Vinci nodded. "And far from the most skilled one. I'm afraid I would not have been able to bring you into dialogue if you were not more aware of your problems."

A second later, Olga, hearing Da Vinci's answer. Exerted an excessive amount of force to her hands, causing the cigarette, which she held in her hand, to break, falling to the floor like smoldering coal.

"I did not ask you to 'help me,'"

"No one does," Da Vinci answered calmly, after which she took another sip.

The workshop was then silent for the next ten minutes. So much so that Da Vinci managed to bring the kettle of tea to the table and refilled her mug. She did all this without distracting Olga from her silent contemplation. In the case of such behavior, the most important thing was not to put too much pressure on the troubled individual, which would rather provoke a backlash than do any sort of help.

And yet, after about twenty minutes of silence and three cups of tea, Olga had managed to calm down completely and then look at Da Vinci.

"If you expect me to say 'thank you' or something like that..." Olga looked at Da Vinci carefully, but she only shook her head in response.

"Of course not," Da Vinci merely nodded. "I understand perfectly well how unpleasant it is to patch up old wounds."

Olga only sighed at Da Vinci's reply, after which she looked at the Grail uninterestedly, "Hey, why did you even need this thing?"

"The Grail is an interesting little thing in itself," Da Vinci nodded, "But more specifically... I think I found in the Grail a solution to one of our current problems. Palingenesis…"

"I already read the report," Olga dismissed Da Vinci's explanation, after noticing Da Vinci's peculiar look, she snapped again, "What?! I read the reports! Someone has to decide where everyone stays, what to eat and how the fuck go to the toilet, until everyone drowns in shit!"

"Yes, indeed." Da Vinci nodded. Of course, the Chaldea's staff remained a kind of 'invisible background characters' in Chaldea. They rarely interact with the Servants, especially Ainz, so their existence seemed faint. But indeed, someone had to support the workings of Chaldea's Core, to conduct the calculations needed to detect and establish contact with the new Singularities...

Da Vinci, like many other Servants, had almost forgotten about their existence. But, even right now, there is someone that is watching the operation of the local plumbing, checking the condition of the stoves and watching the results from S.H.E.B.A. Checking that it's results had not changed, whether the future is changed by their actions. With, albeit the weakest, hope that the solving of just a few puzzles that have arisen in the history of mankind called the "Singularities" could be the catalyst to saving Humanity.

And someone really had to manage the, albeit small, group of people. To distribute responsibilities and, in the current conditions they could be said so, privileges. At least Da Vinci had not heard anything about someone being thrown into Chaldea's Core - which in itself served as a good indicator that things were running smoothly.

"It's amazing," Da Vinci smiled, after which, noticing Olga Marie's suspicious look, she hastened to clarify, "I'm talking about the Grail. Regarding your situation, hmm…"

Olga sighed again, - "Well... Well, let's say that I have something like some feelings for Ainz…"

Da Vinci just nodded. "You and I already know about it."

Olga clenched her fists for a second, but in the end she still controlled herself and exhaled, "Suppose so."

"What's next?" Da Vinci looked at Olga.

"What?" Olga snapped back, "Nothing."

"Oh," Da Vinci said, but Olga, catching the expression in Da Vinci's eye, only exhaled.

"I mean..." Olga again slowly pulled out another cigarette from the pack, and then lit it. "Well, I have feelings. And so, what should I do with them?"

"How about by telling Ainz about them to start?" Da Vinci looked at Olga with confusion, not understanding the reason for her reaction, "I think that it would be a good start."

"Think again," Olga snapped out of habit, but in the end, shaking her head, nevertheless pulled herself together, "It's just... He is always surrounded by his Servants. Half of them can kill me with a look - and the remaining half will do just that if they know what I want to express to Ainz."

"But you already kissed him," Da Vinci nodded. "At the moment, this is the furthest that any of the servants of Ainz had got."

Olga blinked at Da Vinci, "Wait a minute... He has Serenity and Kiyohime at his side. I was sure that he did not take them with him to the Singularity because he was fucking them all the time between the Singularities."

"You will be surprised, but no," Da Vinci nodded. "For some strange reason, Ainz avoids communicating with them..."

"What about Medusa?!" Olga immediately looked at Da Vinci with even more surprise, "I thought that..."

"The situation with her is a little more complicated. In essence their relationship is, at the moment, hmm, rather friendly or even platonic rather than love," Da Vinci nodded. "True, this is more likely the fault of the fact that, after the previous Singularity, Ainz was in his true body. If he does not break his current body then... Who knows how everything will turn in the future?"

Olga blinked again, - "That is... A lot of very beautiful and devoted girls revolve around him... And he didn't even kiss even a single one of them?!"

"Only you, at the moment," Da Vinci nodded, and then looked at the ceiling, "True... Such a thing will probably not last long... Mashu causes me some concerns..."

"Mashu?" Olga raised one eyebrow, but quickly shook her head and threw off her obsession, "It doesn't matter. In any case, with whom Ainz decided to shack up with is no problem of mine, all the best to them. With this the problem is no more."

"Really?" - Da Vinci looked at Olga with a soft smile, "But what about you?"

"What about me?" Olga snapped right away, but looking at Da Vinci and her understanding smile, she calmed down immediately and took another sip from her cup. "I would say that there are many wonderful candidates out there who are better than me for the role of a lover for Ainz, so let what's natural happen."

"Better than me?" Da Vinci looked at Olga-Marie carefully, "And what do you mean by 'better'?"

Olga, looking at her, wrinkled her nose, - "They are Servants. They are all fucking strong magis, warriors, all of them are beauties to boot and would live forever with Ainz's support. It seemed to me that the choice is very obvious."

"I see," Da Vinci smiled, " an inferiority complex…"

WHAM!

This time, the blow came out a little quieter, but more destructive in effect. The cup in Olga-Marie's hands exploded into fragments when it impacted the table, splashing its contents on the pages scattered everywhere.

"You know," Da Vinci calmly took another sip, "It doesn't give me any pleasure to provoke you. Besides, you had just splashed some of my notes with tea. And what's more, you broke one of the two cups left in my workshop - so I really would like you to be a little more open."

Olga-Marie, looking at Da Vinci in disgust, nevertheless began to take a deep breath to calm herself, while taking out another cigarette.

"And what do you want to hear from me?" Olga looked at Da Vinci, "That I have lived all my life as a careless fool, a puppet in the hands of others, that I have no skills, that I'm a leader with the word 'failure' on my forehead, or that I will die at thirty?"

"The last one," Da Vinci nodded. "I would like to hear more about that — and why your father disinherited you."

"HE DIDN'T DISINHERIT ME!" Olga once again became enraged, after which, looking at Da Vinci who had remained calm, she slowly sat down. "There was no official document and, according to the Association, I still remain his heiress."

"Yes," Da Vinci nodded. "He never did have time to rewrite his will and notify the Mage Association... Before committing suicide."

Olga cast a glance at Da Vinci. "I begin to doubt the notion that you don't like poking at my old wounds while asking me if it hurts me or not."

"Believe me, I don't like doing this," Da Vinci nodded, taking another sip from the cup, and then looked at Olga, "But to find a solution to any problem, you must first know what problems you have first."

"You want to know about my problems? Where do I start?," Olga sighed, and then took a drag on her cigarette. "Okay, here's one for you. I started smoking because I would die at thirty anyway - cancer doesn't scare me. For the same reason, my father wanted to disinherit me, relations in our family needless to say have been very cold."

"Why?" Da Vinci just looked carefully at Olga, making her grin with an evil gall smile.

"It's hard to have a loving relationship with your father when they give you such a shitty birthday present," Olga grinned, but her eyes were far from laughing. "What you said 'that relationships in the family of magis are rarely good?' Well, here's a vivid confirmation for you."

After that, Da Vinci only silently continued to look at Olga, allowing her to slowly gather her thoughts and continue talking.

"My father…" - Olga-Marie almost stumbled over this word, - "Marisbury Animusphere, an honored member of the Mage Association, a great scientist, lived as an idiot. Not knowing the price of his word and his actions. And he was unlucky enough to cross those whom you should never dare to."

"And then, ha," Olga-Marie grinned again, "How was it said in the Bible, 'and the children will pay for the sins of their fathers?' I would like to tear the head off the idiot that came up with that shit…"

"For some reason, these people thought that the best way to punish an idiot would be to not tear just his head off, but instead to curse his child," after that Olga-Marie poked herself, "The future one at that. So this poor bastard immediately received a great 'birthday present', literally. And you know what? Of all the other shit they could do, they did just that."

Da Vinci looked at Olga, - "But initially it's effect was imperceptible."

"Of course," Olga grunted. "It was a curse deliberately made to only show its full effects in the future. It began to show its effects when I was just about fifteen years old. Even from when my wonderful new life has just begun, my circuits would have gradually degraded... More precisely, this degradation would start the rest of the curse's effect. At first, my ability to be a Master was lost, the first sign of degradation of my magical circuits. Then gradually my ability to use magecraft begins to degrade... Well, it will begin when I'm about twenty. By twenty-five, the body will begin to break down - and somewhere under thirty I will die."

"And what did the magnificent Marisbury Animusphere do?" Olga grinned. "Maybe he tried to cure the curse? Or perhaps take some blame over his stupid actions? No, instead having discovered that I was fucking cursed, he decided to find a replacement for an heir. And that bastard did fucking found one…"

Olga leaned back at her chair and looked at Da Vinci, - "Maybe he was a great scientist, a great magi, or even a great Lord - but as a father he was shit beyond comparison. And he died in a shitty way too, having put a few grams of lead in his body.

"The circumstances of his death were very suspicious," Da Vinci looked at Olga.

"I don't give a damn," Olga dismissed Da Vinci's words out of hand, "if someone had indeed killed him, I can only hope that the one who had done so lived his life happily and died of old age or choked on grapes on his cruise yacht."

Da Vinci carefully looked at Olga, - "You hated him."

"What an incredible conclusion!" - Olga feigned surprise, - "Indeed, the smartest person on Earth!"

Da Vinci exhaled, "God, how deeply is the hate rooted within you..."

"Well," Olga shrugged, "I was cursed because of my father, the father who planned to disinherit me and only by chance did not have time to do so. I, as a human being who is treated as a simple bad spot in the history of the glorious Animusphere family, then was given money comparable to a country's budget, a super-technological base and a couple of my father's acquaintances as recompense. Roman, an idiot whom father always cherished so much, and Lev, who was always butting heads with father. Because Lev always believed that Marisbury was doing something wrong with me…"

"And what!?" Olga looked at Da Vinci while getting up from her seat. "Maybe you are going to judge me because I had liked the only person who did not consider me to be defective crap that acquired her position only due to the accidental unsuccessful formal disinheritance and the suspicious circumstances of my father's death!? Or maybe you will indict a fifteen-year-old teenager's behavior when she was raised as if she were supposed to own the whole world, and then was informed that 'no, in fact you were cursed because of my actions, so I decided to refuse your birthrights, then I will take your name away and by the way, here, get acquainted, this is the one who will take your place, and by the way, he is better than you in everything, and you will die at thirty'. And all this is going to happen because she wouldn't be on the same level as mossy old schemers, who had survived cut-throat politics for five times longer than I had lived in the world!?"

"No," Da Vinci exhaled, "I will not be doing such unproductive things."

"The right choice," Olga finally inhaled after her long tirade, and then took several moments of taking large breaths before continuing, "And so, we arrive, too, right now. I was raised in a prestigious magi family, then thrown out of it, then was forced to return. Then I was killed, then resurrected by an inordinately strong mysterious being - and as a result I've become stuck in fuck knows where, doing fuck knows what, and the only person who had always treated me humanely was actually the person that killed me. Fortunately, I found a second person - who, besides not knowing anything the fuck about him, at least he had saved me, resurrected and is generally the only one who cares at least a little about my well-being. Yes, fuck, yes, I love Ainz, and then so what?! What could I do next?! I would die soon anyway. And if you were to rank my position in a list of worthy love interests, if you were to think about it, then I'm somewhere right after Fou and before Archer's kitchen knife?!"

"Hm…" - Da Vinci became thoughtful for a few seconds after enduring Olga-Marie's tirade, after which she looked at the Grail, "Resurrection..."

Olga, finally catching her breath a little from her full blown speech, sat down and sighed. She didn't want to speak more today, but she hadn't actually found out the reason why Da Vinci was interested in the Grail. So she looked at the Grail without much interest. "So why do you need this thing?"

"Honestly, I planned to convince Ainz to use the Grail to cause palingenesis on one of the Servants..." - Da Vinci nodded, "Because if he were to do so I could find confirmation for one of my theories... Palingenesis is supposedly able to repair the damaged core of a Servant. And, furthermore, I think I will be able to reduce the effect on the mind of the Servant involved in such a procedure to the absolute minimum. More precisely, to the minimum that an unexpected increase in the strength of the Servant itself will have on them. But here you have asked me an interesting question…"

Da Vinci extended her hand, - "Give me your hand."

Olga reluctantly extended her hand forward, after which Da Vinci, casting a spell, rose contentedly from her seat, grabbing the Grail.

"You know, true resurrection is impossible by all the rules and laws of magic that I know of," Da Vinci took a step toward leaving the workshop, "But, considering that this is Ainz we are talking about, I'm ready to change my worldview a bit. Especially after looking closely at one of his handiworks."

"That's what I was talking to you about," Olga grunted, finally restoring her identity as the 'impenetrable steel chief'.

"By the way," Da Vinci made her way to the exit, "I couldn't look at your curse before you were resurrected by Ainz. But I suppose it's effect was connected with the body, and not with the soul."

"And?" Olga looked at Da Vinci, waiting for an answer.

"Through the efforts of Ainz, you've been free of it for two months now," Da Vinci took a step outside the door and smiled. "So quit smoking. You have a reason to think about the future now."

* * *

Olga Maria received (3) levels!

Musician (1); Mage ~ Orpheus (2)

HP: 5 (+2)

Mana: 20 (+10)

Physical Attack: 2 (+1)

Physical Defense: 0

Agility: 7 (+2)

Magical Attack: 23 (+3)

Magical Defense: 1 (+1)

Resistance: 7 (+2)

Special Abilities: 0

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**So r u gonna spill the tea...or what? - Oh, my previous answer was deleted for some reason... Well, anyway, IDK, there is a few possibilities who Ainz gonna bang first and whom he would never bang, but as of now I can't answer this question with 100% accuracy.**

**Would Ainz freak out when/if he summons Angra Mainyu as there is a World Class item with the same name? - Freak out is a very big words for Ainz. He would be interested, but not shocked, more like "huh, the same name like that cool thing, that's interesting".**

**Still wondering if Ainz would ever buff his servants directly. - Wait and see.**

**You have plans to include events singularities? - No, except probably one.**

**Wait, but the Goal of All Life is Death is a buffing skill to his insta-death magic. - Yes, it is. And I never said that this is a spell or whatever. It is an ability. That became Noble Phantasm. So?**

**It doesn't actually kill by itself so wouldn't the target be whatever the magic's target is? - Did I ever say something that contradicts this info?**

**If I remember right "THE GOAL OF ALL LIFE IS DEATH" is one of Ainz's spells. - It isn't, it's his skill.**

**Was It Something That Ainz got After Maxing His Race & Becoming an OverLord? - Something the like, it's the bonus for maxing out Eclipse class.**

**I forget if it is Super Tier or 12th Tier, but I'm sure that it IS one of his highest Tier Spells. - There exist only 10 tiers of spells, some people consider Super-tier as 11th, but 12th tier doesn't exist. And no, this is not a spell.**

**So I don't get why you're saying it's a Noble Phantasm here. - And even if it was a spell - I see no reason why I couldn't make a super-powerful spell into NP. **

**Logically speaking, the reason she wouldn't still be cursed after being ressurrected is that Death is a big cure.- Well, as you see...**

**the actual way that "the goal of all life is death" works is that it removes any sort of resistance toward instant death spells on the targets - It's actually more of a buff to user, than a debuff to target so to speak.**

**but this means that it is AN ADDITION to the spell, not a spell in of itself - Yes it is. Now please, can anyone tell me why people started to think I don't know about it?**

**Are you going to be writing every singularity? - Seems like it**

**Last question Can he destroy this world with this skill? - Yes**

**Ahora la pregunta aun que realmente serán dos: ya que Chaldea esta dando saltos en el tiempo sera que en una de las singularidades conozcan a la Joven madre de Ainz y alguno de los Servant sea su padre? - 99% of no.**

**y la segunda en algún momento Ainz dormirá y los Servants conocerán su pasado en Yggdrasil desde su momento de mayor debilidad aquel donde Touch Me lo salvo hasta donde el esperaba el fin de Yggdrasil en la sala del trono? - It's a question about things way in the future.**

**Do you plan to make ainz to "punishing" top tier waifu servant ? - Depends on who do you consider top-tier waifu here.**

**So does his NP automatically kill everything in its range (in canon, it made it so his death spells were all guaranteed successes, so he had some control over who was targeted by choosing specific spells to use)? - I do know how it works in canon and no, it is not killing everyone.**

**What is its range? - Wait and see.**

**How strong do you think the Lostbelts compare to Yggdrasil? - Pretty low tier threat to YGGDRASIL, above full-power Cainabel and five heads below any real noticeable crisis.**

**And hey - there is a lot of new chapters! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	82. Chapter 82

Teleporting back to the Golden Hind, Drake's ship, Ains could feel the tension leaving his body. Everything worked out even better than he expected!

A second later, his spell, a spell which protected him from bludgeoning damage to some degree, subsided and Ainz was forced to slightly correct his assessment. Indeed, they tried to hit him when they were surprised by his teleportation, but after Ainz had immobilized them, they easily agreed to work with him. So even though he had encountered some speed bumps, Ainz could confidently congratulate himself on the fact that he once again had proved to be a good boss!

Meeting a new party, and worse a team of them, and asking for cooperation is always going to encounter a lot of problems. Ainz knew of this firsthand - and although he was never a boss, he had heard that a well-coordinated team is used in his old company company to decide how to test the strength of their potential partner when meeting a new business partner. This was not the most pleasant of occurence, but an integral part of the work of large companies. If you look at it from the point of view of Servants who were created as machines of destruction and assassination - something like "prove that you are strong enough for us to even bother listening to you" was quite expected. And the fact that Ainz had to prove his mettle in battle was perhaps a normal thing to Servants. Heck, didn't he have to do the same thing not so long ago with Drake?

"Oh, wow…" - Drake, a recent proof of such a line of thinking, took a step toward Ainz, - "You really did it... You had beaten the Argonauts like a group of bitches and had subjugated them... Admiral, my man, you are the coolest badassassest motherfucker that I know of!"

Ainz was slowly feeling a little uncomfortable, both from the praise and from how it was expressed, - "It was nothing special…"

"Nothing special?!" Drake interrupted Ainz right away, glancing at Ainz with a mixture of admiration and surprise, "You, my man, bitchslaped fucking Heracles!"

"There wasn't anyone strong among them..." - Ainz suddenly realized what Drake's words actually meant, "Heracles?"

"Who else?" Drake looked at Ainz with a huge grin. "Heracles himself! Or did you think that I couldn't kick Jason's ass? Pft, admiral, my flotilla would be enough to shoot his ship straight to the bottom of the Ocean, but Heracles remained the real problem... But you actually did it, you absolute madman, you actually bitchslapped Heracles! You're damn fucking cool, admiral!"

"Heracles…" - Ainz repeated again to himself, - "That is... The very same Heracles... The great hero... One of the hardest bosses…"

"I'm not sure about this 'boss' thing you're talking about, but yes, it's him," Drake nodded with a huge grin, watching the Argo beginning to approach the fleet, "Heracles himself, one of the coolest assholes the Earth has seen in all it's history!"

"Heracles..." Ainz repeated again while frozen in shock.

'I mean, it's not YGGDRASIL…' - Ainz felt his emotion being suppressed as his shock threatened to consume him - 'Holy... If I were actually fighting the same Heracles as in Yggdrasil... Oh my, I would have to use my WCI or call for help. And not just from his Servants, but a large amount of reinforcement from Nazarick... It would be enough if I had time to actually use my Noble Phantasm. Heracles was a boss who could cause damage with his weapons that could not be reduced by any ordinary abilities, was practically immune to all physical damage… And worst of all, he had a just inhuman level of regeneration, not to mention the fact that when his health is low he would fall into a berserker mode with a whole slew of new attack patterns. And all of these and it was just the first phase! In his third phase, he was a problem even for ten hundred-level players in specialized equipment... Once, back in the heyday of Ainz Ooal Gown, Ulbert once had to come up with some huge complicated plan to beat him. He had collected an insane amount of artifacts and he took two WCI with him to the battle! And yet he still only managed to defeat Heracles on the third attempt. And that was because of a happenstance combination of circumstances…'

Ainz shuddered inwardly at the memory of Ulbert's rants after he had managed to defeat him. The Heracles in Yggdrasil was one of the most powerful boss characters among the human races. Perhaps only comparable to Merlin, King Arthur, Morgan Le Fay... No, maybe even only with the Eternal Emperor, the Sun Guard... Well, there were plenty of these powerful bosses in YGGDRASIL - but all of them were bosses and any attempt to take them on alone was just suicide. The only one from this list that Ainz had once killed by himself was King Arthur. But such a thing only happened because he had managed to lure him into the trap that Amanomahitotsu had prepared beforehand. They had put two dozen debuffs on him, and then filled the battlefield with summons. And yet even with all this, he had only managed to defeat him by finding the split-second between usages of Arthur's ridiculously broken ability - '_Avalon_' to make him go into his second phase where he can't use '_Avalon_' anymore. After which, using the one second of delay between the transitions of his battle phases, catch Arthur with a cast of an instant-kill spell and then kill him with his ultimate skill 'The Goal of All Life Is Death'. A feat which took all of Ainz's ability to manage a battlefield. Were he to fight Heracles alone instead... haha...

Emotion suppression was activated a second time and Ainz exhaled.

While the idea of fighting Ygddrassil's Heracles fills him with dread, this Heracles has not become too much of a problem, at least not yet, Ainz once again sighed. If he were to fight Yggrassil's Heracles, he would have fled the battlefield and would have ceased any progress of the whole mission for the next couple of months. He would use this time to prepare all his abilities for an epic fight, a fight that he has no confidence in winning in.

"That's what I'm talking about," Drake slammed Ainz in an affectionate manner on the shoulder, "I don't know why you are so cool, but remember my word, you are the coolest badass motherfucker that I know of."

"Thank you," Ainz answered a little distractedly...

"HEY!" Ainz's thoughts were distracted by a loud shout from Nero, "YOU JUST BEAT HERACLES, DIDN'T YOU?!"

Ains saw Nero approaching him - Nero, who is bursting with anger for some reason. Although with the Emperor's youthful look, the truth was it looked like a childish resentment instead.

"Um... Yes?" Ainz answered hesitantly.

"HOW DO YOU DARE TO DO SUCH A GREAT THING WITHOUT MY PARTICIPATION?" - Nero, who had reached Ainz, looked at him with such a large amount of resentment that Ainz felt guilty of... something, apparently, that was very important, - "I! I, THE EMPEROR OF ROME! DID NOT SEE BATTLE WITH HERACLES! HOW COULD YOU?! I BELIEVED YOU! I TRUSTED YOU! I UMU YOU!"

Ainz suddenly felt that even the suppression of his emotions failed to save his poor mind.

Ainz's gaze then fell to Mashu who was hurrying to him and, expecting even further complication, decided to do what he had planned to do if Heracles from YGGDRASIL was in this world.

The secret technique, the last tactic to win any fight, the last trump card of Ainz Ooal Gown that allowed him to win any PvP battle.

Run away.

"Ahem, yes, I'm sorry for sure!" Ainz instantly acted, after which he looked at Mashu, who was already about to say something, definitely some kind of embarrassing praise, so he immediately started his plan, "At this moment I need to be present on a very important urgent matter! Definitely the key point of this Singularity!"

A second later, Ainz disappeared from the Golden Hind before Mashu could... First, praise him for defeating Heracles, and then tell him about the identity of her Servant half.

* * *

"Our fleet has become extremely... Lively with the presence of the new Admiral and his Servants," Mary Read glanced at the assembled crowd of Servants, who were discussing the new achievement of their admiral.

"And isn't that wonderful, Mary?" Anne Bonny lovingly stroked her musket, after which she stared at Blackbeard and his new friend, Mozart, hurrying somewhere.

Mary, looking at the same scene with her eyes, exhaled sharply, - "No."

Anne looked at the girl with a dumbfounded expression.

"This is not the type of fun I like," she said.

"Don't worry, Mary, big battles are definitely waiting for you soon," Anne smiled, after which she ran a hand through Mary's, who's wrapped in her cloak completely, hair.

Mary just looked up at Anne in response.

"What?" Anne smiled. "We are sailing in a huge pirate flotilla in the uncharted waters of the frontier in an unstable pocket world. It would be improbable for us to sail without at least one huge blood bath!"

Mary, hearing words that are quite inappropriate coming out of her friend's pretty face, nodded slowly.

"I'm not sure that we can manage to board any ship," Anne shook her head, "But I'm sure that in the end we will have some wonderful battle. The admiral is clearly collecting Servants under his command in preparation for a huge battle. And at the moment, including you and me, there are already... Fourteen of them! The Admiral wouldn't gather such a large group of strong combatants for nothing, right? We are clearly preparing for a grand battle!"

"I hope so," Mary, a sweet girl who was not taller than a child in size, only sighed so that anyone that hears her could understand that she wanted to take part in a huge battle, "So much time spent sailing and not a single fight... For us anyway."

"This is a temporary setback," - Anne dismissed the pessimistic thoughts of her friend, - "Just wait and you will see - it will be a real massacre!"

"Heh," Mary giggled a little, after which she looked at Anne, "But this time you won't steal my kills!"

"Never even thought of it!" Anne answered right away, smiling, after which she lovingly stroked a musket that is as large as herself, "But if I can find someone ahead of you with my baby's bullet, promise that you won't be too resentful!"

"But you are constantly 'finding' the ones that I have noticed first!" Mary looked at Anne with a frown, "I want at least a couple of trophies!"

"Okay, I'll leave some for you too," Anne smiled mischievously.

"What are you girls talking about?" A voice that spoke out near to them made the two girls look towards the man who had just appeared next to them.

Each part in the face and body of the speaker was polished to the highest level of beauty, where it was impossible to add even a single detail to improve the appearance of the speaker. Wearing black patent leather shoes, a gray formal suit, with a graceful cane in the hands of the man - everything in him looked so perfect that even Anne felt blood pouring on her cheeks.

"Girl secrets," she answered right away, a little coquettishly.

"Oh, is that so?" Baal smiled. "I hope you are not discussing me?"

"And if so?" Anne smiled.

"Then I would say my favorite phrase," Baal smiled seductively, "**Speak of the**..."

Without finishing what he is about to say, Baal froze in place suddenly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, ladies," Baal shook his head a little from side to side, "I sincerely wouldn't want to leave you so soon. But, alas, work awaits... In the end, as Ainz's right hand - I'm afraid that such a privileged position is always followed by the appropriate amount of responsibilities."

A second later, Baal took a step back, then literally dissolving into space.

"What a sweet young man," Anne smiled, "and what a handsome one at that..."

"I got goosebumps from him," Mary glanced at the spot where Baal had been a moment ago.

"In a good way?" Anne smiled.

Mary spoke very honestly, - "In a very fucking bad way."

* * *

"Tell me, my friend," Mozart sighed, looking at Blackbeard who is stalking forward, "Ah... Why do you need them?"

"Every true fourchan dweller keeps a stock of porn under their bed!" Blackbeard looked at Mozart in confusion, "These are traditions!"

"Wouldn't it be easier to simply store it on your computer?" Mozart looked at Blackbeard carefully.

"No shit my man!" Blackbeard looked at Mozart as if he's an idiot, "But if you haven't noticed, then the situation with the wireless Internet is kinda bad in this world, as in non-existent. Besides, as I said before, these are traditions!"

"Yes, of course, traditions," Mozart breathed out, "Traditions have to be respected..."

"Yeah, I have them under the bed!" After that nonsensical reply, Blackbeard took a step inside the cabin, "Come in, be at home — only you're not at home. And I'm also not at home. This is not a home at all, but a ship. And with that in mind - everything is like I said, be at home!"

Mozart took a step inside, after which he felt the pressure of the barrier descend on his shoulders.

"Barrier blocking the transmission of messages" - Mozart nodded to himself, after which he looked at Blackbeard. The now revealed traitor, realizing that Mozart felt the barrier, immediately stopped in his tracks, then spoke with a tone that is very different to his usual one, "The minimum precautions were taken."

"Did you notice it?" Blackbeard twisted his nose and sighed," Listen... I really haven't met any good fellow for a while... This guy will only get a bit of memory from you. So just don't move, or do anything unnecessary and nothing bad will happen to you"

After a second, a short figure of a man wearing more modern clothes appeared next to Mozart. The man wore a white T-shirt, a pair of jeans and with an ordinary, completely unremarkable face of a passerby who could pass by any observer's attention under ordinary conditions. His unexpected appearance next to Mozart could surprise a less prepared Servant, however, Mozart, having heard everything from a mile away, was hardly moved. And although the young man who was slowly approaching him did not impress at all with his ordinary appearance - Mozart could hear and feel the boards under his feet slowly caving in with each of the newcomer's steps. What's worse, the barrier that had to cut Mozart out from any help became denser the closer the stranger comes to him.

"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart," the man breathed out, taking a step toward the Servant, "Honestly, it's ironic that it's you of all people who got caught in this all... Indeed, no matter how you strive to run away..."

Mozart, hearing a mockery in the man's words, smiled, "Well, the last time I was trapped, I managed to escape. Who knows, maybe this time I will succeed too?"

After a second, Mozart's body was pierced by several stakes made from the rising boards of the ship.

"Hey, don't break the boat!" Blackbeard immediately complained with his friend, "And you promised that you would just scan his memory! Mozart no touch!"

"This is to prevent him from twitching," The man sighed, after which he took a step toward Mozart. Slowly, the disguised Demon King held out his hand, - "Now, please do not twitch - and I will read your memory…"

"OBJECTION!" After a second, a cane rested against the back of the head of the Demon King.

Catching Mozart's perplexed look, Baal shrugged, "Well, everyone here is talking with references — I also wanted to insert one."

The Demon King froze for a second, feeling a new, unexpected person to appear next to him, and then slowly began to raise his hands up, "What..."

"Stop," Baal said instantly, "Keep your hands in place."

"I will get tired," objected the Demon King.

"You can bear it," Baal sighed, after which he glanced at Blackbeard. He, as skillfully as possible, tried to falsely whistle to appear innocent, showing with all his strength that he was clearly not involved in this business, - "But I can guess... You wanted to ask 'what gave us away'?"

The Demon King, standing still, sighed, "Yes."

"Oh, this is a very interesting question," Baal smiled, "Cainabel would've probably not answer you at all and would just kill you... But, hmm..."

A second later, Baal fell silent and rolled his eyes, "**Speak of the Devil**..."

Mozart wanted to see if Cainabel really had appeared next to them - since even his hearing could not catch such information. But Baal shook off the possibility and smiled, - "Oh, it was not at all that difficult…"

* * *

A second after the monstrous Servant disappeared from the island, Beleth, after waiting three minutes, teleported to the island, while trying not to betray his excitement. Apparently, Balam had fallen into his own trap...

"Idiot," Beleth muttered to himself, shaking his head. Of course, there is always a need for an idiot in any plan. If he had wanted to put his head into the mouth of a lion, then Beleth could only sympathize with the idiot and include him in his own plan.

His plan had gone on swimmingly, that is of course until the thing with the bloody island happened especially that bloody Servant... Why did she even need to use her abilities and managed to see his mark on this island?! If it weren't for this, Beleth would now calmly be watching Balam's misadventures from his fully equipped shelter... But no, damn those two busybodies, the chance to observe the Servants of an unknown enemy is rarely given, so Beleth was forced to take this chance even though his cover is blown. Of course, just in case, before coming here, he had checked the island for their presence, but apparently the Servants had chosen to leave the island. Apparently, having received their confirmation, the strange girls had disappeared from the island... Surely they went to inform their Master that Beleth had been here and became informed of the place where an unknown enemy could appear... It is a pity, but apparently he will have to work quickly just in case.

Beleth felt his inhuman body, a column of flesh, descend on the sand of the beach, and then began to act quickly. Mana Sample, Track Sample, Servant's...

"KHA!" After only a second, Beleth suddenly felt a sharp pain blooming on his body. It is only due to the lack of lungs that he was now not spitting blood due to the damage inflicted on him, "WHAT?!"

Beleth tried to turn around - he was sure that there were no enemies on the island! He tried with all his effort to turn, but could not even budge a bit from his position.

"Teleportation! Teleportation!" - Beleth instantly panicked and tried to escape. But after a second a new wave of panic seized him - "Teleportation does not work! They had found us! "

"Problems, Demon King?" A girl's voice suddenly sounded in front of him before her figure appeared before Beleth from a vortex of teleportation, "You can stop trying to escape. The tintoy may be weak, but this does not mean that she cannot be used at all…"

Beleth froze, after which he felt the blade stuck in him slowly leaving his body. After another couple of seconds, he heard light footsteps in the sand behind him, and then next to the monstrous Servant. The thing that he had been afraid of all this time - a short-haired girl in a Gothic outfit - another girl had appeared. This one though he recognized.

"Attila!" Beleth instantly panicked. "Damn you Attila!"

"Don't twitch," Cainabel smiled, "Or it will be more painful for you."

* * *

"What was the chance that our team would accidentally run into Drake's drifting fleet in this Singularity?" Baal asked a rhetorical question, "In fact, not so small at all. She has a huge fleet that is plowing the seas - sooner or later it would most likely have happened... But why give fate a chance when everything can be taken into your own hands, right?"

Baal smiled, and then slowly pressed on his cane, pressing it against the skull of Balam's human body.

"Drake is an ideal puppet," Baal smiled, "Hot, playful, not smart, strong - and most importantly, with a great mentality. First beat me - and then say what you want to say…"

"It was so easy," Baal smiled. "Just pit Ainz against Drake. Indeed, in a fight with her, he would be forced to show at least some of his abilities. Just a drop - but still some information can be gained."

"The plan failed almost immediately," Baal shook his head, "nothing would be visible for a long distance, but you already knew about Ainz's barrier against espionage. Fortunately, you had a backup…"

"Can you be quicker please?" Mozart, in whose body wooden stakes were still stuck on, looked at Baal quite displeased.

"No, no, I like it, let him explain!" Blackbeard smiled, after noticing Mozart's chilly gaze, coughed into his fist, "That is... Yes, for sure, get to the point."

"Tsk, no style at all," Baal sighed, then, noticing the Demon King trying to slowly move his hand, he pressed his cane even harder, forcing Balam to slowly bow his head, "But, do remember to keep your hands to yourself! So, on what place I stopped... Oh yes, your plan... If such a slapdash of forlorn hopes, of course, can be called a plan - only three steps…"

"But you almost got caught in it," Mozart answered Baal.

"Yes, I got the wrong information," Baal shook his head, "Everyone was sure that there could be only one Demon King in a Singularity... But oh well, we had deviated from the topic..."

Baal thought for a second, - "And so, Drake is defeated, but there is no information to be gained, what to do?.. Hmm, so you needed to send someone whom Ainz won't be able to defeat so easily. For example, the Argonauts... Heracles, after all, is one of the strongest Servants in the world, it will definitely be easy for him to make Ainz become serious, won't he? Moreover, in order to secure his participation in the battle - it was only necessary to say that Jason had stolen the Grail. After all, no one will bother to communicate with someone who has already fought with their ally, Drake. They had stolen the Grail - and most importantly, if you just slightly twist the personality of Jason, so that he would immediately attack Ainz…"

"But that shithead swept Heracles effortlessly!" Balam spat through gritted teeth.

"Because your plan was destined to fail from the very beginning when Ainz had entered the game," Baal smiled, "But, fortunately, you had a backup plan."

"I can't call myself a connoisseur of modern culture," Baal shook his head, "But I am attentive. The plan to take control of Blackbeard was, of course, an elegant plan. A dirty idiot speaking an incomprehensible language…"

"Hey!" Blackbeard was indignant.

"No one will notice the difference between his normal behavior and when he is under control, no?," Baal smiled, "After all, no one cares about the way he speaks as he does, isn't it? Or is it?"

"Technically, the gathering of the four greatest Grand Blue pirates is called the Yonko," Baal shook his head, "But Blackbeard chose to call himself as one of the 'Shichibukai' instead, the traitorous pirates who had partnered themselves with the World Government, the enemy of the Yonko. Funny, isn't it?"

"Hold up, holdup, holup!" Blackbeard waved his hands around and looked at Baal in surprise, "How… how did you notice such a small thing?!"

"I am a very attentive man," Baal smiled and returned to observing Balam. "But, in any case, it made me think. It was so easy to unravel the essence of the trap - that's why I had supported the decision to execute Blackbeard…"

"Well, fuck you and thank you too, bastard!" Blackbeard looked at Baal, offended.

"I do not want to interrupt your great dialogue, explaining your great deductions. But, need I remind you, I am still pierced with stakes," Mozart glared at Baal.

"I am gradually coming to the end," Baal answered immediately, after which he looked at Balam, "So what was the plan? You were prepared for the fact that Ainz's fight would not be visible from afar - that means you had a way to see it closely. But how? Simple. It is to just find one who had seen it first hand and then steal their memory. Blackbeard was just like that - taken under control - not directly, but with a few easy mental manipulations... But you were lucky, Blackbeard was able to find and get along with someone better - quite by accident. Among Ainz's Servants, there was, perhaps, the only Servant whom Blackbeard would not offend enough to stain the ocean waters with his gastric contents…"

"Yes, enough already!" - Blackbeard flared up, - "I hate you dad! I mean, ikemen!"

"So you could trap Mozart and personally pump out the memory of his Master from him," Baal smiled with a sincere good-natured smile.

"By the way, talking about pumping out," Mozart piped up again, "My blood is currently pumping out of me!"

"And my dignity is dripping out of me drop by drop!" Blackbeard spoke out with a petulant voice.

Baal, tired of being interrupted in his villainous monologue, glanced at both Servants for a second, "_Silence_."

After that, the sound of the voices of both disappeared, allowing Baal to speak freely.

"Ainz is really brilliant," Baal smiled, "Instead of just getting rid of the rat, he found a way to use the rarest combination of Servants to pull the Demon King himself out of his hole without suspicion... Funny, did he see the future? Or did he just so perfectly planned everything out? Or maybe the plans of your "King" are nothing more than an open book for him, hmmm? Who knows…"

"Perhaps the only flaw in my plan was that without a personal meeting with you, I was not given the chance to find out that you alone are just a distraction," Baal smiled.

"What?" Balam jerked sharply, glancing at Baal, slowly coming to a realization "No!"

"Oh, yes," Baal plunged the mental knife into Balam with pleasure, after which he physically pierced Balam's body with his cane, "I asked you not to twitch..."

"The other Demon King is right now looking at the world with your eyes," Baal smiled, after which, enjoying Balam's surprised look, he nodded his head, "Apparently, friendship between the King's subordinates is not obligatory... What a pity…"

"You see, even if you die now," Baal pressed the cane harder, "And make no mistake, you will die now, don't worry, someone will be able to get at least some kind of information out of you... But, here's a coincidence of all the coincidences. Ainz had completely, by 'accident', sent the two Servants to the place where a Demon King equipped with an observation post. By 'accident' it turned out to be Cainabel and Altera, which attracted the attention of the Demon King. And then by 'accident' they attracted the attention of the Demon King with a huge transfer of mana that he could not ignore. After which, completely by 'accident', the now panicking Demon King caught the eye of the single Servant that could hold him back. A Servant that by 'accident' had been given a powerful artifact that could turn her invisible... Truly an accident of all accidents."

"And what will you do now?" Balam while dying, nevertheless looked at Baal.

"Oh, simply look at how the hunter and the hunted have their roles reversed," Baal smiled with a kind smile, "You wanted to get Mozart's memory and knowledge, but you're going to give me yours instead. _Control amnesia_."

* * *

Beleth looked at Attilla and the girl next to her.

"Air!" - suddenly he realized the reason for his paralysis - "The air around me is saturated with mana, so much so that it blocks my movement and teleportation!"

"Guessed it, huh? A tintoy can sometimes prove useful," Cainabel smiled at Beleth, and then took a step forward, slowly opening her mouth, which gradually transformed into a mouth of a monster, "But that doesn't matter. I want to hear your last wish."

"Tell me..." Beleth looked at Cainabel with one of his dozens of eyes, "How did you find us out?"

Cainabel froze for a second and then smiled - with her monstrous mouth, the smile came out horribly sinister - "I said that I will hear it, not that I will fulfill it."

After a second, Cainabel's mouth pierced into the flesh of the Demon King.

* * *

Beleth and Balam felt their minds and memories undergo careful analysis. Information about themselves - abilities, personal qualities, life before becoming the Demon Kings... Information that has now essentially become useless information.

Gradually, however, Cainabel's ability and Baal's magic plunged further and further.

Beleth suddenly realized that he couldn't get out of here alive. No, death was not dangerous for a Demon King — but these creatures... Whoever they were — they were able to destroy a Demon Kings irrevocably, with no chance of rebirth. In other words, their life was over.

And Beleth suddenly realized a simple truth.

He cannot escape from here. No way. Now they will simply drain out all the knowledge from him, and then they will kill him. However, Beleth also knew something else...

If right now he destroys his body, his core... Then they will not be able to receive any information from him.

But if he were to do that, it would kill Beleth. Irrevocably. The very concept of 'Demon King Beleth' will be destroyed. Even his King will not be able to return Beleth as he is. He will only be able to create his body and mind anew. In effect creating some other Demon King named Beleth.

Beleth grinned.

"So this is how he killed Lev and Baal" - Beleth understood it all, after which he looked at Cainabel who is devouring his body - "He represents a danger with his crafty mind and not with brute force, this unknown enemy... His strength is with his Servants. The unknown Master himself only guides them with his mind. He did not need to kill the Demon Kings - he only needed to force them to commit suicide. How... Cruel. "

Beleth grinned again and reached for Balam.

"I never loved you, asshole" - Beleth grinned right in his mind.

"You set me up, you shithead" - Balam exhaled.

After which both Demon Kings, realizing that they had no other choice, decided on their last action.

They both understood that they would die - but they could die as heroes, keeping crucial information and the plan of their King out of the hands of his enemy to the bitter end. Or they could die like beaten dogs, in a ditch, with everything taken from them by the enemy.

In this case, it was not heroism that forced them to act, but banal pragmatism.

After which both Demon Kings instantly turned to dust.

* * *

Cainabel teleported to Baal a few seconds later, forcing him to watch as Blackbeard wiped a pool of blood from the floor of his cabin. Using his hands and a rag.

"Let him suffer just a little bit," Baal answered calmly to Cainabel's raised eyebrow. "I suppose your Demon King also turned to dust for some reason."

"Yeah," Cainabel sighed, after which she looked at Baal, "But I managed to get some information."

"Good," Baal nodded, after which he glanced at Blackbeard. "Me too. What did you manage to get?"

"There are four Demon Kings in the Singularity," Cainabel glanced at Baal.

'Hmm, she didn't even bother lying…' - Baal was surprised for a second. With the information she possessed, it was too easy for her to give Baal the wrong information to undermine his reputation with Ainz... But she did not. Should Baal then have to answer her with gentlemanly politeness?

"Good," Baal nodded. "And there are two Grails in the Singularity."

* * *

**Type**: Self \ Anti-Target

On the one hand, 'The Goal of All Life is Death' as a Noble Phantasm is primarily a buff that enhances Ainz's abilities in a certain way. However, on the other hand, this Noble Phantasm has a special ability that could be aimed at any chosen target. Of course one could say that by narrowing the target of the ability to "Anti-army" or "Anti-fortress" or even "Anti-world" implies that there are targets on which this ability will not work on. This, of course, is not true. After invoking this Noble Phantasm, any designated target will be affected. Therefore, it is impossible to narrow down the reach of the Noble Phantasm with the more standard possible targets of a Noble Phantasm.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Will Ainz used one of his NP before the Solomon singularity ? - Probably no.**

**How do you think Ainz will react if he met King Hassan? - Something along the lines of "Wait, it's an undead?! Really?! Lol, never thought they can become Servants... Or is it a Servant that became undead? IDK"**

**And last question will Ainz do something about the situation between Rama and Sita? - Didn't think about it so far**

**Ainz can technically create over over millions tier spells with Wish Upon A Star, Ouroboros or Five Elemental Overcome - Technically, yes**

** If it buffs Ainz then it targets Ainz, the skill itself doesn't have an indiscriminate effect, then only aoe instadeath spells would be unable to target no? - Technically, yes**

**So why not just go with that instead of calling it a Buff? - Because it is a buff and you can read source material aka LN about it. How it looked in the anime is no concern of mine.**

**What happen if Ainz cast 'Black Hole' considering the lore become real in this different route than the Yggdrasil. - It will not be a real black hole trillions of kilometers wide if you are asking about it.**

**But the damage done to her magic circuits thus far is permanent, isn't it? - It was cured.**

**Could Dark Wisdom take Skills, NP or even Reality Marbles? - Technically, it can take some skills, but not much else.**

**Are you gonna do epic of remnant or skip to lostbelts. - I planned EoR so far.**

**Will everyone in Chaldea know that Ainz is from the game? - You will see**

**If he is summoned by the legend, he will be super powerful Your legend Made a universe - Whatever lore Yggdrasil creatures had absolutely tramples any other legend that may be associated with this creature just because both of different creatures share a name.**

**Can Ainz destroy the world without using any of his NPs or any Super Tier Spells? - Depends on the world in question.**

**Do you plan to write about all ainz female servants having friendly chat about what they think about ainz ? - Don't know yet**

**ya que todos conocemos que Ainz es un coleccionista es logico pensar que tiene algunos cientos de armaduras en su inventario y al darle algunas de ellas a sus Servants estos serian mas fuertes pero por que no lo a hecho? - Ainz has a lot of equipment that can increase powers of Servants**

**Btw in a fight against Tiamat who would win, Ainz or She? - Ainz**

**She's gonna roll around on ainz bed right? - Not yet, that's for sure**

**Could Ainz gain any skills from acting as Momon the black swordsman? - Not in a sense of leveling-up skills, that's for sure.**

**How do you like my discription? - Not bad**

**And hey - there is a lot of new chapters! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	83. Chapter 83

"So" - The Demon King named Aim practically gritted his teeth - it was only the lack of teeth in his current body that stopped him from actually doing it. Such a course of action was provoked after he heard a voice that he wanted to hear the least in the world.

"Hmm hmm hmm, what is this smell that I am smelling... Oh yes, this very particular vile smell, it is as if someone had just shit himself after their 'miraculous', 'brilliant', and 'absolutely-can't-be-outsmarted' plan… failed"

"Shut the fuck up, Focalor!" - Even though Aim was barely on the cusp of a breakdown, it was not Aim who snapped first, but Astaroth. Of course it was only logical that Astaroth would be the one with the least amount of patience for Focalor's needling. As the creator of the plan and the chosen observer of the entire operation, he was the one who is most sick of hearing Focalor's barbs- "Or I swear by my King, that I'll send you straight to rebirth!"

"Well, at least I'll be able to be reborn!" - Focalor spat back in Astaroth's face - "Not like Balam and Beleth, apparently, no... Oh, oh, how could such a thing happen, and who is to blame..."

"Your parents clearly failed in disciplining you if you still haven't learned to keep your mouth shut!" Belial exploded at Focalor who kept running his mouth - "We already lost two of our colleagues, and, what's worse, only finding it out when we had received a last signal from them. So, maybe, rather than yapping on and on you instead shut up and start thinking on a course of action, and not just blabber on?!"

"I already gave you my plan!" - Focalor gladly replied with as loud a voice as possible - "Did you already forgot? From the very beginning we had two plans. One is us arranging the Singularity in such a way to force the enemy to go through a bunch of 'coincidental' fights and encounters that only an idiot will not see through to figure out their abilities and possible weaknesses. Finally after these confrontations kill them, somehow. And the second one, my plan... Oh, it was basically to do the same thing, only without any unnecessary steps. Without arranging any 'coincidental' encounters, without having the Grail fall into the hands of the enemy. And lastly, and most important of all, not playing a strange game of giveaways and just nuking the enemy straight to hell! "

"We acted quietly so as not to give up our presence to the enemy" - Aim tried to object calmly to the now shouting Focalor.

" Oh wow, what a great idea! It must be so successful?!" - Focalor, however, did not buy the excuse even for a second - "Oh no, wait, the plan is shit and already two of us are dead, the Grail is lost and! we! know! nothing! about! the enemy!"

Each word of Focalor was pronounced with so much poison that it would be enough to kill the population of a couple of cities.

"Focalor, calm down, you shouting will not help us in any way." Aim tried his best to calm the fuming Demon King. "As it has become obvious now, the original plan needs to be changed - and changed quickly at that..." Aim was the first to admit his mistake.

"We still have the trump card!" - Astaroth exclaimed. Of course, it was still not easy for him to admit that, currently, the part of the plan that he had developed was rendered useless - "No one, not even this 'mythical' enemy, can withstand the power of the Ark of the Covenant!"

"And what will we do if it fails? Are you ready to die if you're wrong again?" - Focalor replied to Astaroth viciously.

"You didn't do a damn thing in this Singularity!" - Belial came to the aid of Astaroth - "It's easy not to make any mistakes if you do nothing!"

"So instead it's better to just die stupidly?" - Focalor then twisted his face into an appearance of mocking astonishment - " Oh what Wisdom! Such Great wisdom has just been revealed to me! Hurry up and gather everyone, Belial's overwhelming display of Wisdom is on display for everyone today!"

"That's it! I am going to disintegrate you into atoms!" - Belial finally lost his patience for Focalor, but Aim knew that he would not carry out his threat... At the moment. Probably.

"You can only give out threats when you can ensure that you won't die first!" - Focalor gallantly grinned back - "And you know, judging by how the Singularity is going - I'm not sure about that..."

"Enough" - Aim intervened in the fight - "You can tear each other's throats out after the end of our assignment..."

"That is if, in the end, we have something to tear up" - Focalor spat out.

'Moral seemed to be on the edge of fraying…' - Aim sighed. Of course he didn't broadcast what he had just thought to the rest of the Demon Kings - 'Not good…'

The Demon Kings were slavishly faithful to their King, Father, and God. They obeyed him and carried out his orders without question... But, alas, this fidelity was not absolute. Of course, it doesn't mean that their loyalty is weak in any way. On the contrary, it was very strong, as strong as a loyalty could be to their Creator, who is capable of reviving his subjects at any moment of time, capable of granting his subjects strength and also capable of taking it away - but still not absolute. Rather, this fidelity was similar to how people believe in their god - a very real, physical god, that is capable of giving them advice, strength, guidance and prohibitions... Fidelity to a god supported by his constant presence is stronger than that of a metaphysical faith in some invisible creature with unknowable thoughts. But at the same time, it is much more vulnerable. It is difficult to maintain faith in the omnipotence of one's god when there is someone capable of challenging this omnipotence.

In other words... Confusion among the Demon Kings would be very dangerous right now. However, it would be even more dangerous if he were to ask the King to replace Focalor. Such an act would only show the rest of the Demon Kings that their seemingly monolithic loyalty to the King has cracks. And, as was widely known, even one small crack was enough to destroy any structure, destroying the wall that seemed to be so indestructible.

"Focalor, your remarks, although full of bile, are not without merit" - Aim was forced to intercede in the ongoing verbal altercation, trying his best to calm down the Demon Kings currently threatening to kill each other - "You were right and your original plan was more viable..."

"Are you serious or are you just high?!" - Astaroth was the most indignant about Aim's words - "If we were to go with Focalor's plan, then it would go against the direct orders of the King to 'not show yourself'!"

"Gathering information is higher in priority now," Aim sighed. "Especially considering that the enemy has become aware of our existence now..."

"Well, finally! Someone acknowledging my merits!" - Focalor figuratively raised his hands in the sky while simultaneously rolling his eyes in a tired pose of victory. An impressive feat, as he was able to convey such complex emotion exclusively with the tone of his voice - "I'm going to have to celebrate it or something..."

"The past is already past," Aim sighed again. "At least at the current stage of the plan... In any case. Yes, we made a mistake, but you are also on the same team with us, and no matter how much you would like to gloat you need to control yourself. We, having made a mistake, are all in a bad situation."

"'Bad situation'? Is that your version of 'up shit creek without a paddle'?!" - Focalor rolled his eyes - "We were discovered, the 'genius' plan went to hell, we have no intelligence about the enemy - and, what's worse, even the fucking Grail is lost!"

"We still have time to pick up the second Grail and bring down the Singularity" - Belial answered solely for the sake of settling the dispute with Focalor - "We know where it is located and the four of us are overwhelmingly capable of defeating those who now control it..."

"Will you be able to give me a guarantee that this 'second Grail' is not simply another trap set for us?" - Focalor chuckled - "Or what, did your 'miracle plan' not account for the possibility that they will now be hunting us?! Yes, this Grail is probably already furnished with so much observation and signaling spells that it would rival the Vatican cellars! "

"The witch's magic interferes with my long-distance observation" - Astaroth was forced to intervene in the conversation, admitting his weakness - "Even if she is only a Servant, she is one of the greatest magi in the history of mankind..."

"Yeah, fuck you and your problems, Astaroth" - Focalor did not even hesitate in expressing his hate- "I always knew that you are a miserable shit of a magi."

"I will turn you into such a figure - that even until the end of your immortal existence you will still be trying to disconnect your anus from your mouth!" - After Astaroth lost his calm, Aim believed that the threat of internecine conflict was very real and was forced to intervene.

"ENOUGH!" - a wave of fire went through the minds of each of the Demon Kings, causing everyone to hiss from the more than unpleasant sensations - "The Grail is lost, this is already fact. So stop whining and gnawing, we have to work!"

All the Demon Kings were forced to gnash their teeth in front of each other's nose for the last time before returning to coming with a plan of action.

"Well, so what are we doing then?" - Focalor asked the question first.

"We are going to wait for an opportunity to strike," Aim sighed. "The Grail will be doing the work for us. Even if the second Grail is lost - we still have the one."

"What? All that complaining, and in the end, you still took my plan..." - Focalor inhaled, preparing for another rant. But after feeling Aim's intense gaze on himself, he was forced to exhale - "Yes, I know, I know... What then are we waiting for?"

"Good," Aim exhaled. This time, he had managed to calm down the feud between the Demon Kings. For how long - was a much more important and yet harder to answer question... - "Listen, this is what we are going to do..."

* * *

Currently Ainz had nothing important planned for the moment. And for the immediate future he also had nothing important planned. Speaking directly and openly, he generally had no plans for this Singularity - except for 'killing everyone and then taking the Grail' - there was nothing else. However, due to the fact no else had even an idea that Ainz is not planning on doing anything important alone- after his teleportation to his own cabin, no one bothered him, allowing Ainz to relax and think.

"This is not Yggdrasil" - Ainz shook his head - "This is definitely not Yggdrasil..."

This fact, of course, was obvious to Ainz for a long time now and is easily understandable. However, even though the differences are stark and Ainz could easily distinguish between the two, Ainz still find it hard sometimes to differentiate between the two. After all, Ainz still possessed all the same abilities that he had possessed in Yggdrasil… So, is it that strange that Ainz sometimes forgets the distinction?

Ainz, in his introspection about the differences in his ability with those that he has in Yggdrasil, then became focused on his Noble Phantasms. He then shook his head - well, just with a quick look, he could conclude that he had even more abilities in this new world than in Yggdrasil. And these abilities that he also had in Yggdrasil functioned in almost completely the same way. That is, of course, all the abilities except for the changing of equipment and his Noble Phantasms - were used in exactly the same way as before. It is to the point that Ainz could instinctively, without the help of control pads or pre-prepared commands, use them seamlessly. He knew about their features, functions, mana costs and even their cooldown. In other words, except for a few changes, he was still the same as his Yggdrasil character. Still using the same abilities and the same mechanics as before. However, a question has arisen in his mind - was he the only one who is unique in this way, or is there someone else?

On the one hand, the concept of Noble Phantasms did not fit into the framework of Yggdrasil itself. The concept of 'Servants' also should not have been subject to the rules of Yggdrasil at all. And yet, at the same time, his immunity to magic or physical damage completely countered the various spells or attacks of the Servants according to the rules of Yggdrasil. Automatically assigning a suitable rank to the magic and attacks of things that did not exist in Yggdrasil at all. In other words, the Servants were not part of Yggdrasil - and yet, clearly, they were not absolutely 'foreign' objects for him. What were they? The riddle...

Additionally, the fact that not only one or two Servants had the same names and, in a sense, the same abilities as their counterparts in Yggdrasil made the situation even more murky. Of course this isn't true all the time, some of the Servants he had met differ greatly in their appearance as the one in Yggdrasil. And even more importantly than that, is that their level of strength was radically different from what Ainz might have expected from the same Hero as the one in Yggdrasil. Ainz, as the person who preferred to have a plan in any battle, was not sure what he needed to do to bridge this conundrum. The simplest example for this discrepancy is Heracles.

The Heracles in Yggdrasil was, strictly speaking, a killing machine to match his status as a boss. If Ainz were to fight with the Heracles in Yggdrasil, then in the best of the best cases he would have started the fight by equipping himself appropriately, then stacking all his buffs and summoning all of his free summonable MOBs in the first ten minutes of preparation and while remaining some distance away. Finishing his preparation he would start the fight by using the most destructive of his Supertier magic as the first move. After the fight began for real, he would then use his MOBs as meat shields in preparation of a long-drawn fight. And yet, even after all of this preparation, he would still, 9 out of 10, lose miserably.

Preparing to fight Heracles in Yggdrasil is comparable to preparing to fight with a force of nature, one that he prefers to stay far away from. And yet, as recent history has shown, fighting Heracles in this new world requires no such preparation. If Ainz had any premonition that he would be fighting someone even partly as strong as Yggdrasil's Heracles, he would prefer to simply avoid the fight.

Fortunately, as of right now, Ainz had never encountered such an enemy. But, even if the chance of meeting such an enemy is very low, if Ainz simply carried on thinking that 'there are no Servants stronger than me in the world' - he would risk one day to pay very dearly for his arrogance. Even if Ainz hadn't met Servants that are strong enough to threaten him - this did not mean that they did not exist at all. This also does not preclude the fact that a Servant might exist that even though they may be weak in a fight did not discount the fact that they might have special abilities that could threaten him.

One that he could use as an example is Jeanne's second Noble Phantasm. If he were fighting Jeanne and she used that Noble Phantasm, it would be a very unpleasant surprise to Ainz. So the best course of action for him was to not think of himself as unassailable, and remain vigilant..

This lapse in judgement had already caused him to make a lot of mistakes in both extreme laxness and caution. In Orleans, barely knowing about the existence of Fafnir and the many Servants of the Dragon Witch, and by putting his absolute safety as the center point, Ainz had decided on a plan that resulted in the death of almost all of his Servants. On the flip side, as soon as he became lax in Septem, his enemy had then exploited this opening to kill almost all his Servants, again. The enemy had done this not with brute strength, but with cunningness. In other words, both excessive caution and laxness were detrimental in this situation.

In other words, Ainz needed to find a sound balance between these two things, ceasing to be afraid of each enemy, even those that had the same as those that he had known in Yggdrasil. And, still, at the same time be prepared for the appearance of a strong enemy, which could demand from Ainz all his strength to deal with.

Ainz nodded to himself, finding the answer to the problem that had come to his attention. After a short while he heard a knock on the door to his cabin.

"Come on in," Ainz instantly took on the pose of the proper boss as soon as he received a visitor, after which he carefully looked at the Servant who had appeared on his doorstep. "Baal?"

"Exactly, my lord," Baal nodded, and then entered the cabin. "I'm sorry for bothering you, I had heard that you are contemplating on an incredibly important part of your current plan. But I have received some important information, so I hasten here to inform you."

"Of course," Ainz breathed out. Telling Baal that he had no plan at the moment was probably a stupid move - "What did you find out?"

"According to your instructions and thanks to your efforts, Cainabel and I had managed to capture and destroy the two Demon Kings," Baal smiled, "Unfortunately, they were able to prevent us from getting some of the important information, but I and Cainabel managed to get some of it."

"Ah," Ainz nodded. "Oh yes, that one..."

"..." - Ainz tried his best not to blurt out the overwhelming desire to ask a question - "...what?.."

"Yes, we managed to confirm that at the moment there are six Demon Kings present in the Singularity, of course, after our intervention there are only four remaining. What's more, there are also two Grails in the Singularity - and I suppose that it is the interaction between two Grails that gives rise to the current instability of the Singularity. I am not particularly confident in my magical knowledge, so I would like to look at the Grails in this Singularity before making a judgment. However, it seems most likely to me, is that the two Grails are in conflict with each other because one Grail is the 'Grail of the Singularity'. That is, the reason for the creation of this Singularity, while the second Grail is the 'original Grail'. A Grail, which was supposed to exist in this world at this time. And, apparently, the attempts of the 'Grail of the Singularity' - to create the Singularity are met with a resistance from the 'real Grail' and its attempts to maintain the world around it in its 'real' form, inadvertently also preserving the original human history."

Ainz would gladly ruminate on the bevy of new information that he had just received. He would be doing this if , at the moment, his mind was not currently filled with white noise, which completely erased Ainz's ability to hear or even to understand what Baal had said.

"Good," Ainz could only nod when his suppression of emotions pulled him out of his strange trance. "It's good that you got this information, but... What about the Demon Kings?"

"The Demon Kings?" Baal flinch, "Oh yes, we… didn't succeed in capturing them... I'm sorry, my lord, but after we were able to disable their movements and was draining them of their knowledge they suddenly turned to ash as we were doing so. I assumed that this was due to some built-in self-destruction mechanism that they themselves activated - which in such a case shows their sufficient commitment and loyalty to their commander. Or perhaps it was activated remotely - which would show the extreme personal interest of their 'King' in concealing information about their identity and for it to remain in secret. The death of the Demon Kings was absolute and almost instantaneous. Unfortunately, this means that any opportunity to get any more information from them is now impossible. Fortunately, this also means that any leakage of information about your plans and our actions is also impossible."

"This…" - Ainz sighed, - "Well, of course, such a thing is important. But I wanted to know about something a little bit different. In particular, hmm... How did you manage... To catch the Demon Kings unaware?"

"Oh, of course it's all thanks to your plan, my lord," Baal smiled.

'My plan, huh?' - Ainz sighed. 'My plan, haha ... Well, of course, my plan! Oh, my wonderful plan! Oh, this great comprehensive brilliant plan! The plan to end all plans, which includes all other existing plans in the world, extends for millennias ahead and knows absolutely all the possibilities for the development of all events! Oh, my plan, truly, the most ingenious plan of all plans!'

After a moment, the suppression of emotions prevented Ainz from emitting an exhausted moan and then covering his face with his hands from hopelessness, at the very least the remaining emotion made him look into the face of Baal.

"Hm, that's how it is..." Ainz sighed, "So everything went according to my plan..."

"Definitely, my lord," Baal nodded and smiled.

"In that case... Ahem... How exactly did the plan go?" Ainz nodded carefully, trying not to give away his inner tension, "Tell me about it. Perhaps some detail may be suspicious or subpar... In the implementation of my plan. And I need to know more about this... Definitely, this is necessary for my further planning…"

"Of course, my lord," Baal smiled and began to tell what had happened.

* * *

"I'm dying!" Nero sprawled theatrically on the side of the ship, placing her hand to her forehead, "What a sad outcome for the emperor of Rome!"

Altera looked disinterestedly at Nero. Nero waited a few seconds, sighed, and then looked at Altera.

"You should have asked what had happened to me!" Nero pointedly pointed a finger at Altera.

"Why?" Altera carefully answered at Nero in response.

"Because I said so!" Nero rolled her eyes, as if she was saying something obvious, and it was Altera who was strange in not understanding, She then exhaled, "So, again."

"Oh no, I'm dying!" Nero leaned back on the side of the ship once more.

"What happened ?" Altera carefully looked at Nero, asking the necessary question.

"Ainz is outperforming me!" Nero dramatically spread her arms side to side. "Oh no, I can see it now, I can see it! The breath of death comes to me - my title as the best Servant in the world is at stake!"

"Ainz is technically not quite a Servant, so technically speaking, your title as the best Servant is not in jeopardy," Altera glanced carefully at Nero, "Of course, who deserves the title of best Servant is a controversial topic of discussion and you need to present the reason of why you are better than the other Servants to obtain the title."

Nero fell silent for a second, after which she glanced at Altera while pouting, "You spoil all the fun."

"Really?" Altera glanced at Nero and slowly bowed, "Then I apologize."

Nero, seeing Altera's behavior, only rolled her eyes, "Ugh ... What's wrong with you?! Why can't I even really get mad at you ~ umu?!"

"This is a difficult question," Altera nodded slowly, "but I can assume that your absence of malice is related to how difficult it is for you to experience negative emotions because of your character and personality..."

Nero, hearing this, sighed, - "Each time you speak it became more and more difficult to communicate with you…"

"I apologize," Altera was not sure what exactly she is apologizing for, but as her interactions with Cainabel had shown her, sometimes it was not necessary to know.

"AAAAAAA, that's enough!" Nero grabbed her head, "That's enough, you won, won!"

"Um... Thank you?" Altera glanced at Nero a little in surprise, "But still, I won what?"

Nero, unable to bear it anymore, instantly grabbed her head in frustration, after which, coming to a conclusion slowly dropped her hands.

"Okay, forget it!" Nero instantly pulled herself together and looked at Altera with a grin, "Exactly, if you defeated me in this battle, accept responsibility ~ umu!"

"Um..." Altera nodded with uncertainty, after which she looked at Nero, "Of course. What exactly needs to be done?"

Nero looked at Altera and dropped her hands, "No, well, I don't play like that! It's like you don't want to talk to me at all!"

"I don't want to," Altera answered honestly. Her conversations were very worrying at the moment. Truthfully speaking - she had no practical reason for speaking with Nero, nor does she have a question to ask Nero. And, even if she had, she would have turned to Cainabel or even directly to Ainz with them, and not to Nero.

Nero, having heard a similar answer before, grabbed her heart theatrically, and then looked at Altera.

Altera saw moisture flashing in Nero's eyes...

'Tears?' - Altera was a little surprised at this. It seemed tears appeared in an instant in Nero's eyes - 'Because of what?'

In Altera's memory, there were several logical reasons why an ordinary person could cry - from pain, bitterness, or even powerlessness. But, in this situation, the most suitable as the reason for her tears was 'from disappointment'.

Altera froze in place while looking at Nero.

As the Great King of Destruction, the avatar of the god of war, and Attila the Hun, Altera had no emotional reaction while looking at the tears of humans.

But, as she looked at the tears slowly appearing in Nero's eyes, at Nero's slowly shaking lip, and at how offended and defenseless she looks at Altera...

"It was a joke," Altera sighed as her defense crumbled.

Nero, hearing Altera stopped moving, - "Really?"

"Yes," Altera did not actually know how to lie, but in this case, her usual lack of emotion benefitted her greatly, "That, ahem, was a friendly joke. Actually, I really want to talk to you."

Nero, frozen for a second, then started to smile, after which she quickly wiped away the tears from her face and frowned. "You have a terrible sense of humor!"

"Probably," Altera sighed. For some reason... She did not want to see Nero becoming upset because of her words.

"Umu!" Nero glanced at Altera with a look of 'that's it!'. What 'it' she had in mind, Altera could not determine, but, exhaling and looking at Nero, shook his head.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?" Altera looked straight at Nero.

"Ah?" Nero thought, as if she had completely forgotten what she had been talking about all this time, after which she nodded her head, "Ah, sure, yes! The Title ~ umu!"

"The title?" Altera glanced blankly at Nero.

"I feel inadequate next to Ainz," Nero sighed. "You can judge for yourself - he had captured a whole fleet, defeated Heracles, and then destroyed the two Demon Kings - and all this in a day! This is simply incomprehensible to the mind ~ umu! Seriously, I am already beginning to doubt which of us is the emperor - and the emperor is me! I must not doubt myself!"

"Hm... Okay," Altera nodded. "In that case, what exactly are you planning to do?"

"The title!" Nero repeated again, "If I come up with a title for Ainz, then I won't have to doubt which of us is the emperor — because Ainz will be... Something that I have not yet come up with. But the main thing is that if he has a title - that means he will have a certain position in the world - and therefore I will not have to worry about mine!"

"Ahem..." Altera thought for a moment. In a strange sense, it sounded logical, - "And what exactly do you want from me?"

"You are the Great King of Destruction!" Nero smiled smugly. "Judging by this fact, you should know a couple of beautiful titles!"

"But..." Altera fell silent for a second, "People gave me this title, I didn't invent it myself."

"But as someone with such a beautiful title for so long, you must be able to come up with some good ones ~ umu!" Nero smiled as she finished her illogical point.

"Hm," Altera thought sincerely for a second. A beautiful title... - "Then, maybe... The Great King of Death?"

Nero thought about it for a second, and then lifted her hand in the air, - "A bit harsh for my taste. But let's leave this as a spare one."

"Great King of Necromancy?" Altera suggested another one.

"Hmm, that doesn't sound right either," Nero thought for a second, then smiled. "Oh, I know a beautiful title! The Emperor!"

"But.." Altera blinked in confusion. "Isn't that your title?"

Nero smiled mysteriously, - "Junior Emperor!"

Altera was not quite sure of her feelings regarding such a position...

* * *

"I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!" Drake rushed forward. Only by a miracle - a miracle and innate dexterity - that allowed Blackbeard to avoid the bullet that whized next to Blackbeard just a second ago.

"It was a coincidence!" Blackbeard ran across his ship, frantically dodging from side to side, "And stop fucking up my ship!"

"I WOULD SINK IT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN!" Drake rushed after Blackbeard, "FACE YOUR DEATH LIKE A MAN!"

"I lived as a 4chaner - and I'm gonna die like a 4channer!" - Blackbeard suddenly crouched, letting a bullet whistle by above his head, - "Huddled in my closet while jerking off, and not from your bullet, old hag!"

"OLD HAG?!" - Drake, already blazing with fury, rushed after Blackbeard with tripled frenzy, "I WILL HANG YOU AND WILL USE YOUR BODY AS A FUCKING PRACTICE TARGET!"

"Oh, captain!" Looking out from the cabin for a second, a random sailor stared in surprise at what was happening, "what's happening..."

"MOVE AWAY, LANCEL!" Drake, flying past the scared man, pointed his gun at Blackbeard, who had already jumped from his ship to the neighboring one, "I WILL TURN YOUR SHIP INTO A FUCKING OCEAN DECORATION BLACKBEARD!"

"Don't touch the Queen of Tsundere's Revenge!" Blackbeard only managed to stick his head out for a second from his hiding place before a shot from a percussion pistol - which had become part of the Servant Drake - struck the ship's boards next to Blackbeard's position.

"HAVE YOU RENAMED 'QUEEN ANNE'S REVENGE'?! - Drake stopped for a second, - "TEAAAAAACH!"

Drake didn't even pay attention to the Servant who just appeared in front of her. Drake simply jumped over Jason, who had just risen to his feet, on his way to Blackbeard.

"M…" - after a couple of seconds of silence, Atalanta shoved Jason to the side, - "Why were we afraid of these Servants again?"

"Pretending to be an idiot to let your enemies underestimate you is the simplest possible tactic," Jason replied seriously, albeit quietly, for a second.

"What are you muttering over there?" Atalanta shoved Jason sideways.

"I say you look - what a woman!" Jason smiled instantly, pointing to Drake, who continued her pursuit of Blackbeard, "Look how she shakes her goo-AAAAAA!"

Atalanta, grabbing Jason by the ear, pulled him downwards, - "Should I tear your ear or something? It would at least reduce the amount of unworthy men in this world."

"EAR!" Jason clung to Atalanta, "RELEASE MY EAR!"

"The ear is the best option for you," Atalanta only sighed, looking at Jason, who almost fell to his knees in front of her, "It's because I couldn't overcome my disgust for you to touch some other parts of your body…"

After a second more, Atalanta nevertheless let go of Jason's ear, after which she slightly shook off the invisible particles of 'unworthiness' that remained from touching Jason.

"And now..." Atalanta exhaled.

"And now," a second later a voice came not far from Atalanta, forcing her to immediately turn to the speaker, pointing the arrow placed on the bow that had appeared in her hands, "Huh, aren't you a jumpy one?"

"Atalanta," Jason instantly gave an order, immediately becoming uncharacteristically serious, "Lower your weapon and remove your arrow. Slowly."

"Well, don't treat me like some monster," the one who had just appeared started smiling, "I am not your enemy... At the moment at least. It's just that, as I understand it, you came here with some information about the search for the Grail?"

"Yes," Jason nodded instantly, glancing at the speaker.

"In that case," the speaker smiled. "Would you believe me if I said I was just speaking about you? **Speak of the Devil**, as they say…"

Jason nodded slowly, looking at the speaker - a man in a beautiful suit and with a perfect face that smiled while looking at Jason.

"And before you go to Ainz — could you politely answer a couple of my questions?" Baal smiled the kindest of his smiles. "I assure you that it won't take too long."

"Of course!" Atalanta instantly blurred into a smile.

"No," Jason reacted instantly, looking at Baal.

"Oh?" Baal suddenly looked at Jason in surprise, after which he squinted a little, keeping a smile on his face, "I understand... It's a pity, but in this case I can't detain you anymore."

After a second, the man who had appeared suddenly, just as suddenly, disappeared.

"Jason, you idiot!" Atalanta gave her captain an immediate punch to the head, not holding back her strength, "Why did you refuse to talk with him?!"

"Why did you agree to talk with him?" Jason looked at Atalanta seriously, "I don't remember you being especially talkative with strangers before."

"Ha?" Atalanta looked at Jason as if he were an idiot, after which she suddenly thought about it for a second, "Ha... Really, why did I?.."

"One piece of advice, Atalanta," Jason looked around him, then carefully whispered to his companion, "Stay away from that guy."

"Hm?" Atalanta frowned at Jason.

"A worm placed in a mixer has more of a chance to survive than anyone who hears even a word from the mouth of that..." Jason breathed out, "Monster."

"Is he that strong?" Atalanta looked at Jason carefully, discarding her past behavior instantly.

"This is the lesser of the problems associated with dealing with it," Jason flinched, then exhaled slowly. "I hope this Ainz has something to control such a monster..."

"And by the way," Jason suddenly instantly broke into a huge, stupid smile, "Let's go! The faster we report to Ainz - the more chances that I will stay alive!"

"Maybe you wanted to say 'we will stay alive'?" - Atalanta smiled at Jason.

"Exactly so," Jason nodded right away, moving forward, "Don't look at me like that, but I'm Jason, the hero! The team for me, of course, comes first!"

* * *

**Rank**: EX

The highest possible rank for a Noble Phantasm, in fact, the EX means that the ability is 'off-rank' and so powerful that it cannot be quantified. Ironically, this also means that this Noble Phantasm of Ainz is the lowest ranking of Ainz's Noble Phantasm. Of course this fact only applies when the other Noble Phantasms are fully released.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Is Ea a World Class item or on that level? - It's this world's analog to WCI**

**Compare to the likes of Bosses like Cainabel and Baal, how stronger do you think the Floor Guardians in Nazarick is? - Interesting question. Cainabel in her current body would be roughly equal to Shalltear summoned as the Servant. Cainabel in her full power would be many times superior to Shalltear in her Servant form. Shalltear summoned by Ainz, empowered by his legend, NP and other things would absolutely trample Cainabel in full power to the point of it being simply unfair**

**Habrá alguna aparición del héroe oscuro momon? - Don't know, probably no**

**Olga intentará mejor más su relación con ainz cuñado termine la singularidad? - I think yes**

**Does the Ainz Ooal Gown guild possess [Five elements overcoming]? - Don't know for sure, but don't think so**

**BTW what does WCI mean? - World Class Item**

**Hold on, If Blackbeard was the spy in Drakes crew, then doesn't that mean that Medea and/or Jason was the spy on the Argonauts Crew? - Wait and see**

**if only Demiurge was there. whether Ainz would still choose Baal...? - No, Ainz would choose Demiurge**

**Do you believe Sherlock Holmes would be able to figure Ainz out if given enough clues? - In a way similar to Da Vinci**

**How about the Camelot Goddess Rhongomyniad singularity any ideas or leads ? - I don't like to plan too much about future**

**by the way what about astolfo? - Astolfo is still a possible candidate for Ainz's harem**

**is he going to unleash the floor guardians against Solomon? - No plans on that at the moment**

**bgran capitulo la pregunta es que al terminar esta singularidad es si Ainz invocara a el Hercules de Yggdrasil un Loki un Hades hasta posiblemente un Thor - No plans on that at the moment**

**But even for Rubedo, there is someone stronger than her. So strong that she can't fight them until a draw. - You are talking about "8th Floor Hierarchy", and no, they can't beat all of the 8th Floor by themselves - they ARE the 8th floor, and the theory that they are the ancient guardians of Nazarick although interesting - so fat wasn't validated. **

**that's why it's taking too long to invoke nazarick? - No, Ainz just isn't summoning Nazarick.**

**Although it only increases the amount of Mana in most games, in the new world the "intelligence" statistic may actually be your intelligence. - That's a common theory, but Yggdrasil wasn't demonstrated to have INT parameter, so there is no solid proof for this theory, other than that sounds neat. **

**And hey - there is a lot of new chapters! On my Pat reon though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	84. Chapter 84

"Darling!" - a very voluptuous girl with very noticeable assets - which was especially emphasized by her short stature, angelic figure, and choice of dress, snapped out - "I understand and am accepting that you are very attracted to me - just like me to you, darling! But please, could you at least calm down a little?"

"Let me enjoy at least some of the benefits of my current circumstance!" - the source of the consternation that rang out, contrary to any possible expectation, originated somewhere from the depths of the very decent breasts of the girl. After a moment a figure appeared from the depths of the girl's bosom... A bear to be exact.

More precisely, of course, not an actual bear, but a teddy bear instead. However, his completely toyish existence as a comedic brown teddy bear did not stop the man - who has a somewhat muffled and comical voice because of his body - to speak, move, and fidget around in the girl's valleys.

"Darling!" The girl frowned exaggeratedly, "Please, I beg you, stop!"

After a second, the girl screamed and, with a slightly pink face, pouted - "Enough!"

"I am a man!" Answered the little bear as he shouted out. "If you have already turned me into such a laughing stock, be kind about it, and take responsibility!"

"Darling, I'm fine with it later, just not right no-AH!" The girl exhaled sharply, not completing her complaint.

Standing not far away from the two Servants, or one Servant stuck with a pseudo-Servant that can't fight, flirting in a very indecent way, a long-suffering man reigned in his annoyance, and then turned to his companion.

"Let's go", - The man was of a very short stature, which looked extremely comical in comparison with the Servant next to him, whose mighty figure towered at a three-meter-high bulk. Despite this stark contrast in stature however, the man casually patted the giant on his hands, leading him away - "Children shouldn't be looking at such things."

"Of...course…" - The large Servant answered with a low booming - but paradoxically extremely quiet and even, perhaps, submissive voice, after which they slowly moved away from the public display of affection.

Not far from the three, or is it four? Servants, a figure wrapped in a cloak standing next to two other figures is regretting their decisions while looking at the display. After calming themselves down they complained to one of their allies, "Sometimes I'm not sure if it was worth the trouble contacting that couple at all."

"No matter how you look at 'that' display - she's still a goddess," One of the two figures, a man with brown hair, next to the cloaked one replied with a relaxed voice "Even if her mind works somewhat… strangely, - she is more than capable in a fight."

"Assuming her capabilities based on her status as divinity is not a great idea," The last of the trio replied, a man with spiky green hair casted a glance at the cloaked figure, "Her existence is supported by a Saint Graph that is barely suitable for her, we shouldn't be so sure that her abilities remain intact."

"Even so, I would still prefer not to fight her," the other speaker replied, after which he looked at his - verbal - opponent, - "But I will not mind at all if you were to try to start a fight with her. It seems to me that it's what you do in your free time... At least other than trying to win a race against a tortoise."

"No," the cloaked witch's voice intervened after just a couple of phrases between the two rivals, just before the small banter would turn into a full-fledged quarrel, "You two can bite into each other after the Grail is protected. Before that, you two will have to work together."

"Never!" - The two Servants cried out at the same time, after which they immediately glared at each other "I'd rather die than fight side by side with him of all people!"

"These two are worse than the Argo," the witch wrapped in a cloak hissed to herself, "No one is forcing you to love one another. But you have to fight on the same side - whether you want it or not. Even if I have to force you two."

"I doubt that you will be able to," replied out one of the Servants, "There is not a drop of divinity in you."

"I have enough opportunities and abilities to make you fight anyway," spat back the girl wrapped in a cloak.

"Why do you have a problem with that guy anyway?" This time the other Servant began to speak, " I understand about keeping the Grail safe and saving the world and such things... But are you sure that we should be keeping the Grail away from that person? As far as he appears to me, he's an opponent of the Demon King too…"

"An enemy of my enemy doesn't always mean that he is our friend," the cloaked witch sighed, "And even if he didn't come here to steal or use the Grail for his own goals, it could also be a trap of the Demon Kings. It is too easy to create an illusion of a possible ally by arranging only a couple of battles. Until he can prove that he is our - my - ally, we will do our best to defend ourselves."

"I need no further convincing," The more confrontational of the two Servant raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture, after which he glared at his 'friend', "Unlike this coward who prefers to hide behind walls."

"Oh, is someone barking about this again?" The 'friend' in question smiled with a deceptively joyful smile, "This time our battle will have a different result - believe me."

"I work with idiots," the girl wrapped in a cloak sighed, "At least none of them are Jason..."

After that, the girl's gaze focused on the horizon, where the enemy's fleet is slowly approaching - "Is the Ark of the Covenant in place?"

"Yeah," one of the two Servant was distracted without question, "I even feel sorry for the unfortunate guy who will touch it..."

"It is better to do too much than too little," the girl in a cloak sighed, and then looked at the approaching ships, "Now... Everything will be decided by fate."

* * *

Ainz was not one who liked to leave anything to a decision of fate. He prefers to plan his actions in advance.

The night in the Oceanic Singularity was surprisingly calm - excluding, of course, Drake's attempts to find or kill Blackbeard, with Blackbeard's attempts to avoid Drake, and Anne's and Mary's attempts to interfere with Blackbeard's attempts to avoid Drake's attempts to find Blackbeard. In other words, two ships in the Drake armada were sunk by morning.

However, as it turned out a little later - Ainz should not have been worried about such a thing. The 'pirates' that crewed the ships in this Singularity were not real people. They were something like ghosts or phantoms created on the basis of the 'idea' of a pirate that took shape due to the instability of the Singularity.

It's not that Ainz cared about them at all and if Drake sent two or three ships full of her 'pirates' to the bottom of the sea, he wouldn't be bothered at all. However, Mashu, Nero and Mozart were troubled about it and rejoiced at this fact, so Ainz also rejoiced at the fact that he didn't inadvertently soured his subordinate's mood.

Well, to more important things. Medea was able to determine the approximate location of the Grail, and after sailing over the past night, the fleet, under the leadership of Ainz, have reached the alleged location of the Grail. It was a small island covered with forests that were dotted with glades, in the center of which was a large hill - or, perhaps, a small mountain. And somewhere in the depths of that island is the Grail, at least as far as Medea could tell. And these findings paralyzed Ainz with indecision.

Indecision, should he attempt to scry the island from afar, sending all kinds of scouts or even using his detection spells? Such an action by itself could be dangerous - the false sense of safety that it could give would be just as dangerous attempting to rush right into the place, a place that practically shouted to him that it was a 'trap'. However, it was doubly dangerous to rush forward since Ainz could fall into a trap that he did or could not foresee. Despite the fact that Ainz could withstand most of the ambushes that could be sprung on him - if the enemy's goal instead was to lure Ainz away in order to attack his Servants, then any situation where Ainz would be indisposed looked much more dangerous. In other words - Ainz had to choose the right course of behavior with the least amount of danger possible and not a long passive wait filled with expectation and also not a carefree rush forward.

"Hmm..." - Ainz thought about it for a moment, after which he came to a decision - "In that case..."

After a second, Ainz, with a voiceless command made his Servants to appear next to him, after inspecting his Servants for a moment, he communicated his plans.

"Baal and Cainabel will go to the island with me," , after which he carefully looked at his other Servants, "The rest... Be prepared for an attack. It is likely that this is a trap designed to target you specifically. As far as I know, four more Demon Kings are currently operating in this Singularity, so before we go, I would like to do some preparations…"

Ainz extended his hand forward and then started casting. Casting buffs were not his specialization, unlike clerics, whose abilities were often specialized at various buffs for their comrades or command classes. Even so, Ainz had, by no means, an impressive list of spells suitable for strengthening his allies, moreso if they were not undead, of course. Therefore, because of his lack of specialization, his next actions were not particularly effective in terms of the ratio of spent mana versus the final result. But preserving mana was not particularly important - because even though he would be casting a lot, the mana required for such a thing was not particularly great compared to the amount he had. At least it was nothing that Ainz would not recover after a dozen minutes. In other words - Ainz planned to cast as many buffs as possible - within reason, of course.

_'Magic Focus', 'Blessing of the Magic Caster', 'Draconic Power', 'Greater Luck', 'Greater Magic Shield', 'Greater Resistance', 'Boost Magic', 'Mantle of Chaos', 'Penetrate Up', 'Paranormal Intuition', 'Resistance to bludgeoning weapons', 'Resistance to slashing weapons', 'Resistance to piercing weapons', 'Sensor Boost'_ \- After casting the buffs to all his Servants that would stay behind Ainz exhaled, casting fifteen spells on four Servants was a tiring feat. Considering that none of these spells was even of the ninth rank, Ainz did not spend that much mana on strengthening his Servants. Even so, having to call out this entire list of spells four times tired Ainz a bit, forcing him to catch his breath for a while.

"Wow..." Nero was the first to react to Ainz's buffs, looking at him with some kind of childish adoration," I feel... Invincible!

"I agree," Mozart added to Nero's remark, and then looked at Ainz. "If I were to ask you if you have spent all your mana on such tricks, I'm not even sure what answer I want to hear. The one that will make me happy - or the one that will calm me down."

Ainz thought about it for a second, and then shook his head. "It doesn't matter. In any case, all I ask of you now is to inform me immediately if an enemy appears. Even with such power-ups, this place is still dangerous for all of you…"

"By the way, senpai!" Mashu perked up a second later, "Senpai, before that, I would like to talk about…"

"Oh, it seems the Witch has noticed us," Baal's voice was quiet enough so that his mutterings could not be considered an 'interruption' in the full sense of the word, but it had distracted Ainz's attention enough to distract him from Mashu, "Servants… Seven? No, six Servants - divided into three groups."

"Three groups," Ainz frowned, and then looked at Baal. "Could they have known about our plans?"

"They could," Baal answered calmly, after which he smiled, "But will this help them?"

Ainz just shook his head in response, after which he then looked at Mashu, who, having been interrupted yet again, fell silent, catching her breath, "Yes, Mashu... Be sure to tell me about this after I return."

Mashu, seemingly annoyed by the answer, began to say something again, but Ainz, not paying any attention to her anymore, somewhat fearing the fact that the enemy might know of his plans, teleported away.

"It will be very bad if they know about my plans" - Ainz exhaled - "Especially about what I hid in the ship..."

Baal's information somewhat unsettled Ainz - however, this did not mean that he did plan to take full advantage of it. Still, he did not dare to use some of the information to his advantage.

* * *

Cainabel, after instantly arriving on the island, was greeted not in the most pleasant, but in some way, in a very expected way, a spear's thrust.

The sharp stab of the spear, however, did not touch Cainabel's body at all. The surprise attack was foiled by Cainabel's small umbrella, an instrument that should not be on a par with the legendary spear of any Servant. The umbrella lazily opened then took upon itself the full impact of the spear thrust.

A moment later, a stone crashed into Cainabel's body - although, to be more precise, it was a clot of magic in the form of a stone released from the sling of another Servant. However, as much as it did reach Cainabel it had no effect. The stone shell instantly crumbled into dust, without forcing Cainabel to even turn to acknowledge the 'attack'.

"Well, well," Cainabel smiled when, after a moment, the two enemy attacking her instantly retreated back, away from Cainabel's reach, "What terrible manners... How can you welcome your future mistress in this way?"

"What confident words," The man who had just stabbed Cainabel, with no effect, smiled and looked at Cainabel with a carefree attitude, "But I honestly love girls with character."

Cainabel's gaze evaluated the speaker.

The man in front of her was in the prime of their life - he appears to be twenty-five years old, maybe a couple of years older or younger. With his sharp features, a pointed chin, sly eyes, an athletic but thin body, and green spiky hair and green eyes gives the impression of that of a 'predator'. Even the armor he wore - steel light plate armor adjoining to his body and an orange bandage around his chest that flayed behind him in a manner akin to that of a cloak or scarf - everything in it accentuated the image of a 'predator'. Like that of an eagle watching for prey. However, perhaps more importantly to Cainabel, his appearance was, of course, magnificent - perhaps not in the classical sense of beauty, but from the point of view of a hunter or warrior - the man's appearance was beyond praise.

"I beg your pardon for such a crude greeting - but in battle, I'm afraid there is no room for courtesies," The second Servant then attracted attention to himself, "Although I am sorry to fight a girl, of course. Especially someone as beautiful as you."

The second speaker was also a man - maybe one that is a little younger than the first one - he is also slightly shorter than the first one. However, unlike the first Servant, which accentuated the somewhat exotic beauty of a bird of prey - the second Servant displayed a more feminine beauty. With softer boyish facial features and a short haircut decorated with a white headband on his head, he was what one would call a 'pretty' boy. To complete the image he was also completely without armor - instead he was dressed in something that could charitably be called, with a stretch, a jacket, under which one could see a white sash that still displayed the bare chest of a man. His hands are equipped with black leather gloves and in his hands he was holding... A staff, of sorts, the top of the staff was crooked and bent like that of a question mark, within the small crook of which a small bell was hung from the top of the staff.

"Hm, Archer and..." Cainabel looked at the Servant with sharp features, "Lancer?"

"No," the supposed Lancer smiled, grabbing the spear in his hands, "But I can also be summoned as Lancer."

"It doesn't matter," Cainabel sighed and shook her head. "In any other situation, I would be glad to slowly dismantle you two limb by limb — but since Baal is also here, I will finish this quickly."

"Commendable words from a strong person confident in their strength," the man with a spear, the non-Lancer, smiled, "But I would not want you to fight while underestimating me. Believe me when I say that I know a thing or two about battles - unlike this guy."

The man poked Archer lightly in the side with his spear.

"Maybe I didn't fight as much as you do," Archer answered calmly, "but my battle remained in the memory of every person after me."

"Good point," the non-Lancer grinned. "I would not want to fight side by side with some unknown guy."

"With an unknown girl, then you wouldn't mind fighting by their side?" Archer grinned. "However, I can't judge you for it when I completely agree with you."

Cainabel, looking at two Servants, smiled, - "Ah, you are so sure of your victory…"

"Forgive me, unknown girl," the non-Lancer smiled, "But it's hard for me to take my opponents seriously. If you want me to fight you seriously, you will have to show me your strength."

"Ha... - Cainabel, having heard such an insult, only grinned, - "On the other hand... I think that Baal will not use his trump cards from the very beginning, so…"

Cainabel smiled while slowly raising her umbrella in the manner of a blade, pointing the tip at two Servants, - "I still have enough to take the time to make you regret your words…"

* * *

A few spells crashed into Baal and, what was surprising, actually passed through his threshold of passive suppression of magic. However, given that passing it, they still scattered harmlessly, Baal was able to determine that the magic used against him was that of the seventh rank - or an extremely weak eighth rank spell.

However, the fact that not one spell, which took the form of a beam, but a dozen, had immediately crashed into Baal the moment he appeared in the Island, aroused respect in itself.

"I can't say that I didn't expect such a greeting," Baal facing such a barrage, however, only smiled, shook the dirt from his outfit theatrically, and then smiled some more, "But still, it always seemed to me that the capability for speech is what distinguishes people from animals. Wouldn't it be better to discuss our position first than to immediately throw magic at each other?"

The figure who had attacked Baal, was a figure wrapped in a purple cloak and with a hood deeply pulled over her head in such a way that it was impossible to even examine the attacker's face, said nothing in reply.

"Looking at you, I don't have any desire to talk with you," The second person who attracted Baal's attention was a girl of rather short stature, whose white hair, white robe that left a huge neckline on her large chest, in which a small teddy bear rested - and huge blue eyes, suit the expression of endless curiosity, and not the alertness that is in them now.

"Eh, you empty-headed girl!" - the little bear in the girl's neckline stirred, "You said that you wanted to find an enemy that just wanted to talk. Now that you have found one, you wanted to fight. Just who would you like to talk to?"

"And here I am," Baal instantly took advantage of the opening given by the strange helper, "**Speak of the Devil**, as they say..."

A second later, Baal smiled, after which he looked at the silent figure wrapped in a hood, "Indeed, why don't we have a little chat?"

Having been alert a few seconds ago, the figure in the hood slightly changed their posture, relaxing a little, after which the Archer next to her looked at Baal with rapidly dying hostility.

"I didn't come here to fight to death," Baal smiled, "I don't like fighting at all — and death, for that matter. I just would like to talk with you a little - because we have no reason to fight."

The last sentence was uttered simultaneously as a statement - and as a probing question.

"No," the figure in the hood said slowly in a feminine voice. "We are here to protect the Grail."

"From me?" Baal sighed. "But why? I understand the need to protect the Grail from the Demon Kings - but is it really worth protecting it from us - those who fight them."

"It could be a trap," the figure in the hood answered calmly, "An attempt, an illusion to make us believe that we have allies."

"But you do have allies," Baal smiled, "Believe me, we do not need to fight with you at all. Even better - we could join forces - wouldn't it be better for us to join forces and fight the Demon Kings?"

"It is certainly better," the girl wrapped in a cloak fell silent, and then suddenly staggered back, "Mind control!"

"Not at all," realizing that his ability was revealed, he sighed. "The control of the mind is too rude and unsophisticated. It is something more. But the distinction doesn't really matter already, does it?"

The girl wrapped in a cloak retreated back away from Baal while dragging the Archer with her, as if doubting her words and actions.

"Stop quarrelling!" Archer tried to intervene in the dialogue, not particularly understanding why the two people who were peacefully conducting a dialogue sharply devolved to a fight, "Wait!"

"**Rule Breaker**!" After another second, a twisted blade flashed in the hands of the cloaked figure.

"_Hellfire_," Baal casted a spell, but with a wave of the blade, the cloaked Caster instantly destroyed the spell. Which was quite surprising since all she had to do was touch its tip with her crooked blade. A second later, with a sharp movement of the curved blade, the cloaked figure stabbed her palm, dropping the fetters of Baal's Noble Phantasm in an instant, - "Tsk, I should have attacked immediately."

A second later, Caster's blade then sharply struck Archer, forcing her to first look at Caster with disbelief. The Archer looked with confusion as to why her ally had attacked her suddenly, after which, when her eyes had became clear - she looked at Baal with hatred, - "I knew that I should attack you from the very beginning!"

"But you didn't attack," Baal smiled, after which he looked at Caster with more attention, in whose hands was still a small curved dagger, "Rule Breaker, hmm..."

After this, Baal sighed and extended his hand. After a moment, a spark of flame appeared on his hand which then turned into a small cane. After another second, Baal's gaze touched Caster's wrapped cloak, "But why continue this performance? If I have already seen your Noble Phantasm - then it seems to me there is no more sense in hiding your appearance. Isn't it, the Witch of Colchis, Medea?"

* * *

Ainz was the one who teleported as close to the mountain as possible, where, apparently, the Grail presence was felt.

"Perhaps I will need to check the limits of my magic that is aimed at collecting information," Ainz sighed. Indeed, how much has he lagged behind in collecting information from the moment he entered this world…? Maybe next time he will even be able to find the Grail himself in the Singularity without resorting to the help of the Servants...

Ains moved slowly through the vegetation, approaching his destination - "Hmm, a cave?"

After taking a few more steps through the forest the surroundings turned to a large clearing, Ainz could make out a large dark passage in front of him, going somewhere deeper into the mountain - "Probably the Grail is somewhere inside..."

"Hey there!" However, Ainz was thrown out of his ponderings by a male voice. Turning his head, Ainz stared at the speaker.

Not far in the meadow in front of him, hidden in the shade of a tree, with his back resting on the trunk, a man was sitting on the bright green grass. Ainz, as soon as he saw this, stopped in shock.

Throughout his time in the new world, Ainz has seen many beautiful men and women. Almost every Servant that he saw was somehow, very beautiful in their own way. The beauty of a warrior, the ephemeral nature of the diva, the grace of wind, the magnificence of the king or the unattainable cold nobility. Ainz had seen many, many people and Servants whose beauty in his past world would force other people to turn their necks in an attempt to enrich their gaze with their splendor for at least another second. Ains never thought... He never thought that...

Ains felt tears come into his eyes and only the suppression of emotions kept him from crying from relief and joy.

He never thought that he would meet an absolutely unremarkable ordinary middle-aged man as a Servant!

"Oi, what's wrong with you, man?" - The regular man was a slightly lanky middle-aged man with a short haircut of brown hair that was fashioned on the back of his head in a small ponytail. With his tired black eyes and small goatee beard he looked like that of an ordinary salary man. He rose from his seat, glancing at Ainz.

"Nothing," Ainz slowly breathed out, taking control of the joy in his heart, looking at his alleged adversary with real gratitude in his eyes, "Absolutely nothing..."

"Well, then," the man looked at him with a confused look. A man with a completely ordinary appearance of a thirty-five-year-old office worker! Yes, somewhat muscular looking, and dressed in something that could be called armor and a green cloak on top - but still!

Ainz smiled.

"I suppose," he began complacently, "are you guarding the path to the Grail?"

"Yes," the man sighed and smiled, looking at Ainz, "Sorry, but that's just how it is."

"I don't want to fight with you," Ainz smiled, looking at the man, "I absolutely do not want to. So please - just let me pass."

"I would be glad to," calmly replied the Servant, looking at Ainz, "But, as much as I'm sorry about it, you can't go any further."

"I can't?" Ainz looked disappointedly at the man, "But I really don't want to fight you."

"It's nice to hear that," the Servant smiled. "But — there's nothing to be done."

"Eh," Ainz breathed out, "Really... _Greater Teleportation_!"

A second later, Ainz found himself behind the Servant, crossing several hundred meters in one instant, passing the Servant behind.

"I really don't want to fight him," Ainz breathed out, taking a step inward.

Only to bend down a second later, when a huge ax whistled where his head was located.

"Wow, I almost got hit!" - Ainz reacted instantly - "_Fly_."

After a second, Ainz flew away, avoiding yet another blow - this time crashing into the stone floor of the cave, the huge ax caused a quake and a cloud of debris to fly up, as if from a small earthquake. The floor broke apart with a wild roar, easily tearing stone from the mountain.

"Ha..." - Ainz stared at it in surprise - "If that had hit me... Such an attack can cause damage."

Although an ax did mostly slashing damage - some of the damage from it was considered bludgeoning, which, together with the huge force behind the blow, could have been an unpleasant surprise for Ainz.

"Wow, so you found Berserker, ruined my plan and even know how to fly?" The ordinary looking Servant stared in surprise at Ainz, who was hanging in the air, "You are very good."

'I just didn't want to fight you, what's this 'plan' you are even talking about…' - Ainz exhaled wearily and looked at the Servant - 'But then, what difference does it make? If they want to ascribe to me some ingenious plans, let them. I don't care, even if they conquer the world, I don't think I would care about it now at all…'

However, while Ains was feeling depressed about potentially removing the treasure that he had just found, the figure of the 'Berserker' slowly began to emerge from the dark passage of the cave. A huge, three-meter-tall with a cow mask giant, his muscular body was mottled with scars and he was dressed only below the waist. Except for the shackles without chains on his hands - and a huge ugly iron mask that looked like a bull's head that made him look like a Minotaur on his face, his upper body is completely bare. Considering the massive golden ring inserted into the nose of the mask and the pair of horns that decorated both sides of the Berserker's head, the image of a Minotaur only intensified even more. The huge wave of unkempt white hair that fell to the middle of the back of his huge body kinda lessened the image. The other thing that grabbed Ainz's attention were the two large battle axes in his hands, so large that an ordinary person could hardly use one of them even as a two-handed weapon.

"Tsk," Ainz sighed and glanced at the two Servants. "So no other way further on, without battle?"

"Alas," the ossan-looking Servant smiled and shrugged, "No other way."

"I'm sorry," Ainz exhaled and looked at the two Servants. "I will try to end this quickly."

"Oh," the not-at-all beautiful Servant smiled, looking at Ainz, "Unfortunately, I can't promise you the same. Let's just say I'm used to long battles…"

* * *

"Well..." Nero leaned on one of the siderails of the ship, looking sadly into the distant island, "I feel stronger than ever — but I have absolutely no one to demonstrate it to!"

"Isn't having a battle better than having one?" Mozart disagreed, and Nero frowned at him.

"Well, are you telling me that you don't want to check how much stronger you are now!?" - contrary to her expected answer, Mozart did not answer Nero's words with a refusal. Yes, he didn't like battle, but... if It's just a little but... He also wanted to use his magic, which, thanks to the efforts of Ainz, became much stronger.

"Don't worry", - in any case, it is impossible to change the situation for now, - "I'm sure that one day…"

"THE ENEMY FLEET!" Drake's voice made Nero and Mozart instantly look at where Drake is, and then into the distance where she is pointing at.

In the distance, on the horizon, shadows slowly appeared - one, two... Ten, twenty... One hundred, two hundred...

"Ha," Mozart looked at Nero disapprovingly, "You and your big mouth."

"What are you talking about?" Nero simply smiled in response while looking at Mozart, "But it seems to me that this is exactly my luck in action..."

* * *

**Description**

There comes a moment when everything comes to an end. Flowers fade, people die, stones are crushed into dust, stars dim, and with strange aeons even death may die.

In the end, death will come for everything. For thought, for man, for existence itself. And even that which is immortal meets its end.

This Noble Phantasm is not death in the literal sense of the word - rather, it is simply the end. The end of everything. The end of people, gods, of that that is existing and unreal, eternal and that which is already dead. The end in its entirety.

This Noble Phantasm reflects this very facet of the end. The end of everything that comes to everything. In the end, the goal of all life is death.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**is Tiamat going to be Ainz's first real challenge? - Real challenge is such a vague concept...**

**As she is the only other being that has independent manifestation but does not have the quirks I just mentioned? - Technically, there are others that have at least equal standing with her.**

**Or is Ainz going to unleash "the goal of all life is death" on her? - I have no such plans so far**

**Cainabel is Shalltear's mother? - Of course not**

**how do i join the ? - Well, you google it or go by the link - and pay your money.**

**Russian Reversal made me gay - I suppose that was a compliment, huh**

**will Sengo Muramasa ever be summoned - IDK for now**

**what would happen if he was in the same room as Ishtar? - IDK yet again. I think a lot of awkwardness would ensue**

**Since Olga got resurrected, it could mean that she could be a potential Mastar in the future? - Potentially, yes**

**And hey - there is a lot of new chapters! On my Pat reon\rure though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	85. Chapter 85

Cainabel slowly lifted her umbrella forward then pointed it first to the not-Lancer, then to the stone-slinging probably-Archer. Someone not acquainted with Cainabel would say that such a gesture is a way of showing her doubts and worry in fighting two Servants. And in a way, it was true. However, these were not the gestures of a nervous fighter that is in a difficult situation - a warrior unsure of their ability in a battle with two opponents at once. But instead it is the indecision with which a restaurant patron would be at a loss in choosing between two equally tasty dishes in front of him, trying to determine which one to eat first, and which second. Given Cainabel's light dreamy reverie and her nature as a vampire, such a comparison was especially appropriate.

"You're strong, I feel that you're stronger than anyone I've ever fought before," the non-Lancer smirked, "but then again, I haven't met much..."

After the talk died down, chains burst from under the earth and encircled the not-Lancer, after which they sharply stabbed down back towards the ground, trying to force him to the ground. To Cainabel's surprise, the spell that was supposed to literally put the Servant on his knees only slightly affected him, forcing him to stagger instead.

"Oh," the not-Lancer looked at the chains surrounding him in surprise, then towards Cainabel, "Hmm, the fact that these chains affect me at all means you have some Divinity... True, it's not of a very high rank. Does this mean that you are some kind of petty elemental spirit?". Unknowingly, or perhaps not, the not-Lancer's words would elicit a huge reaction from Cainabel.

Cainabel possessed a huge, suitable to her position in the world, ego. As the First Ancestor, as an incredibly strong creature, and as one of the greatest vampires of all time, Cainabel considered herself better than many - this belief is not without reason. Cainabel was in many ways better than many.

The downside of having such a large ego was that Cainabel is very willing and proactive in protecting her ego from any attacks and any attempts to belittle her. Anyone suicidal enough to do such a thing, should expect an overwhelming retaliation.

Once, a long time ago and before her current incarnation, Cainabel was a goddess - a true, bonafide goddess. One of the gods who were born during the creation of the world. But, to her great regret, in her attempt to achieve an even greater amount of power she met Ainz. In spite of all the possible alternate worlds where she was defeated by other Players, she still considered Ainz to be the main reason for her downfall and her current 'reduced' state. Not that she would dare to complain in front of Ainz of course, she after all, is not suicidal

As much as she wanted to grouse more about this fact, it was not important, what was more important to know is that Cainabel was once a goddess - and only an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances made her lose most of her divinity. And although at the moment Cainabel did not have her divinity per se since she had lost her Elder Blood, and the fact at the moment only an echo of her divinity remained in her body - just like in Medusa - Cainabel was still a god. A full-fledged god. Even if one has to mention it in the past tense, she was still a god. And that milksop dares to mock her?

SHE.

WAS.

A.

GODDESS!

'Request for transformation into combat form' - an instant request from Cainabel to Ainz formed so quickly that she did not even have to think about it.

'Your third Noble Phantasm is completely forbidden' - Ainz answered with the same lightning speed - 'Besides... Have you really come across someone that strong?!'

'No' - Cainabel smiled - 'And I'm not talking about using my third Noble Phantasm. Only about my combat transformation.'

'Hmm…' - Ainz thought about it for a second, but in the end he relented - 'Well, I permit it. But! Keep your mind and don't lose control. And... Try to deal with the enemy as fast as possible. It seems that the Demon Kings have begun their plan.'

'Of course, my lord,' Cainabel smile then turned into a predatory one.

"Oh, I know that look," the not-Lancer, who had managed to get out of the, not so shackling, shackles of her magic, passed his spear into his other hand and smiled, "It seems that you are beginning to take me seriously?"

"Rider," - the probable-Archer turned to the now revealed Rider, - "I understand that you are always happy to fight, but try not-KHA!"

A moment later, maybe-Archer spat out a few drops of blood and dropped to his knees when a spear of blood pierced his body from the inside.

Rider looked at his ally with shock, after which he looked seriously at Cainabel, "So, both a magi and a warrior..."

Cainabel didn't answer back - the spear that pierced Archer's body from the inside instantly crumbled to dust before Rider or the holey-Archer could have a closer look at it. Without the spear of blood blocking the wound, Archer's blood poured from the hole on his chest. However, before the very first drop of blood could reach the ground, drop by drop, the blood turned onto a red stream rushing forward to Cainabel, spinning in a tight spiral into her mouth. Rider, however, did not plan to wait for the enemy to do what she wanted with Archer's blood and rushed forward to attack Cainabel.

Rider's spear flashed forward like a beam of light, the speed of the thrust would not allow anyone time to react, tearing the beautiful enemy in front of him apart.

Or at least, that's what should have happened to any other Servant.

Cainabel wasn't as fast as Rider, but she didn't need to. Rider's spear, thrusting forward at an unimaginable speed, crashed into Cainabel's body, and did nothing.

The impact was so great that Rider almost lost his grip on his spear. What's worse, due to the unexpected resistance, only due to his tremendous dexterity did Rider avoid the disgraceful fate of falling down in a heap. A fate very unsuitable to a great hero..

Cainabel could take this chance and opening to strike Rider down - a strong enough blow in that instant would find its target and knock Rider out of the fight. But, instead of doing the logical thing, she simply displayed a contemptuous grin towards Rider. Gloating about the fact that Rider's attack simply slid powerlessly across her body, and then simply stood mockingly as the stream of blood reached for her body.

Archer, who had survived Cainabel attack, was still on his knees, trying to rise from the ground while leaning on his staff. The fact that her attack had not killed the Servant did not bother Cainabel, who simply stood still and continued to observe the stream of blood flowing to her. However, unlike her usual act of vampirism, where Cainabel would usually have consumed the blood of the enemy, instead, Archer's blood began to flow throughout her body like a thick bloody coat that covered every inch of her skin. And during all this, Cainabel continued to watch with a mocking smile as Rider, whose face for the first time in their battle showed an expression other than a proud smile, got back to his feet.

"Hmm, so it seems that you possess the same ability as mine..." Rider carefully looked at Cainabel, "I'm interested to know what your weakness is..."

"What difference does it make," Cainabel replied mockingly, "What is the use of telling the dead about my secrets?"

Cainabel's smile turned from cheerfully mocking to a predatory one, which continued to spread across her face to an unnatural degree- but it did not stop at that point. Her smile continued to spread across her face even further - becoming disproportionate at first, then terrifying - after which her smile literally split her whole head into two. After a second, the monstrous mouth of Cainabel opened.

The huge mouth of the girl - no, the monster in the guise of a girl - had opened, exposing a dark pit to the world. At that moment, Cainabel's face lost all resemblance to that of a human.

Her mouth was strewn with hundreds of long, sharp, acicular teeth located around the entire circumference of her mouth in several rows. In the midst of her needle-like teeth, a tongue that was elongated like a snake tongue, moved almost as if it was searching its surroundings for blood. But what's worse than all of that grisly picture, past the teeth and the tongue, is the dark abyss-like pit at the center of Cainabel's mouth. The darkness made it appear like a hole in the universe, ready to swallow everything whole.

Cainabel's face then began to twist - where there was the beautiful face of a young diva, there was now only a warped maw of a bloody monster. Her smooth silky white hair was transformed into a tousled tangled mane - her hands twisted into that of huge clawed paws, each adorned with razor-sharp claws. In such a situation, anything that continued to remain of the previous Cainabel's appearance, like her dress, looked like a mockery - or, rather, an inappropriate relic of the past.

Cainabel slowly stalked forward.

"I take back all my compliments to your beauty," Archer, watching the monster in front of him, only smiled.

But still, despite her now monstrous appearance, Cainabel was still in control.

Unlike her descendants, Cainabel could control herself and would not fall into a Blood Frenzy. If she chose to do so at least.

Right now the only thing in the True Ancestor's mind is to...

"KILL," Cainabel's voice came out in a low guttural roar.

A second later, Cainabel rushed forward.

* * *

"I confess, I find the situation to be very interesting," Baal smiled at the two Servant in front of him, of course, while sending one wave of fire after another towards them - "When I heard that Medea had vouched for the trustworthiness of an unknown person in a coat, who in the end betrayed them afterwards, I was extremely interested in who she had vouched for…"

Archer's arrow then crashed into Baal - however, such an attack was no more dangerous for him than that of a bee trying to sting a man through full-plate armor.

"Indeed, whom could Medea vouch for except for herself?" Baal smiled. Medea did not respond to the thinly veiled mockeries, instead choosing to send a few more spells towards Baal, forcing Baal to teleport away to dodge, causing Medea to twist her lips an unpleasant grin.

Baal could continue to defend against Medea's attacks simply by relying solely on his defense. But even if all of her attacks caused only one point of damage - theoretically speaking that is - Baal would not dare to just stand still and receive her attacks if he could avoid them, - "However, I wonder... of all people, Medea should know herself better than anyone, even if it is her future self. So she should have known about your plan and of your planned betrayal — but she did not report even a bit of suspicion of it to her allies. Hmm, contemplating other possibilities besides the fact that you made her do it, is quite scary."

Medea's reply was exactly the same as before - for anyone less attentive than Baal that is.

Archer's arrow crashed into Baal again - and again with the same result as before, forcing Baal to address the Archer displeasedly, - "How rude to interrupt our joyous conversation... _Curse of Agony. Silence._"

A second later, Archer fell to the ground in a silent scream, but Medea only gave her ally a look before returning her full attention to Baal.

"That spell does not cause any damage," Medea glanced at Baal with an unreadable look, "It only hurts."

"Yes," Baal smiled as he replied, "I have many spells like that. But are you in a position to judge me, Witch of Colchis? It seems to me that a person who had threatened even her past self, who had threatened to break the rose glasses of the one with whom she was in love with, who then proceeded to then betray even her past self, and to do all this for a Grail she didn't even need... has no right to judge others on their behaviour."

This time, the discontent on Medea's face was shown quite clearly - with a corner of her mouth twitching as if holding back a scream. After a second of this her cloak, which had previously hung on her shoulders, opened like wings, with Medea taking flight.

"Oh, I didn't mean to offend you," Baal thought for a second, "Or did I? Hmm, how difficult it is to understand even yourself sometimes…"

After another second, the surface of Medea's cloak opened even more, making the cloak look like that of an open jaw of a monster. With the cloak fully opened it began to glow ominously, after which dozens of spells appeared simultaneously. Flashes of fire, lightning spears, energy rays, ice bolts - struck simultaneously toward Baal. However, teleportation allowed Baal to dodge the barrage harmlessly, allowing him to appear in the air next to Medea. After which, a second later, a likeness of two huge leathery wings was created by Baal's coat behind Baal's back. However, if Medea's cloak remained a cloak, Baal's coat fully transformed into two huge leathery wings, which supported him in the air with powerful flaps.

"You were manipulating your own younger self," Baal smiled again, "It was so easy for you, you know your weaknesses better than anyone else after all... With it you forced the little naive Princess of Colchis to participate in your plan — or you will tell Jason with whom she was madly in love with, one unpleasant little secret... What treachery, even I couldn't dream of such a dastardly plan!"

Medea silently attacked with the swirl of spells once more, after which she disappeared in a twist of space distortion, like a skipped frame on a television screen.

"Invisibility is such a useful spell," Baal smiled, after which he instantly teleported behind a seemingly empty space and struck out with his cane, causing a strangled female scream and a few drops of blood to appear from a seemingly empty space.

It would be possible to end the battle at that point— Baal only needed to put his hand on Medea's head and tear her head to pieces with a spell or even his bear hand. Instead, Baal teleported away from Medea, dodging yet another barrage that wouldn't do much against his defenses.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Medea looked at Baal with disgust.

"Will you believe me if I tell you that I was fascinated by your beauty and knowledge of magic?" Baal smiled, "Massive use of spells of the eighth rank. So far you are one of the strongest magi that I have seen in this world - and even more , I suspect that you have a pair of ninth-rank spells up your sleeves. And you look really beautiful - princess."

"RARGH!" - however, in response to the compliments from Baal, Medea attacked with even more ferocity, which, sadly, was useless as long as Baal is able to teleport away.

"Was that another divine word?" Baal smiled, looking at Medea.

Medea, losing all sense of self-control and self-preservation, rushed forward. A satisfied grin flickered across Baal's face.

* * *

"Hmm..." - Ains looked thoughtfully at his opponents - "Two melee fighters..."

The berserker was without a doubt a specialized melee fighter, though he is capable of some rudimentary ranged attacks, judging by his appearance and choice of weapon — a sort of barbarian. A barbarian with two axes is a classic form of the class. The second opponent...

Ainz looked at the Servant of his dreams and his eyes were almost filled with tears from the realization that he would have to kill a man, which, judging by his age and appearance in another world, could be his best friend.

"There is nothing that can be done now..." - Ainz sighed deeply. Judging by his appearance and choice of weaponry, he was also an opponent specialized in close combat. So Ainz didn't even need to come up with really sophisticated tactics, with of course contingencies in case he was wrong with his surface assessments. Just stay away, stay high up and shower the opponents with ranged attacks. In this case…

"_Life Essence_," Ainz used a spell to observe the life energy of his adversary, "_Napalm_."

In an instant, the Servant holding a spear was consumed by a huge column of fire. The health of the Servant sank by almost five percent.

"Hah, he has less health than I expected..." - Ainz was distracted by the findings for a moment, after which a spear crashed into his body. However, given that it was both a throwing weapon and a weapon that only inflicts piercing damage, Ainz's health did not even drop a single point.

"Hey, that's cheating!" Lancer extended his hand toward his spear, after which his thrown spear instantly materialized in his hands again, "You weren't hurt at all."

"I'm sorry," Ainz answered back, after which he dodged another thrown weapon. However, unlike the spear whistling with great speed and great accuracy towards him, the ax that flashed near Ainz was thrown with almost criminal negligence - albeit with great force.

"You're still flying," Lancer frowned. "It's completely unfair..."

"I'm sorry," Ains replied again with a sigh, "_Ice storm_."

With his magic casted, a huge ice storm arose in the enemy's position, literally swallowing Lancer and Berserker whole, wounding both of them. Ainz carefully paying attention to the health of his opponents was able to determine that Lancer's health disappeared another five percent... However, Berserker's health subsided only by two percent.

"Hm, so Berserker, other things being equal, should have two and a half times more health than Lancer..." - Ainz thoughtfully flew to the side, dodging another spear thrown at him - "If, of course, he has the same Magical Defense as Lancer. Considering how strange this world works, Berserker may have dozens of times more health, but with no Magic Defense at all... God, what a crazy world and what crazy rules!"

The servants, realizing the danger that Ainz presents, scattered in all directions,planning to escape from the reach of Ainz's spells. However, Ainz did not plan to give them such an opportunity.

"_Mass Hold Species_," Ainz then paralyzed both Servants with a spell, followed by another attack, "_Chain Dragon Lightning_."

Ainz's magic instantly reached Lancer, and then Berserker, but what was special about this spell is not that it attacked two Servants at the same time, but it's ability to 'chain' between enemies. So after it reached Berserker, the lightning 'bounced' back towards Lancer, and only after a couple of repetitions did the spell cease .

Thus, with just one spell, Ainz had shaved Lancer's health almost by twenty percent. However, with Berserker, the same spell had only reduced Berserker's health only by five percent.

"Ah yes I remember now, this spell is effective against those who wear armor" - Ainz nodded - "So lightning is most effective against Lancer huh..."

"ARGH!" With a monstrous roar from the distorted metal mask on his face, Berserker slowly moved his hand.

"Wow, can he resist a seventh-tier spell?" - Ainz looked with surprise at the Berserker, who is slowly trying to move his body forward, after which, as if moving through a thick jelly, he slowly walked toward Ainz - "Amazing!"

After taking a few more steps, Berserker growled again, after which with a sharp movement he seemed to break the chains of Ainz's magic, freeing himself from paralysis.

"Magical resistance?" - Ainz thoughtfully looked at the large stature of the Berserker- "No... Surprisingly, he had broken through the paralysis solely by physical force!"

Not that such a thing was impossible in Yggdrasil, but in order to break the paralysis debuff from seventh rank spell solely by physical strength, a Player needed to have a physical strength stat of at least ninety - but in order to do it quickly - maybe even one hundred.

"What a surprise!" Ainz spoke out loud, after which he even lifted the paralysis spell. In any case, he had already shaved almost half of Lancer's health and almost ten percent of Berserker's, so he could afford to be lax. With a quick movement, he was next to Berserker, seeing Ainz approaching, he raised his axes in a menacing gesture. Ainz just raised his hands in a gesture of peace. - "Calm down, I just want to find out. What's your name?"

It was impossible to see Berserker's eyes behind the mask, but Ainz was sure that he is casting a glance at Lancer. Lancer in response only threw a tired look at Berserker.

"You can say it," - Lancer sighed and shook his head, - "But I want to talk with Medea... It seems to me that someone is seriously overestimating us if they thought that only the two of us could deal with such a monster! Three spells, but I'm already half-dead!"

"Only forty percent," Ainz answered Lancer's unasked question, after which he glanced at Berserker, "So... what's your name?"

'It's better to find out who could overcome my spell with just his physical strength for the future,' Ainz nodded.

Berserker's monstrous figure took a couple of steps back, and then slowly reached for his mask. After another second, the huge figure of Berserker slowly pulled off his monster mask, after which Ainz saw...

Instead of the face of a gruff warrior, Berserker's was that of a child. Well a child that was three meters tall and possessed muscles that someone like Ainz could only dream of. However, as Ainz discovered with some surprise, Berserker's horns were not part of the mask, but real horns instead.

Huge black sclera of the eyes and orange-red pupils stared at Ainz disapprovingly, but Berserker nevertheless answered.

"Mino... taurus," Berserker answered in a very low, but still quiet and calm, perhaps even childishly soft - if such a thing is even possible for a giant - voice.

"Hm, the minotaur?" Ainz looked again at Berserker's appearance, "No, you're not a minotaur."

"Me?" Berserker drew back, "I am not... a Mino... taurus ?!"

"No, definitely not," Ainz replied. Of course, Berserker had horns that could be called similar to the horns of a minotaur, but the minotaurs that Ainz knew of were half-bulls half-man with hoofs and had the appropriate appearance. In addition, 'minotaur' was a name of a race — and Ains wanted to know what Berserker's name was — even if by some strange coincidence his appearance was what a minotaur looked like in this world, "So all the same, what's your name?"

"Ah?" Berserker took a step back, looking at Ainz in surprise, and then uttered slowly, "Aste... rios..."

"Asterios, then," Ains smiled, after which he looked at Lancer, "What about you?"

"I don't think you knowing my name would make any difference in our fight" Lancer painfully lifted his eyes to the sky, "Fighting with you, as it turned out, is a useless endeavour. So go wherever you want."

Ainz looked at Lancer and smiled. "You're a good guy. I'm sure we could have been friends."

"In another time," Lancer exhaled.

"In another time," Ainz exhaled and shrugged, after which he extended his hand to Lancer, "In any case, even if I don't know your name, it was nice to meet you. Try not to die there."

Lancer looked in surprise at Ainz's outstretched hand, smiled and shook it in response, "Aha, and the same to you."

Ainz looked at Asterios. "It was nice to meet you too. You have become quite the interesting discovery for me."

Asterios slowly turned a surprised look at Ainz, "Thank... you..."

Ains, moving forward passed Asterios patting him on the shoulder, - "Good luck."

"Good... luck..." Asterios glanced at Ainz's slowly receding figure, "... to you!"

Ainz continued to move forward, but the smile slowly slipped on his face.

It's coincidental that the smile on Lancer's face also slowly disappeared at the same time.

"We... will not... fight?" Asterios glanced at Lancer.

"Our goal was to lure him into a trap, not kill him," Lancer only exhaled and then looked at where Ainz was going, "Although I really feel sorry for him. But, still, such power…"

Ainz, continuing to move forward, slowly thought about the 'fight'.

Yes, Ainz was interested in the unknown Berserker. Knowing more about him was a worthy excuse to stop the fight.

However, Ainz, although he was not the most suitable person for many things, was perhaps ideally suited for only one thing. For battle.

"The first rule of the battle is don't let the unknown magician touch you" - Ains smiled.

The best observation spell that Ains knew had one big problem.

It can only be casted by touch.

"And now..." - Ainz sighed. "Let's find out what trap you planned to lure me into and what kind of plans did your group have from the beginning?"

If Ainz decided to act seriously, he acted very seriously.

* * *

The approach of the armada of ships for the Drake fleet was somewhat unusual, but not anything threatening. Although the advancing enemy forces outnumbered Drake's fleet - Drake alone could easily send all the enemy ships to the seabed. There was still a large gulf of power between a simple, albeit large, army and a Servant. A much more disturbing fact was that the ships of the fleet approaching Drake were not at all like her own ships.

"Judging by the look of the ships..." - Drake thought for a moment. "Fifty years?" No, about a hundred?"

The fleet that is approaching her is superior in both numbers and capabilities than her own. A superiority that is expressed in the fact that the approaching fleet, judging by its appearance, was created from a later era than Drake's.

"And what is such a fleet doing here and now?" - Drake possessed the instinct of a beast, but even if she had none, it was easy to guess the cause of the appearance of such an anachronistic ship - "Demon Kings..."

To determine whether or not the Demon Kings had meddled in what was happening was almost elementary - however, to what extent the Demon King's influence is on that fleet is harder to estimate. Much more important was what the Demon King intended to do with that large fleet.

"Servants," Mozart found himself next to Drake instantly, "Many Servants in the ranks of the enemy."

"Yeah," Drake smirked. "A - fucking - lot."

After a second, Drake smirked as she pulled her pistol out of its holster. "I can't wait until I can check how many of them I can personally shoot!"

"I would not be in a hurry with this," Mozart sighed, then jerked sharply, grabbing Drake by the shoulders, "Move!"

After another second, a ray of fire passed through Drake's ship, literally splitting the ship into two parts with a large beam of heat.

After another second, the ship, which had suddenly lost any buoyancy, began to tumble to its side, slowly sinking into the depths.

"Hmm, you dodged," came out a voice next to the two Servants, who were balancing on a rail on the slowly sinking ship, the voice sounded hardly interested, "I was sure that I could get close unnoticed."

" Demon King," Mozart cast a flight spell on himself and Drake, after which he stared at the column of flesh floating in the air, "Name... hmm, I'm not that knowledgeable in demonology."

"There is no need for false modesty," the eyes of the Demon King slowly changing their position stared at Mozart, "If such a thing were true, then you would not have escaped your fate. Mozart, the failed Demon King."

"Oh, that was just an interesting coincidence," Mozart exhaled and smiled.

Mozart instantly reached for Ainz - 'The Demon King is here, along with a large number of Servants.'

'Ha?' - Ainz sounds surprised- 'They had begun to act earlier than I thought... Well, in this case - regroup and stay together with the rest of the Servants. If the enemy is at least a little dangerous or you feel that it is a trap - instantly back down and notify me. I will reinforce you.'

Mozart nodded, and then released his connection.

"Getting in touch with your Master?" The Demon King looked at Mozart with a sense of mockery, "Believe me, he will not be in a position to help you.

"Oh, I doubt it," Mozart sighed, and then glanced to the side. "However, it seems that I did everything I needed to do. It was nice to meet you."

After another second, Mozart rushed to the side.

"Where do you think you're going?!" - The Demon King rushed in pursuit, however, - "KHA!"

After a second, the monstrous body of the Demon King was literally knocked down by a blow from somewhere.

"Heracles?!" - The Demon King cried out the name of the most probable attacker while trying to catch a glimpse of the attacker, however, - "What... Drake?!"

With a sharp punch, Francis Drake had knocked the large pillar of flesh down. The fragile figure of a girl demolished the Demon King with a fist as if he were weightless.

"YOU DESTROYED MY GOLDEN HIND, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" The rage in Drake's voice was burning as strong as the fire that is currently burning her ship, "GET READY TO PAY!"

'She shouldn't have that kind of power!' - instantly the Demon King, Aim wracked his mind in an attempt to explain what is happening, - "This is impossible!"

"REALLY?!" Drake just grinned in reply, delivering another blow, "MY NAME IS FRANCIS, MOTHER FUCKING, DRAKE - A PERSON THAT SANK THE NEVER SETTING SUN OF THE SPANISH EMPIRE! I, AM, FUCKING, USED TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE!"

"And if you think," Drake suddenly stopped looking at the Demon King, "that I can't kick your ass — you will have ten minutes to think it over again."

Drake blurred into a predatory smile, - "Ten long, painful, filled with humiliation minutes."

Aim, from the very beginning of the operation in this Singularity, expected that the unknown enemy would become his main and only problem.

But now, looking at Drake, who once again waved her fist, Aim began to slowly realize - perhaps he had set priorities a little wrong...

* * *

**Power**

This Noble Phantasm works as a kind of buff - in a sense that it empowers Ainz. More precisely, after the twelve seconds of its casting the power of this Noble Phantasm opens the gates to the moment of the end of everything.

Everything - both mortal and immortal, living and dead - has an end to their existence. For humans, for planets, for existence itself. After twelve seconds, this Noble Phantasm touches this hypothetical moment - the end of absolutely everything.

At the same time, any of Ainz's ability to grant death becomes absolute - spells that grant death to his enemies instead bind things to the moment of its end. After twelve seconds, all of Ainz's abilities do not kill his target, after twelve seconds this Noble Phantasm fully reveals its strength, anything that Ainz Death spells reached would meet its end.

One cannot be saved from this effect, one cannot evade it, one cannot stop this Noble Phantasm. In other words, when the power of this Noble Phantasm was activated, there was no longer any salvation for the target. Even if Ainz dies, this Noble Phantasm would still activate - if the target has been determined - it will end without fail.

Prior to becoming a Noble Phantasm, this ability could be neutralized by an ability or artifact capable of instant revival after its death - however, at the moment, even this slight possibility of salvation is practically impossible.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Ainz evangelizara a la tiamat de su estado de Regresión? - IDK yet**

**Ainz podría lograr un compañero con Tiamat ? - IDK yet (x2)**

**will king Hassan and ainz meet? - Most probably**

**The most obvious error is at the end. You wrote, "Description" but forgot to write the name of the thing you were going to describe. - Exactly as I planned as I considered it pretty obvious**

**Author, at the end of the next Chapter, could you include at the end a DESCRIPTION of Emperor Baal's Noble Phantasm [SPEAK OF THE DEVIL...]? - As you obviously can see - no**

**Please make hxh and overlord crossover - Sorry, but no**

**is just me or the pacing lf the story is faster than before? - This Singularity is faster than the previous one indeed**

**So is Ainz's Noble Phantasm one with a recitation like EMIYA's NP ("I am the bone of my sword, so as I pray..."), or is it as simple as speaking its name, like Emperor Baal's NP? - It can work as both**

**It's the Servants' care thing It doesn't make sense I'm sorry - Sorry, because for me it makes perfect sense after everything I wrote about it**

**Can ainz one shot a world enemy,with the goal of all life is death - In YGGDRASIL - he can't.**

**Is Ainz gonna get a new body that can support his overpowered spells? - Not now**

**Is his body looks exactly like gudao fujimaru from fate grand order? - His older version**

**And hey - there is a lot of new chapters! On my Pat reon\rure though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	86. Chapter 86

Ainz slowly moved forward in the darkness, step by step plunging deeper into the depths of the cave..

"I hope this isn't actually a dungeon..." - Ainz shook his head - "At least I hope that it is without dragons..."

For Players the dungeons of Yggdrasil meant a lot of things, both good and bad. The good thing about dungeons, is that most often they lie in inconspicuous places like underground caves and hidden among the high peaks of mountains. Or, like the case of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, hidden with a very obscure revealing method, so one doesn't generally need to be afraid of a second party tumbling in behind them. Furthermore, dungeons were usually the place where the most unique treasures, data crystals, quests and other interesting gameplay elements were hidden.

The bad thing about them was that in Yggdrasil, nothing was cheap and easy - and most often than not these very sought after items were protected by very unique powerful mobs to match the rarity of the loot. And, even in the best of cases, where the mobs one would meet in a dungeon were not a particularly unpleasant surprise for players - and it happened so damn infrequently - some kind of very deadly traps would be waiting for the players. For example, an acid cloud suddenly gushing out from under the ground capable of decomposing players of the hundredth level in seconds into its constituent elements was the most harmless of what Ainz could recall. Those shitty devs!

In the end, Ainz was somehow calmer knowing that he was clearly walking into a trap rather than just going forward, not knowing exactly what is going to happen. Not to mention…

Ainz focused once more on the tracking spell he had placed on the two Servants, after which he nodded to himself. He especially liked the fact that he would get an answer on what specifically the trap was.

Walking a little further along, Ainz's gaze finally landed on what he was searching for, or more likely, the trap that would be sprung on him. The coveted and searched for Grail, one of two in this Singularity - the goal of his mission. It was placed on a small table or chest decorated plentifully with ornaments, carved figures and bas-reliefs which details Ainz was unable to discern due to the distance. It looked like a very ornate chest with the two very noticeable angel-like statues next to the Grail. It even has two poles for ease of transport!

Ains stopped in place for a second, then he used several detection spells, - Mass Detection of Traps, Detect Magic, Detect Enchantment - All, All Appraisal Magic Item.

After a second, several inconspicuous sections on the ground on Ainz's path to the Grail were lit with soft magical light, the space around the Grail sparked, the Grail and the ark blinked brightly, and finally, Ainz's mind began to be filled with information about the things he had appraised.

"Hmm..." - Ainz looked at the highlighted sections of earth - "Magic traps... With serious enough firepower - the eighth rank. The one closest to the Grail - perhaps a weak ninth rank spell? Something like Ray of Star, probably... But, hmm... That looked like an interesting spell... "

A spell is casted on the Grail itself, it was a very esoteric trap. It was quite the unique spell, so much so that Ainz could not find any analogue to it in his Yggdrasil days - at least not an exact comparison at least. It was a spell that functioned by restricting movement or perhaps even by manipulating space itself. It functioned as a trap by not allowing anyone to touch the Grail without first touching the table on which it stood on. Given that Ainz's spell has revealed that the chest - an ark to be more precise, is the Ark of Covenant… well, let's just say that being forced to touch it makes for a very interesting trap. Few will be paying a paranoid level of attention after passing through the guards, the two Servants, and all the traps that he would be aware of being unconsciously drawn to touch the Ark. This would probably be the last and main trap for those who wish to acquire the Grail.

Ainz had detected a very powerful enchantment was on the Ark of Covenant - although a somewhat strange enchantment in AInz's opinion. It would instantly cast an instant death spell on anyone who touched the Ark, excluding only a few people, and anyone who didn't die immediately would find their magical energy being sucked dry until they died. Ainz was unable to imagine how such a thing could be used in battle with any kind of efficiency. However, as a trap? It would be a very frightening thing if used right.

One more thing about the Ark did confuse Ainz a bit. It seemed as if the Ark... is not working at 'full' strength is the closest thing Ainz could compare it to. As if there was a way to make the Ark use its full strength. Thankfully, as Ainz is not a complete idiot, Ainz decided to leave the idiot bait of opening the Ark alone.

Attempting to destroy the trap placed on the Grail could destroy the Grail or even worse provoke a reaction from the Ark itself. Fortunately for Ainz, he doesn't need to bother with destroying the trap to acquire the Grail. As he was protected from any and all instant kill spells, he did not need to worry about the dangers of touching the Ark. So Ainz simply reached out to the Grail and let his hand be guided to touch the Ark, which predictably, did nothing. With one hand resting on the Ark, Ainz reached out to the Grail with his other hand and placed it in his Inventory.

Pausing for a moment, Ainz then listened to the words transmitted to him by his tracking spell and exhaled.

Well, he had another ten seconds to waste.

Ainz gives a measuring look at the Ark. He admits, up to this point he had never seen an independently materialized Noble Phantasm before. The ability to study a Noble Phantasm without any risk of taking a sword beam to the face alone is immeasurably precious. Not to mention, the Ark of the Covenant would be a very good showpiece for his collection of things from the New World…

Ainz placed his hands to the Ark and slowly with a certain carefullnes not to drop it, or god forbid open it, he raised it. A second later, the bottomless darkness of Ainz's inventory opened before him, after which Ainz, with a gentle movement, shoved the huge mass of the Ark into his inventory... For scientific purposes, of course.

After that, Ains exhaled, looked around at the empty cave and teleported out.

In an instant after Ainz had teleported, a series of explosions of monstrous power consumed the entire mountain, instantly destroying the walls of the cave and burying everything inside. Instantly, the traps inside the Grail room activated and fired all at once. It seemed to be a last ditch trap to kill anyone who managed to actually take the Grail, or perhaps it was done because Ainz had 'appropriated' the Ark. Whatever had provoked the reaction didn't matter in the end since Ainz was no longer anywhere near the explosions, and Ainz had more important things to worry about, like the spear that had just struck him.

Ainz's figure, hovering in the air watching the fireworks, slowly began to descend, looking at the Servant that had attacked him from afar.

"Honestly, man, I'm sorry about this," were the words of Lancer, in whose hand a spear had reappeared a second later, his Noble Phantasm, the power of which he had just used to attack Ainz.

Ains felt a prick of regret. "Yes, me too, Hector. _Grasp Heart_."

* * *

"THE ARK OF COVENANT JUST DISAPPEARED!" Archer screamed in horror, barely paying attention to the fact that he had just been attacked grievously by Cainabel, almost losing his hand.

"What do you mean it - disappeared?!" - Rider barely managed to deliver another useless blow to distract Cainabel from finishing off his panicking ally. Which is followed by a frantic if controlled dodge, allowing Rider to get off with only a small scratch on his chest by Cainabel's claws which, due to Rider's Noble Phantasm, can be easily ignored. However, given that Cainabel possesses a monstrous amount of strength and with her rank of Divinity, Cainabel's attacks, even when reduced to only a quarter of her full strength would break a weaker Servant in half even with such a light scratch.

"IT JUST DISAPPEARED" The panicked Archer rushed towards the retreating Rider, "SIMPLY GONE!"

"Damn it, as if we had not enough problems!" Rider then attacked Cainabel, either to vent his frustration or just to keep the battle tempo going. "What is happening?!"

"Don't you like surprises?" The laughter of Cainabel, turned into a bass croak by her warped… everything, sounded like the gnashing of metal, "Oh, you have no idea what else I have in store!"

At once, hundreds of bone spikes covered the battlefield, emerging out from under the ground and piercing Archer's body, causing him to cry out in pain, while Rider managed to evade the attack.

"Well, well, look at you now," Cainabel's voice slowly sounded out like a crackling rumble, "Where did your bravado disappear to, Servant?! I was hoping that behind your empty boasts there is something more than the self-confidence of a fool!"

At her command, the hundreds of bone spikes shot up towards the sky like needles, piercing Archer through and rushing to the second Servant.

"Damn it, this is dangerous - even if my Noble Phantasm reduces the damage I would receive to a third, getting hit by a hundred sharp bone needles will still tear me to pieces." Therefore, the Servant was forced to use one of his Noble Phantasm, "I did not think that I would have to reveal my cards so quickly, but... **Dromeus Komētēs**!"

In a flash of green light the figure of the Servant disappeared. One could even say that the Servant had actually teleported - however, this was not so. In fact, he had only moved with such an incredible speed that it surpassed even the speed that Cainabel is capable of perceiving in her combat transformation that it looked like teleportation. He was so fast that overcoming the entire distance that separated him and Cainabel in a few moments to attack her was just a trifling matter.

"Achilles," the spear in his hands, however, only grated powerlessly against Cainabel, unable even to inflict a wound on it, "So, it is where your stupid bragging comes from..."

"Ho..." using the power of his Noble Phantasm, Achilles instantly retreated, "So you have heard about me."

"Your stupidity stands out even from the rest of the Servants in the Throne of Heroes," Cainabel slowly turned toward Achilles, "But indeed, the strongest of the ants will consider himself the strongest among all - since for the ant the world outside of its ant hill is unknown."

"Auch, it hurts my pride," Achilles sighed, after which he looked at Cainabel frowning, "But you are still slower than me."

"An elephant is also slower than a hummingbird," Cainabel smiled, although with her current appearance it looked more like a shark grinning, "But the elephant only needs to step on the hummingbird to crush it completely."

Achilles only glanced silently at Cainabel in reply. Of course, he could still spite her by saying that despite this comparison, his Divinity was still higher than that of Cainabel's. But, still, senseless provocation at the moment would not lead him anywhere. Cainabel was not especially skilled in her attacks, so angering her in an effort to make her sloppier is quite the moot point. Furthermore, angering her at this point would probably only give her more strength to pummel him even harder, one after all does not piss off Heracles and expect anything good out of that. Achilles' eyes glanced toward his long-suffering ally, Archer.

Archer, despite everything, was still alive - but, at least in this battle, he was no longer a factor in the fight. Even if he somehow succeeds in getting up and proceeds to attack Cainabel, it would probably be a wasted effort at this point. Even with his uninjured and full-strght capabilities, his attacks did not even injure Cainabel, not to speak of his current, very holey state.

Achilles was fast, he was Achilles after all, 'and there will never be a hero faster than Achilles in this world' and all that. Therefore, he could evade Cainabel's attacks. But as fast as he is he could not breach Cainabel's defenses forcing him to reduce their battle to a pointless draw or a drawn out attrition. And even so this balance can only hold until the moment when Cainabel catch him with just one attack.

He might be forced to use his Noble Phantasm to have any chance in this fight, but which should he use to give him the greatest chance of victory. Using his Chariot would be the surefire way to win, but the moment he is distracted by their summoning could be the end for him, at the very least for Archer. He's already using his speed to even out the fight so it wouldn't be any further help there. His shield? He could crush Cainabel by rushing forward, but without the overwhelming speed of his chariot, Achilles couldn't be sure of his chances of actually hitting her with it. His spear perhaps… no that is a stupid idea. Never mind the fact that his opponent is female and it wouldn't work on her, getting into a fist fight with Cainabel seemed like a monumentally stupid idea, he might as well just stab his heel and be done with it. Achilles suddenly caught sight of the look that Archer is giving him. Judging by the determination in his eyes...

Achilles then came to a decision.

Archer, ha that guy... Indeed, to give strength, intelligence and courage to stand alone against any giant and beast in his path.

Achilles slowly closed his eyes and stepped back.

"Are you running away?" Cainabel smiled. "Did you like Hector's tactics that much? Indeed, you were such wonderful friends, I am sure that you really wanted to become like him."

Mentioning Hector's name unpleasantly struck at the heart of Achilles, but he, exhaling, backed away in the end.

"Heh," Archer's voice then came from behind Cainabel, how he managed this feat with his mangled body is a mystery. "Funny. You seemed to be so strong, and yet have no divinity in any way."

"Do I hear a dog whimpering?" Cainabel slowly turned toward Archer, "Yes, you, the dog full of holes - are you, perhaps, the one whimpering?"

"Do you know who I am?" Archer grinned, then immediately spat out a glob of blood. Even without Cainabel doing anything, she had already done so much damage that he will die in the next couple of minutes, so he did not see any reason to bother with any pretenses, - "David. David, the killer of Goliath."

"Your current state makes your title quite the insult, David," Cainabel, whose face contorted a grimace of contempt, grinned while giving out a croaking laugh.

"Yes,... and though I don't talk about it much, if at all," David grinned. "I'm actually a distant ancestor of the Son of God, and that gives me a level of divinity. Very small true, but the fact is, it is still of a higher rank than yours."

Cainabel took a step towards the very close to death holy man. Her smug smirk slowly slipping from her face - however, her monstrous grin didn't get any less disturbing from this, - "Come again?"

"Isn't it funny," David grinned, "I am such a bug compared to you... But I still have Divinity above yours. Isn't it funny?"

David forced a faint smile to appear in his face and laughed, "Hehe..."

A second later, Cainabel drove her clawed hand through David's stomach, breaking through it.

"No, it's not funny," Cainabel looked into David's eyes as she did it and smiled, "But maybe you will grin again now?"

David only cast an indecipherable look at Cainabel.

"What, is it not funny anymore?" Cainabel smiled, after which she shook David's body on her arm, "Come on, laugh again. Have a good laugh. I liked the way you laughed - but looks like you aren't laughing anymore... Come on, come on!"

Cainabel accompanied her every word with a shake of her hand, forcing David's body to wriggle like a puppet whose strings have been cut. But, without waiting for an answer and seeing David's body slowly transforming into pure mana, she shook the corpse off her hand.

"Oh well, it seems that you're not that Divine after all," Cainabel sighs pretentiously, and then turns around to look for Rider, "And where, hmm, is the second one..."

David's plan was simple, just as Cainabel's was. All that was needed was to distract her for a minute to give time to Achilles. Well, Ahilles used the distraction judiciously.

"**Troias Tragoidia**!** Akhilleus Kosmos**! **Dromeus Kometes**!" - using three of his Noble Phantasms at the same time, Achilles struck Cainabel.

Unfortunately, his chariot could not break through Cainabel's defenses, it seemed that even an A ranked Noble Phantasm was not enough.

However, his second and third Noble Phantasm managed to fulfill their goal.

* * *

"What hatred!" Baal avoided another spell, after which he answered back with his own, "What an inhuman grace! Verily, beauty and cruelty intertwine in your figure, Medea!"

Despite the fact that, judging by the tone and voice, Baal said it with absolute sincerity, this did not please Medea at all. Unfortunately, at the moment, her body was already suffering burns in many places, in some places her cloak was melted to her skin. Although her Noble Phantasm, her Rule Breaker, was able to destroy almost any magic with just one touch. Its effectiveness against an incoming spell is limited by the speed and accuracy of Medea herself; many of Baal's spells could reach her. Even picking up her blade with magic in order to have time to react to his attacks while blocking some with her Noble Phantasm, Medea's fate is still hanging by a thread. Even though Medea had managed to dissipate a lot of Baal's spells, he seemed to be not at all bothered by the waste of mana. Medea herself was forced to rely solely on her speed of reaction - and on urgently created protective spells, the only reason she was still alive. To save mana, Medea even had to abandon flight and any more powerful damaging spells, instead resorting to dodging on foot and to using barely noticeable weaker attacks, from which Baal more often than not simply dodged. And if he somehow gets hit by one, easily dispelled without causing any actual damage. At the same time, Baal himself continued to attack while talking as if he were at a social event, not at all bothered by the ongoing battle.

Medea bit her lip in frustration, after which she glanced at Archer, who was still lying nearby.

'Come on…' - Medea almost grimaced - 'This plan is too simple to go unnoticed... Even by someone like you!'

"Enjoying my work?" After a second Medea barely managed to use Argos, her favorite protective spell, to repel Baal's attack. Baal's spell, like a ray of light striking from the sky itself, crashed into the thin shield that had arisen, a shield that became covered with many small cracks a moment later. A second later, Medea's shield finally could no longer hold on and was destroyed, allowing the beam to continue on its way, albeit slightly weakened from the collision with Medea's shield. At the very least the precious second bought Medea enough time to dodge the beam, causing it to miss and hit only the ground. The point of impact instantly swells with the pressure of the volcanized hot mass of stones and earth, and then explodes in a flash of light. Medea only managed to barely set up another shield to defend from it, after which she managed to neutralize a second spell from with her blade before her body was sent on a new flight path.

Medea's gaze slid over Archer, after which, catching the Servant slowly coming to, she relaxed, and then looked at Baal.

"Hm, you looked like you had found some confidence," Baal nodded in surprise. "Perhaps this is a form of heroic awareness? Something like 'if I die now - then all the terrible things that I did will remain meaningless cruelty' - or something like that?"

"You think..." Medea exhaled, limping a little on one leg, after which she glared up at Baal. "That your words would make me stumble? That it will give you an advantage?"

A second later, another spell headed for Medea, but she was ready for it. Rule Breaker soared in the air next to her as she reacted almost instantly, neutralizing yet another ray of heat. Perhaps one could say that her words had hurt Baal in a sense, but instead of showing any kind of emotion, he was contemplative instead.

"An advantage, hmm?" Baal looked up at the sky, as if in thoughtfulness, an obvious feigned gesture to say the least - and then sent another spell towards Medea, "No, that doesn't sound right. I do not do it to gain any advantage in battle, hmmm."

Then Baal suddenly stopped in place, as if frozen in a shocked realization, even making his wings behind his body stop in the air. The shocked expression then melted into a kind, good-natured, a warm smile, even - "I just like to cause suffering."

After another second, Baal teleported away from Medea's next futile attack, only to reappear behind Medea and laying a hand on her shoulder. She could try to attack him now, but an attempt to attack him in his current position would most likely mean Medea's death. So - not now, when Archer finally began to rise, when she finally had a chance .

"But don't worry," Baal slowly leaned toward Medea's ear, making her jerk a little. "You're not the only one. I like to hurt everyone. In the end, I'm still the Emperor of Demons. Maybe not a crazed destroyer - but sometimes my demonic part... It requires me to act in certain ways."

"You deserve only contempt," Medea spat out in response, not bothering to turn in Baal's direction.

"Such cutting words from one who lived her whole life as a series of betrayal?" Baal smiled, and then teleported away, "Well, okay, it seems we have already played enough, I think it's time to finish this?"

"Oh yes," Medea grinned languidly, looking with a kind of hatred toward the Archer that is slowly lifting herself from the ground, "I agree."

"**Tri-star Amore Mio**!" After a second, the arrow in Archer's hands flashed with a bright light. Baal managed to respond to the attack, instantly teleporting to the side to dodge the light arrow, but her goal was already achieved. Archer's arrow, which flashed like a burning star, flew to the sky with such force that several small clouds hanging in the air were instantly incinerated by a beam flying through the sky.

"Atlas!" Medea's spell words took shape, after which Baal was frozen in place. This was achieved by concentrating the atmospheric pressure to a single point on Baal's body- "Archer!"

"**Tri-star Amore Mio**!" - with another cry, Archer's Noble Phantasm reacted to her commands again. Again, another arrow in the arms of the archer began to lit up with a bright light directed at her target. Baal, frozen in place, sighed.

"I was planning on leaving you for dessert," Baal sighed, "Freedom."

With nary but a flash, Baal's ability, focusing on breaking through restraints, broke through Medea's spell , allowing him to evade Archer's Noble Phantasm again.

However, this time again Medea reacted.

"Aero," the simplest spell wind struck Baal unexpectedly. A spell of this level could not hurt Baal at all, but an unexpected change in the flow of wind caused his wings to fail for a second. Unlike Medea's magic, Baal did not fly with the help of a spell, but with the help of wings that relied on moving air currents around him. So, with but a gust of wind, Baal was forced to lose control for a second - "Come on!"

"**Tri-star Amore Mio**!" Archer's next arrow then was placed on the bowstring, and then shot. This time, Baal did not have time to get out of the attack trajectory.

"Hm, how interesting," Baal only managed to give a retort before Archer's arrow hit him.

Unlike the two previous times, this attack found its target. An incredible force pierced through Baal's arm, after which it instantly tore it asunder with a stream of force while continuing its path. Archer's arrow easily passed through Baal's arm, tearing it from the shoulder, and then flew to the sky.

For a second, after the deafening roar of the arrow had passed, silence settled before a sigh was heard.

"Auch," the speaker's voice was only a little pained, as if he had pricked his finger on a carelessly placed needle, "That hurt."

Baal had survived the attack - albeit missing his left hand, there was only his right hand holding a cane.

"Well, at least now we know your identity for sure," Baal smiled, looking at Archer, "Artemis, hmm? Now I understand how you were able to deal with my curse."

After that, Baal's gaze came across a plush toy lying on the ground near Artemis. The plush toy is still on the ground writhing in agony and unable to move, releasing a silent scream of agony.

"How is Orion feeling?" Baal smiled.

"**Tri-star Amore Mio**!" Artemis answered back with another shot from her Noble Phantasm.

Baal smiled.

While serving under Ainz means he doesn't have to risk fighting him, alas, his demonic nature could not demonstrate itself in all its glory. Therefore, he so wanted to meet in battle with someone new.

Get to know them better.

And make them suffer.

* * *

The enemy fleet was approaching them at a speed significantly superior to the capabilities of the most modern of ships. And Jason was not only talking about the 'modern' era of Drake or of her Fleet, but of the 'modern' time of the Heroes recorded in the Throne of Heroes.

Jason exhaled. His sense of danger is literally shouting to him that he is literally jumping into the lion's mouth at the moment, watching the enemy ships approaching. But Jason himself soberly and calmly - as much as it is possible for him - assessed the situation.

The approaching fleet full of Servants posed a great amount of danger to him, yes. But to cross Ainz… yeah facing a boatload of Servants seemed paltry in comparison.

And if it was necessary to choose between a large albeit limited and an unlimitedly large amount of danger, then Jason was not stupid enough to doubt his choice.

"Lord Jason," Medea looked back at him, waiting for orders, "Orders?"

"Get ready," Jason breathed out. Indeed, he could not give any more orders at the moment, except perhaps - "Atalanta, try to shoot a couple of the approaching ships."

"It will be easy," Atalanta threw up her bow.

"I do not advise going through such a course of action though," An unrecognized voice caught Jason's attention, forcing him to turn toward the speaker.

A shapeless mass of flesh slowly flowing from one form to another, with a multitude of eyes that doesn't focus on anything concrete. Such a grisly sight is what greete Jason when he turned

Demon King.

Jason swallowed.

Ohoho, a Demon King - this is bad. However, Jason had a secret trump card.

"Herc!" Jason instantly gave the command and the Berserker instantly disappeared with a jump of incredible speed, unimaginable for such a giant.

Heracles... The greatest hero of the Greeks, perhaps even one of the greatest heroes of humanity. Even if the Demon King was to be his opponent, Jason would still bet on Heracles. Especially with support from Atalanta and Medea... with Jason himself preferring not to get involved in any way.

However…

After a second, only his innate instincts made Jason jump to the side, allowing him to dodge the black sphere appearing suddenly where he had stood. The sphere then began to expand, swallowing several tens of cubic meters of air and parts of the Argo beneath it. After it had reached its zenith it immediately collapsed with a loud bang and a small wave of air, which made Jason sway in place.

"Well, how many surprises these Servants bring," the second voice made Jason curse himself.

"A Second Demon King" - as Jason already calmly noted. Misfortune never comes alone…

Jason observed the second column of flesh rising to the sky and exhaled.

Heracles vs. One Demon King? His bet is on Hercules.

Jason, Medea, Atalanta, and Heracles vs. the Two Demon Kings?

Oh, how he didn't like these odds...

Jason glanced at the fleet surrounding him, expecting to see reinforcements from the other Servants. The unknown Demon King only sighed at Jason - somehow doing this while being a column of flesh… then again if they managed to speak while being a column of flesh, they could figure out how to sigh, - "You should not bother waiting for reinforcements. We didn't arrive here alone."

"I already understood that," Jason swallowed and glanced at the Demon King in front of him.

"Orders?" Medea shot Jason a look of hope. Atalanta said nothing, but still looked at her commander.

Jason in response cast a glance at Heracles fighting one of the Demon King. Despite the Berserker's dexterity and the immobility of the Demon King - he was only met with a varying level of success.

Jason exhaled.

"Order number one," Jason cast a glance at his opponent. "Strike at full strength. Order number two is to protect the commander, that is, me. Order number three…"

After a second, Jason rushed forward. A blade flashed in his hands.

"KILL IT FAST, BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO DIE HERE!" Jason screamed, then sloppily attacked the Demon King. The arrows of Atalanta and the spells of Medea crashed after him into the shield that arose in front of the Demon King.

Oh, how he hated being in the front lines...

* * *

Dodging a stray shot, a servant of the Demon King landed on the deck of the Calico Jack, presenting in all his splendor to the two pirates, Anne Bonny and Mary Reed, after which he smiled.

"What a good fortune," The Servant reached out for his hat with style, then, having evaded another shot from Anne's monstrous musket, he pulled off his wide-brimmed hat and, as if out from the lines of the Three Musketeers novel, he bowed gallantly, putting his hat to his chest. "Indeed, what a wonderful life I am leading! So many beautiful ladies had never visited my gaze before. Truly, if there is a reason that I became a Servant, it is for this."

Mary Reed only reacted to such a display with a quick swing of her blade - her huge curved blade flashed in her hands, but it was blocked by a sharp narrow strip of steel, a sword that repelled the blow with extraordinary ease. After another second, the Servant moved forward - with monstrous grace and speed, he overcame the distance separating him from the target. As if in a single instant, the Servant was behind Mary, with his sword aimed at the defenseless back of his target. He was immediately forced to abort the attack and take a step away when the rumbled shot of Anne's musket passed a few millimeters from his beautiful face, causing the locks of his hair to frizz from the wind.

"Oh, teamwork!" However, the enemy Servant seemed not at all bothered by the failed attack, only smiling instead. Dodging yet another of Anne's attacks with a leap to the side with a pirouette worthy of the repertoire of the best ballet dancer in the world. "And, as much as it pained me to admit, it is quite the effective method of defeating me."

With a fine-tuned motion, the Servant shook off an invisible moisture from his sword, after which he deliberately raised it to his eye level, squinting at if inspecting it for something - "It's a pity that I won't be having my rematch today."

"I would advise you not to underestimate us," Anne smiled while readying her musket for another shot. Mary just raised her blade to strike.

"Oh, noble ladies, I'm not underestimating you at all," The Servant smiled, then stepped away with a sharp jump.

After a second, only a feeling, which could only be called intuition or instinct, made Mary rush to Anne - and only Anne's unlimited faith in her friend made her react to the barely visible sign and turn her head to the side.

Two disproportionately large blades then collided - and although the strength of both Servants was small by the standards of Servants, the wooden floor under them cracked from the sheer force of the collision.

"Indeed, alas, I am phenomenally unsuitable for covert murders," The enemy Servant is dressed in a cloak with a high collar, an ashen colored hair, with his monstrous blade, like that of a guillotine's the most eye catching detail, "But still... Anne Bonny and Mary Reed, hmm... How ironic."

"Ironic?" Recovering from the unexpected attack, Anne handled her overly large musket, took aim at the new enemy, "What?"

"You both escaped your date of execution in your life," the man took a step back, "Wouldn't it be the only right thing if the royal executioner executes you in this life now?"

"Or perhaps not him," a sharp voice next to Anne's ear shocked her. She had loosened her guard against the other Servant!

It would seem that Anne would not be able to evade the thin narrow sword - however, a moment before the sword would manage to pierce her body - the thin rapier was deflected by a bullet. A second later, a sound rumbled - it was the rumble of a shot going off and the sound of another Servant loudly joining the battle.

"Beware!" Anne had never been so glad to hear Blackbeard's annoying voice. " A Wild Blackbeard appears!"

"Oh," The rapier wielding Servant gaze was instantly focused on the new Servant who had just appeared, "And I thought I was lucky to meet only beautiful girls in battle..."

Blackbeard, then leered at the beautiful looking Servant, and grinned with a lascivious smile, - "All the better for me, so many beautiful girls around!"

"What if I were to say," Saber caught Assassin and the two pirate fighting with the corner of his eyes. Alas, it seems that this time he will have to fight with a pirate covered in sweat and mud, truly unfortunate "That am I a man?"

Blackbeard's grin somehow became even larger. "Even better."

After another second, Chevalier d'Eon attacked again.

* * *

All of Ainz's Servants had, except for Cainabel and Baal, gathered in Ainz ship before the enemy had attacked them ,which is why Mozart happily exhaled.

Indeed, if they were to fight in a group, they had much better chances to win. Solo battles depended too much on the strength and specific abilities of the combatants - if one of the Servants had even one noticeable weakness - the enemy could use it to their advantage and reverse, what would seem, even an absolutely disadvantaged situation. If, on the other hand, the Servants remained together, then each of them could use each other's strength to the fullest, relying on the fact that someone could cover each other's weaknesses.

Mashu had unsurpassed defense, but she lacked attacking power. Mozart was a support mage with a very limited amount of battle spells. At the same time, Nero and Altera relied excessively on a direct fight, in which their main tactic was to attack quickly and strongly.

By combining their abilities, each of them gained each other's strength. Unfortunately, it seemed that the enemy also had the same idea.

And all of the benefits were also true for the enemy.

Therefore, a second later, when Mozart, stepping back behind Mashu's shield, saw the Servants of the Demon King in the distance, he sighed.

"Good afternoon," the column of flesh of the Demon King slowly morphed part of its body so that its shape and two eyes looked like a face, "My name is Focalor and, to be honest, I don't want to fight."

Mozart was not sure whether the Demon King was telling the truth or not. Although his hearing was absolute, he could hear thousands of thoughts swarming in Focalor's mind - some of which did not even belong to Focalor himself. Because of which, attempts to determine his intentions were doomed to failure from the very beginning.

"Therefore, I want to ask you," Focalor's morphed face mimicked a human exhaling, after which, correctly determining that Mozart was the commander in the absence of the other Servants, he bowed a little at him, "Kill me."

Mozart was greatly shocked as he did not expect such a request. Really did not expect it at all.

"Quickly!" However, upon seeing the approach of the Servants, that would seem to be on the side of Focalor himself, rather than gaining confidence in that he only panicked more, "Please kill me quickly, now!"

Altera almost answered Focalor's request with a sharp blow - but Mozart managed to stop her.

It was probably a trap. Indeed, Mozart could not have come up with any possible reason why the Demon King would ask for his own death, especially at the hands of Ainz's Servants. Of course, perhaps, theoretically, it is possible that the Demon King, after a thousand years of committing evil deeds, would suddenly grow a conscience, and then ask for his death as a fitting punishment for his deeds. Mozart was not at all inclined to believe that such a nonsensical event had happened. Even if his mind was filled with a thousand differing thoughts, none of them even remotely sounded like remorse.

In other words, it could only be a trap.

"Damn, okay, I'll come up with another way," Focalor said a second later after finding that none of the Servants would agree to his request. Instantly, several Servants abruptly appeared next to Focalor in the blink of an eye.

Mozart recognized all three Servants instantly.

It was hard not to recognize your old enemies and friends.

"Marie," Mozart bowed his head, as soon as his gaze came across the fragile figure of the girl who had appeared alongside the Demon King.

"Oh, Mozart!" The blue-eyed girl, barely finding Mozart's gaze, smiled at him, and waved her hand back, "It's great to see you again!"

"Less talking, more me being awesome ~ umu!" It was not difficult to realize the identity of the person who said it.

"Oh, Jeanne!" Of course, the fact that the mage in a black hooded cloak could even make such a mistake instantly grabbed Mozart's attention, "Ah, no... you have her features in you, but you lack her essence..."

"There is enough of me in me, I am perfect on my own ~ umu!" Nero answered the Servant nonsensical remark after a second.

"It's hard to disagree, you look great," Saber, Gilles de Rais, a Servant so similar in appearance to the hooded one, replied with a light compliment, "And I'm saddened that I have to fight you. The Lord is really cruel."

"We can try to come to an agreement," Mashu tried to express a very unpopular point of view.

"Alas, that isn't possible," the Demon King replied sharply, "Such a possibility is impossible now. Although, if you could kill me in battle, this will also be a good result…"

The last phrase the Demon King was barely uttered , because of which, Mozart could guarantee that only he could hear it.

Mozart exhaled, after which he glanced at the enemies in front of him.

Marie-Antoinette. Gilles de Rais. Gilles de Rais - Caster. And the Demon King.

The simplest plan to follow here, was to direct Altera as the only one capable of fighting on an equal footing with the Demon King against him, after which Nero against Saber, Mashu against Marie Antoinette, and Mozart himself to meet in battle with Caster. It was a plan that played on the strengths of Ainz's Servants.

However, at the same time it was a plan that did not take into account the real balance of power. This plan was similar to breaking up a group battle into many single fights with the hope that in each of these battles Ainz's Servants would manage to defeat their opponents, or at the very least keep them occupied until they can gang up on whoever that remains.

Instead, the best plan of action at that moment was to...

"Altera," Mozart smiled, turning to the most silent Servant, "Take them all."

"Acknowledged," Altera answered instantly, after which a second later her Noble Phantasm took shape, "**Teardrop Photon Ray**."

A second later, like an orbital bombardment, Altera's Noble Phantasm struck the enemy, covering all the Servants at the same time.

The best plan of action at this point was simply to tear them all down at once.

* * *

**Name:** The Great Tomb of Nazarick ~ The Story of Ainz Ooal Gown

The second of Ainz's Noble Phantasms. This Noble Phantasm partially represents Ainz's status as one of the 41 Supreme Being of Nazarick, partly due to his status as the guildmaster of Ainz Ooal Gown...

But most of all, of Ainz's great love of Nazarick itself.

When Nazarick was abandoned. When his guildmates had all left the Tomb behind. When the despair of its denizen had reached its peak.

Ainz alone stayed, until the very end. Enduring his lonely existence, just to keep Nazarick from disappearing.

Walking through the treasury, filled with the memories of his friends, whose miracles stored within that no longer pleases him.

Sitting in the throne room, looking at a kingdom without his friends.

Creating meaningless decorations in rooms that his friends would never see.

Ains remained with Nazarick to the very end.

Any of Nazarick's would answer back with the same devotion.

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**By the way what will the other foreigner class servants such as abby and hokusai reaction to ainz - It will be an interesting one, probably... But as for now - can't say for sure**

**will ainz pull something similar he did with shalltear, using gears of his friends and show the might of nazarick against a oppenent? - It would require a damn worthy one**

**Tengo una duda si Ainz es el Grand Foreigner seria como una invocación forzada de alaya para que salve a la humanidad o la intervención de alguien más. - Heh...**

**If you were to add another Yggdrasil God, who would it be and what would their vessel be (if you chose that way to summon them)? - You mean, which Nasuverse's person can function as the vessel of YGGDRASIL's God?... Hmm... Well, there are quite a few, but as one I would probably choose Kiara as the pseudo-Servant of the Shub-Niggurath.**

**By the way if you finish this story will you write another crossover if you did write what animre crossover will it be? - Ask a few years later**

**Momonga FTW - I'm sorry, but why did you copypasted the whole comment, and what question did you want to ask me?**

**And hey - there is a lot of new chapters! On my Pat reon\rure though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


	87. Chapter 87

Medusa slowly rose from her bed,taking her time to examine her surroundings.

Medusa is quite surprised to find herself alone, lately it has become unusual for her to wake up alone in bed…. not in that way of course. Her sisters, Euryale and Stheno, are almost quite literally attached at her hips during all her free time - and thanks to their efforts, all of Medusa's time is free time.

No, of course, Medusa was happy to spend time with her sisters again, to be with them... But, if she has one complaint… She is quite unhappy with the fact that the reason why her sisters suddenly became so interested in spending time with their youngest was not exactly the one Medusa would have liked.

Indeed, her sisters preferred now to spend every night being held in the arms of Medusa - each night spent hugging her and telling her how dear she was to them.

On the other hand, spending time wool gathering on that again seemed like a meaningless activity. The best thing she could get out of it would be to plunge herself into a long period of self-reflection about her life, her relationship with her sisters, what had happened to them, and about Ainz. Of course, she would only be wasting her time as she would do it without finding any answers.

Therefore, shaking her head to clear her mind, Medusa exhaled and looked around again.

Perhaps this was primarily caused by their fear of Ainz, but... Medusa would like to think that it was not the main reason for their current behavior. Or at least not the only one...

In any case, it has become unusual for Medusa to be alone lately. For example, while her Master, Ainz was in Chaldea, the only time that her sisters left Medusa alone was when Ainz was with Medusa herself. Barring this occurrence Euryale and Stheno did not leave Medusa at all.

However, as soon as Ainz had left for the Singularity, her sisters, finding strength and reassurance in the fact that Master was out of reach for an indefinitely long period managed to overcome their fear of him and go on a tour of Chaldea. Indeed, a week has passed since their summoning and yet the only place in which they have ever been in is Medusa's room. They haven't even been in the Cafeteria, never even tried Archer's cooking, which, in Medusa's opinion, was an extremely sad thing to happen to anyone. With the blessing of Medusa herself, at the moment, Euryale and Stheno set off to correct this grave mistake.

Medusa finally rises from her bed and stretches a little - not for any actual real benefit, but solely because of her rather complacent mood.

Chaldea, despite being such an important place and the more than significant crisis in which she was currently involved in solving, was a surprisingly boring place. At the very least as soon as anyone stayed in it for more than a few days without having any jobs to do.

Of course, in Chaldea, there were many interesting places and activities to waste time in - lounges filled with lots of computers, board games, billiards, a small tennis court... Even a beauty salon - which sadly at the moment, however, is seriously understaffed. There's also the pool, sauna, bar, the training grounds...

And there are actually many more places in Chaldeato to spend time relaxing in, sadly some of them are defunct at the moment. Many parts of Chaldea were not functioning at all at the moment, by the decision of the chief, they were powered off to save the energy of Chaldea's Core. Barring any change, what was available for relaxation was useless for a loner like Medusa. Perhaps, if the Master is here...

Medusa imagined it for a moment, after which she rejected these thoughts. Of course, perhaps she would like to spend time with Ainz, play billiard with him, or maybe share a drink at the bar. Sadly she doesn't think that Ainz would like to and she was not selfish enough that she would demand something like that from Ainz. Even if she would not mind...

Medusa with a force of will drove these thoughts away - what's the point of thinking about it now? At the moment, Medusa was in Chaldea, and AInz is in the Singularity. And at the moment, she has time to kill and there was only one that she liked to do to occupy her time.

"Reading again today it seems" - Medusa exhaled and looked at the book currently lying on her night stand. a book given to her by Ainz. A book written by Baal, yes the Baal that Medusa just saw not even a week before. A book filled to the brim with double meanings, the narrator's theatrical flair and his story of the Seventh War... It was interesting literature - perhaps not in the sense in which an art or even a biographical book is interesting, but in the sense in which Machiavelli's treatise is interesting. As a door that allows you to look into the thought process of the author, to look into the workings of the mind of the author. So by the fact that it was written by Baal, it was a really interesting book.

Medusa would be glad to ask Ainz for something similar again. However, she was far from in the position to ask him for anything. The last time she had asked Ainz for a boon… at that time... She had crossed the line of what was permissible - and only by the goodness of his heart did Ainz agree to fulfill her request. It is unlikely that she will ever find the strength in herself to ask anything from Ainz. So - her choice for literature was limited to a much more conservative collection that is available in Chaldea.

Therefore, with a sigh, Medusa slowly decided to head toward the library...

Only to, moments later, crash into someone.

"Oh!" The man in whom Medusa had crashed into, barely had enough time to express his surprise before finding himself sprawled on the floor. Medusa, being a Servant, did not experience a similar problem, finding herself only slightly staggering at the time of the collision. Worried that she had injured someone, she immediately rushed to help the person.

"Are you all right?". Medusa offered a hand to help the person up.

"The only thing inside me being currently wounded is my pride ," He answered instantly, after which, having taken the girl's hand, he got back to his feet.

'He is…' - Medusa blinked from behind her glasses - 'Amazingly beautiful.'

The man she accidentally knocked down was incredibly handsome - androgynous even. Perhaps the only reason she had called him a man was due to his clothes - if the man was in a dress, then she would easily mistake him for a somewhat masculine girl. Indeed, with his soft and neat facial features, piercing blue eyes and molten gold hair with straight strands descending to his shoulder blades, he was not inferior in beauty when compared to many Servants and perhaps even Ainz, who possessed a body created by Da Vinci herself, a recognized genius of the art and connoisseur of the very concept of beauty.

This fact occupied Medusa's mind for a second before the man had risen from the floor. The man shook his head, as if to shake himself out of a daze. Medusa, noting the last fact, immediately bowed, - "I apologize."

"It's okay," The man smiled with a bright smile that seemed to warm the corridor several degrees instantly, "I'm used to being overlooked."

The stranger's remark was rather friendly in tone, however, Medusa, feeling some shame from her action, instantly averted her eyes, causing her to notice the man's uniform. A crisp men's suit with a small patch with the name and surname on the man's jacket, together with his rank that had caught Medusa's eye.

"I'm sorry, are you one of the technicians?" Medusa glanced at the guy.

"That's right," he smiled back, "I work here as a technician... Although, of course, it's not that I had much of a choice at the moment."

Medusa understood that if the technician had not delivered it the way he did, together with his facial expression, intonation of his voice and smiling nature, she would have felt somewhat awkward. It made the rather gloomy joke of her new acquaintance, to be more likely intended as a fleeting amusing remark, rather than a rather difficult statement of fact.

"Yes, for sure, I'm sorry," Medusa apologized again, causing the technician to wave his hands in acquiescence.

"It's okay, I need to be more careful and look around more often," the man answered, after which, before the awkward silence could be established between the Servant and the technician, he continued, "I'm sorry, were you going somewhere?"

"Yes," Medusa breathed, "To the library."

"Oh, what an unexpected destination," Medusa thought for a second what exactly the man meant by it. "Not many people visit the place these days."

Medusa was not inclined to small meaningless conversations, however, after hearing the boy's words, she still answered with a smile, - "In this case, we can assume that I am the rare exception."

"And that's fine," the man smiled again, making Medusa smile back. His smile was terribly contagious, and the manner of speech, behavior, all the way to his position in space, eased the people around him in a good-natured manner - "In that case, let me walk a little alongside you. By coincidence - the library is just on the way where I'm going."

Medusa usually did not like other people's company - especially unfamiliar ones. But after a few seconds of reflection, after looking at his good-natured smile, which, unlike a smile from, for example, Baal, did not look like he's planning some kind of mischief, she still exhaled - "Okay then. Let's go."

"Thank you," the man nodded once more, after which he walked along with Medusa.

Only after just a few steps did Medusa realize that she suddenly found herself spending time with an unknown man with whom she absolutely had no idea what she should talk about.

Immediately she finds herself panicking in an attempt to come up with any topics of conversation. Medusa, failing to come up with anything, decided to ask the man a question - "Are you not afraid of me?"

"No," the technician answered instantly, shrugging his shoulders, after which he looked at Medusa inquisitively, "Should I?"

"Well," - Medusa barely managed to hold herself back from palming her face. Indeed, just ask the person walking next to you whether or not he is not afraid of you, what was she thinking, if at all?! She herself drove herself into a trap, now, even if her new acquaintance was not afraid of her before, she would have to explain to him why he should have been afraid of her... And this will most likely put an end to her rather pathetic attempt to establish a dialogue...

Medusa exhaled, after which she forced herself to answer, "Usually, the other technicians shy away from us, Servants..."

"Hmm, is that so..." the man thought, but before Medusa could come up with a hypothetical continuation of her conversation in her head that would obviously end in disaster, he continued, "I can't say that I am 'used' to the Servants... Indeed, Servants are, for me, a very alien existence- but I'm not sure that I should be afraid of them. At least, as far as I can tell, there are not so many crazy killers among the Servants… At least if there are, they are not targeting me "

Medusa, having heard the words of a man uttered in the tone of a friendly remark, was only forced to be silent. If only he knew...

A considerable number of people…. perhaps even Servants, justified their terrible deeds in a variety of ways - necessity, conformity with the spirit of the times, the fact that their opponents committed even more abominable acts, that is,of course, if they even bother to justify themselves at all. But Medusa herself was at least aware that her hands were not clean from the blood of many people - Heroes - her sisters... Medusa was not a crazed murderer, but it was also impossible to call her sinless.

"I..." Medusa broke off, unsure of how exactly she would answer his remark, "I am... Not the best example for a Hero."

At this, the man just looked at Medusa, after which he grinned as if at a joke he only knew. In other circumstances, such an act would have looked, if not insulting, at least provocative for Medusa. But due to the personality and behavior of her new acquaintance, his action did not cause her any reaction except for some embarrassment, as if a student were at lesson and just said some kind of nonsense that the teacher noticed.

"Let me determine myself if you are the best example of the Hero or not," The guy smiled, continuing to move slowly along the corridor. "In my opinion, there are too many people, monsters, Servants who are much less suitable for their title of 'Hero', but meanwhile they are regarded as such by all accounts. Indeed, only by myself can I judge whether or not I'm seeing something good or evil in front of me, applying the label to oneself is too stupid. Being inside their own understanding of good and evil, no one is able to call themselves unambiguously good or evil, regardless of any evidence they can field to support their arguments - since each of his conclusions will be colored by their own judgment."

"This…" - Medusa thought. Suddenly, her small comment provoked a rather detailed and somewhat philosophical response from her new acquaintance, - "I…"

"Ah, there's no need to react to this at all," the man smiled back at her, catching the words that Medusa was trying to pick up. "Indeed, this is simply the truth, which can only be accepted or rejected."

Medusa, hearing such remarks, fell silent, pondering about the subject, allowing them to move along quietly, without distracting her from her thought.

However, it is not like she could plunge into deep thought and come to any specific conclusion to the technician's remark while walking. An answer for such philosophical thoughts could only come after hours of discussion and comprehended during deep thoughts alone. Definitely not in a few seconds during her walk to the library.

"Oh, I'm sorry," The technician had correctly interpreted Medusa's mood and waited a few seconds so as not to appear impolite and give Medusa the opportunity to think about the topic provided to her. Realizing that philosophy is not the best topic, he nevertheless continued on "I guess such heavy topics are not exactly fitting for a light conversation. In that case, maybe, if you don't mind, I could ask you what is it like to be a Servant?"

"Hah?" Medusa glanced at the guy in front of him that in return looked at her with considerable curiosity in his gaze, "Yes, I suppose…"

Indeed, although the existence of the Servants as part of the world was known to any person more or less knowledgeable about magecraft - very few of them have actually met Servants face to face. Not to mention the fact that none of them could imagine what it was like to exist as a Servant.

Medusa found herself a bit relaxed from the fact that the conversation had moved on to a calmer course and on a topic in which Medusa herself felt more comfortable discussing "It is... Unusual. Not bad and not good in some way, definitely a different existence than that of a normal person"

"How so?" The man asked. "In what sense?"

"Well, perhaps the most obvious difference is that my current body and my current personality are not my real self, at least not in the full sense of the word," Medusa exhaled, "Rather, it's... Something more like a part of a copy. That is, all the traits and my current personality that I possess now - are also possessed by my true self in the Throne. But, at the same time, I do not possess all the features of my true self. It is a strange existence. It is as if you 'know' what you should be, 'how' you should act, and despite the cognitive dissonance of your current personality and that of your 'true' self there are no issues… Internally, you understand that the 'you' that you are now, and the 'you' that you were in the past that you remember... Is two different people, in spite of the fact that you are not."

"Hmm, I must admit, that is a very confusing thing to consider," The man answered easily, "But I would not say that it is incomprehensible per se. Everybody experiences such emotions - every day a person falls asleep as one person, and wakes up as another. If you were to look at yourself ten years ago, you can often find nothing more than a couple of small similarities. I guess it is doubly true for Servants, who get to do it all the time."

"I guess that is true," Medusa's somewhat open demeanour would surprise anyone that is familiar with Medusa's normal quiet behaviour. It seems that Medusa found it easier to talk with the technician rather than with another stranger, due to the technician's open demeanour, Medusa finds it easier to talk with him. The only people that she would find it easier to talk with would probably be her sisters or Ainz. - "But this is not exactly the same thing. Perhaps the analogue of being able to see your past selves can be true - but the fact is that the Servant is not a complete copy of their Heroic Spirit. Rather, it is similar to how a person who has suffered partial amnesia, who regained his memory, but who in fact had recreated himself as a person, can look at his old diary. He understands that it is written by himself - but at the same time he sees a completely different personality, someone he never knew - and yet at the same time, someone he knows better than anyone else."

"Really, what a confusing state of being," the guy smiled, and then sighed, "But philosophical conversations like this, I think, are not supposed to be done on a short walk — and I would not want to be so rude as to impose myself on your time. Indeed, I am not the embodiment of knowledge or skills, and of course I do not have much experience in advising anyone in need. Therefore, the last thing I want to ask - does existing like this bother you?"

"Me?" Medusa thought.

Indeed, such a question was an extremely difficult and important issue to answer.

It was impossible to simply say that Medusa was not bothered, uninterested, or not worried by the fact that she embodied an imperfect copy of the real Medusa Gorgon. However, on the other hand - the Medusa, that she was now, was... 'freed' from the many problems of the 'real' Medusa Gorgon. The death of her sisters... Medusa hated herself and her actions then - but for her now these actions were only like that of a mortifying 'past' action. And although she experienced the pangs of self-hate for having once committed such an act, the subconscious understanding of 'I, as a person, as a Servant I am now, will never do such a thing' held her cope with it, helped her enjoy her time with her sisters. The 'Medusa' that she was now could not even imagine the reason why the 'Medusa' of the past could have killed her sisters. Perhaps it was this inability that helped her distance herself from her 'past' self, from her monstrous self. It was similar to how easy it is to find what is different rather than what is the same.

Weighing both of these facts on the scales, Medusa had come up with an appropriate answer.

"I... I can't say that it doesn't bother me at all," With her still collecting her thoughts, Medusa slowly answered the question, "But if I am given the choice to become the Medusa that I 'was', or to remain myself... I would prefer to be the one I currently am."

"So you agree that both of you are different people?" The guy caught Medusa in a small logical trap, after which he laughed, looking at how Medusa gave him an unreadable look, "I'm sorry, this is what I learned from my brothers. In other words, you still think that it makes no sense for you to try to return to your roots - and instead, it will be better to simply continue to live now as a Servant…"

"If you look at everything from such a perspective," Medusa exhaled, "Well, perhaps yes."

"Fine," the guy smiled. "In that case, I can only wish you good luck with your endeavour. Growth and movement are what distinguishes life from the rest of existence. You should never forget the past - and you should never be chained by it - only by growing above the past and stepping over it we can move forward."

"This…" - Medusa sighed, - "Is an awfully tutor-like speech."

"Really?" The man blinked, then shrugged. "Indeed. I was the third oldest brother, and I guess the habits stick with me."

"Third oldest?" Medusa glanced at the guy, somewhat interested, "And how many of you are there?"

"Twelve of us," the man smiled, "Unfortunately, at the moment I am the only one left..."

"Yeah..." Medusa glanced to the side, as if trying to see inferno raging behind the barrier behind many walls.

"Yeah..." breathed out the slightly puzzled guy, after which he shook his head, throwing off his confusion, "In any case, moving forward allows us to grow above ourselves - so no matter what decision or goal you come to, I can only hope that you will achieve that that you want and I can only wish you good luck."

"Thank you," Medusa smiled, and then blinked. "By the way, why did we go to the library the long way round?"

"Tsk, so you've noticed," the guy smiled with such a smile that made it virtually impossible to get angry at him, "I confess that the chance to talk with a Servant is so rare that I allowed myself to make a big detour to talk longer. I hope you forgive me?"

Medusa only exhaled. It was decidedly impossible to be mad at a guy for such a trifle, - "I understand."

"Thank you," the guy smiled, after which he pointed at the door next to them, "By the way, this is the library."

"Thank you," - Medusa smiled at the guy, - "See you again, Lancel."

"It is likely," Lancel smiled and turned away, "In the meantime, I'll go. The fourth node is beginning to go on the fritz again. Good luck in all your endeavors."

After that, Lancel slowly walked away from Medusa, making Medusa smile. Indeed, at the moment there was a slight smile on Medusa's face which Lancel put very easily there in a small conversation, after which he frowned a little.

"Jeanne?" Medusa's gaze came upon the Saint, who was walking toward her.

"Ah, Medusa!" The Saint smiled, but after a second her smile faded a little, after which she turned around, continuing to mutter to herself, "Hmm, just..."

"Did something happen?" Medusa asked, looking at Jeanne's peculiar behavior.

"No, no, nothing special," Jeanne shook her head, "Just… Maybe I'm overthinking it..."

After a second, Jeanne, turning around, went back the way she came from, to which Medusa only shrugged, and then smiled.

Honestly, her already not very prominent reading mood was completely gone, and reading remained for her just one of the possibilities of spending time.

Really, hmm, move forward...

Medusa exhaled and smiled.

When Ainz finally returns... She obviously needs to meet with him again.

* * *

**&*m$:** *#*m K*#m?&

* * *

**Hello there!**

**Okay, as expected - kudos to DiscereEstVivet - he is the best.**

**Is that going to be the next summoning catalyst? - Don't think so, but who knows?**

**I seem to recall a mention of Ainz having fought a boss version of her in Ch. 80? - Yes, he fought**

**Though, I think someone else is next in line after this singularity. - Probably...**

**Do plan on summoning Gilgamesh? - Probably...**

**So would Ainz need to give a chant like Emiya to bring out his Reality Marble? - He would need to give a chant to use this NP in it's full glory**

**With Ainz passively buffing all the denizens in Nazarick with his "legend" are they in Grand Servant/ Beast Tier, higher, or lower? - Depends on the denizens in question.**

**Is Medea (3) old enough to be in Ainz's strike zone or no? - Lily one? Hm, not outright, but with some time...**

**Since The Goal of All Life is Death was one of Ainz's skills but is now a noble phantasm does it now require mana to activate and destroy his homunculus body? And with Super Tier Magic? - They would both destroy his body, but they don't require mana due to Ainz's Existence.**

**Could Moon Cell full power BB be a challenge for Ainz, Cainabel, or Baal? - Ainz - depends on the conditions. Cainabel - probably it would be a draw or battle of attririon. Baal - depends on the info he could get about BB, so either OTK for Baal, either Baal surely lose.**

**Since Ainz's quest log legend and his power, buffing him even higher than his Overlord equivalent (presuming since Deicide Ex is nuts) is able to take on Rubedo now? - Depends on the conditions.**

**Would Cainabel and Baal start frothing at the mouth of they learn how powerful Rubedo is? - They are already crushed by Ainz's level so much they would probably react something like "huh, another apocalyptic undefeatable monster in Ainz's stores... Yeah, whatever"**

**Is this the time Ainz can meet someone he knew in ygdrassil now on the fgo universe? - Heh...**

**does goetia or the other beast class servant count as a worthy opponent? - Depends on the circumstances...**

**Nazarick will appear in this ark? - No**

**If you choose to offer another grail to the Servant Gacha system, do you think you could summon a raid/event boss entity not related to gods, devils, undead or lolis? - Maybe**

**Wonder if anyone would try becoming his mother... - No**

**I just realized something, if Ainz figures out that the Grail reaction to "current wishes" when used as a summoning catalyst, will he use it to summon one of the denizens of Nazarick as a servant (instead of using his noble phantasm) or will he use to summon one of the other 41 members of Ainz Ooal Gown? - Absolutely not, not to mention that it would not work out.**

**And hey - there is a lot of new chapters! On my Pat reon\rure though, so it's now 8 (!) - chapters ahead. And this is not the end! For 1$ you get 8 new chapters right now, interludes and beyond.**


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